Captain Carolina

Six years ago on a cold January morning, during an improbable blizzard in Raleigh, Rod Brind'Amour was at the lowest point of his career. He was, by his own account, "shocked" by the trade that had shipped him to the Carolina Hurricanes--a nonplayoff team toiling in a hockey outpost--after nine seasons as a leader and fan favorite with the powerful Philadelphia Flyers. Now, less than 48 hours removed from a tearful goodbye to Philadelphia, he was standing in 1 1/2 feet of freak North Carolina snow, grimly scraping ice off his car. "I had to use my bare hands, and I was wearing a suit. I didn't have anything else," he says. "But I got out of there and made it [to the arena]. No one else did because they called everyone else to cancel practice."

The Hurricanes captain and first-line center is no longer miserable in Raleigh, and he's certainly never overlooked. After scoring his third game-winning goal of the playoffs, before a roaring home crowd of 18,730 last Thursday, Brind'Amour stretched his arms high, figuratively lifting the franchise to the second Stanley Cup finals of his Carolina tenure. On Monday night Brind'Amour scored two goals, backhanding in the game-winner with 31 seconds remaining to give the Hurricanes a 5-4 win and a 1-0 series lead over the Edmonton Oilers.

Young, dazzling Eric Staal may lead the team and league in playoff points (seven goals, 14 assists through Game 1 of the finals), but Brind'Amour is the franchise's most valuable and most relentless player. Through 19 postseason games he had delivered 11 goals, six assists and two players-only meetings, both of which resulted in momentum-shifting wins the next day. Backing up his speeches about accountability and confidence, Brind'Amour clinched Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Buffalo Sabres when, midway through the third period, he pounced on a loose puck outside the crease and fired it into the net. Says linemate Cory Stillman, "He's always in the right position offensively."

And now, after more than 1,300 career games, he's in an ideal position to win his first Cup. He's gotten here the old-fashioned way: as a workaholic. An ice hog (his 24:05 minutes a game leads Carolina forwards), Brind'Amour kills penalties, thrives on the power play (NHL-best six goals this playoffs) and is called upon to double-shift late in games. Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette can entrust such yeoman duties to a nearly 36-year-old forward--and also count on him to be a dominant force in the most trafficked parts of the ice--because the 6'1", 205-pound Brind'Amour has a conditioning regimen that would make most NHL players wilt.

Nicknamed Rod the Bod when he came into the NHL as a St. Louis Blue (out of Michigan State, where coach Ron Mason once padlocked the weight room to keep Brind'Amour from overtraining), he has a physical intensity that can literally be frightening. "When I break the team into two groups [for training drills]," says Carolina's strength and conditioning coach Pete Friesen, "the guys want to see which side Brind'Amour is on and go to the other side." Laviolette calls Brind'Amour the NHL's best-conditioned player, the product of a daily routine that includes exhausting postgame sessions on the squat rack and stationary bike. Says Staal, 21, whose locker is next to Brind'Amour's, "To model yourself after a guy like him will keep you here a long time."

This season, Brind'Amour's 16th, may be his most satisfying. That's not just because his 70 regular-season points, his nomination for the Selke Trophy as the league's top defensive forward and his increasing dominance in the face-off circle (a 60.3 winning percentage) add up to arguably his best year but also because he almost didn't play at all. In 2003--04 he had his worst season--12 goals, 26 assists--his play dragged down by a separation from his wife, Kelle. (The couple, now divorced, has three children.) "That killed his game," says Brind'Amour's father, Bob, who has been closely involved with Rod's career since it began in the youth leagues of Campbell River, B.C., some three decades ago. "It was slowly choking him."

When Brind'Amour, his confidence shaken, agreed to a brief stint with the Kloten Flyers in the Swiss League during the NHL lockout, he brought Bob to watch him play. "Tell me honestly if I can't skate with these guys," Rod told his father. "If I can't, my career's over. I'm not coming back." Bob saw Rod score six points in five playoff games, a decisive run but one rather less taxing for both men than this spring's. Before Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals Bob was briefly hospitalized after fainting in his Vancouver Island, B.C., home. "The doctors couldn't find anything wrong. I think I had an anxiety attack," he says. "We've been pulling so hard for Roddy. This could be his last shot at it."

It's a shot Brind'Amour never thought he'd have on that snowy day in Raleigh (for the record, when he got to the deserted arena that day, he went into the weight room) but that he has willed for himself and his team. To win the Stanley Cup, Laviolette suggests, "your big-time players have to come in with big-time performances. [Brind'Amour] has done that."

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