Carolina Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal is calling for a more concentrated effort from him and his teammates following a 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday.

"As a group, it just doesn't look like we've completely bought in to how we want to do things, and it's going to look like that," Staal said, per Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News & Observer. "It's going to be a .500 club that wins some games and loses some games and kind of ho-hum. It's getting a little frustrating. We're going to need to have everyone. I have to be better, our line's got to be better, contributions from everyone. It's got to start soon."

The Canes entered 2023-24 as one of the league's top Stanley Cup favorites after a busy offseason that saw them land Dmitry Orlov and Michael Bunting, among others. But the club has got off to an uneven 9-7-0 start to the campaign.

Staal says the physical effort is there, but the effort to play the team's high-pressure, north-south game is lacking.

"The effort's not terrible," Staal said. "The effort of the way we want to play is what's holding us back. The edge that you have in the NHL is you kind of know where the puck's going because that's the way we do things, and it seems right now we're just not really sure what's going to happen. It starts to look like that sloppy stuff you see in the neutral zone when the puck's bouncing around and guys are swirling around and looping around.

"It's a less direct game than the Hurricanes know and love, and I'm sure the fans love to watch. Tonight, they didn't look like they really love that game, and I don't blame them."

Head coach Rod Brind'Amour echoed his captain's thoughts.

"He knows," Brind'Amour said. "He's the one that's put this in place for a long time. It's not enough. It's not consistent enough. It's hard enough to win anyway, and it kind of makes it harder on ourselves. Just getting off a little, trying to be too cute here and there."

Staal is in his 12th season with the Hurricanes and his fifth wearing the "C" on a full-time basis. While he's better known for his abilities on the defensive side of the puck, Staal, who finished fourth in Selke Trophy voting last season, has only mustered one goal and four assists in 16 games.

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