RALEIGH, N.C. — The night before the biggest game of his life, Jordan Martinook just tried being Dad. Like normal.

“Cooked some steaks. Got yelled at by my daughter a little bit. A lot, actually. She was yelling last night. She had some intensity,” the 797-game veteran chuckles on the morning of the Stanley Cup opener.

But his thoughts naturally drifted to puck drop. Martinook texted his agent, Jeff Helperl, just to express how excited he was.

Martinook, a father of three, talked to his kids. He told them what an “unbelievable opportunity” awaited Dad and how he would not be taking these games lightly. 

“This is the biggest stage in our game,” Martinook said, following an upbeat and noisy Carolina Hurricanes morning skate. “I’ve seen people talk about ‘we're loose.’ I don't know if we’re loose. We're excited, and we're ready to roll. 

“I look around at every guy in that room, and I’m just so pumped to see what they can do tonight.”

Drop the puck already.

Pressure makes diamonds

The Hurricanes’ attack is built on relentlessness and designed to force the opposition into mistakes by wearing them out or causing panic.

But coach Rod Brind’Amour’s game plan demands much of its practitioners.

“When I got here from Chicago last year, I wasn’t in skating shape enough to play the way I wanted to here. It took me a couple weeks,” Taylor Hall admits. “There’s a lot of skating in the way that we play. Now it seems like second nature. Doesn’t........

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