After losing a close game only two days earlier against the Washington Capitals where the Carolina Hurricanes had found themselves trailing early due to a weak effort, the Canes once again stumbled off the line and chased the game the whole evening in a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning Sunday at PNC Arena.
“We weren’t ready to play at the end of the day,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “The first two periods, we didn’t do anything. Can’t expect to win that way, we were flat. Tough to find somebody that was having a great game out of our group. Disappointing for sure. Haven’t really had one of those all year. That was the first one for me where I can really say I was disappointed in.”
As stated, the Canes started the game pretty poorly.
A mistimed pinch led to a 2-on-1 rush, but Petr Mrazek came up big on the save. However, the Bolts retained control of the puck and nobody picked up the trailer nor cuts out the passing line and Tampa Bay was able to get an easy one-timer goal.
But the Canes start got worse from there.
Off what should have been a dead play as the Lightning had iced the puck and then hooked Dougie Hamilton as he tried to move the puck from behind the goal line, the Bolts grabbed another. Instead of a whistle blowing the play dead due to either of those, the puck left Hamilton’s stick and wound up right on Steven Stamkos’ tape who was alone in the slot.
All less than five minutes in. Off the bat, Tampa was 2 for 2, shooting 100% and the Canes were struggling to even get going.
“We’ve got to be ready to go on time,” said Jaccob Slavin. “We need to buy into what makes us successful for a full 60 minutes and there’s some nights where we do that and you can tell because we dominate, but there are some nights like this where we’re taking rests out there and that’s how we are digging ourselves into a hole.”
The Canes seemed to wake up a bit after that, generating some offensive pressure, but it wasn’t high-danger chances. Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy turned away all 13 of the first-period shots he faced with little struggle.
The Canes had no net-front presence and instead decided to take shots from further out. Erik Haula brings a bit of that grit to the team, but they need more players who are willing to go to those dirty areas and be able to clean up pucks from there.
At the onset of the second period, Tampa Bay’s star-studded top line kept the Hurricanes pushed back on their heels and a breakdown eventually led to Brayden Point getting a chance alone against Mrazek. Point had one stoned earlier, but he made this one count, roofing a backhander top-shelf.
Midway through the second period, Brind’Amour shuffled up all of the lines trying to find a spark, but after a few minutes and a penalty, he reverted the lines back to their originals for the remainder of the game.
“It got worse,” Brind’Amour said on the changes. “We went back to what we started with. Like I said, that’s the first one I can say all year that we had nothing.”
The third period saw the Lightning content to sit back on its lead, consistently icing the puck and freezing chances. The Canes struggled to get anything going through it despite finally raising their effort level to competitive.
“They just were better than us,” said Andrei Svechnikov. “Way faster and way more physical and then we didn’t play our game.”
The Canes found one late as Slavin hit Svechnikov with a cross-ice feed as he was trailing the entry. Svechnikov finished off the open look by rifling one past Vasilevskiy to cut the deficit to two, but it was too little too late.
“We didn’t play the first two periods and it cost us,” Svechnikov said. “We came out and weren’t ready.”
The Canes had a power play to finish off the game, but even with that and an extra attacker from a pulled goalie, Carolina still couldn’t find another one. In fact, the Hurricanes power play went 0 for 4 on the evening.
Carolina has now won two and lost two on the seven-game homestand and will need a big push at the end to make it matter. With tough matchups against the Philadelphia Flyers and Arizona Coyotes, the Canes can’t start with the same effort they have in their last two games.
The Hurricanes have a short rest before returning to action at PNC Arena Tuesday night for the match against the Flyers.
Carolina Hurricanes center Jordan Staal and left wing Andrei Svechnikov battle at the boards during the game versus the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2020 in PNC Arena. Svechnikov scored the only goal for the Hurricanes against the Lightning. Tampa Bay beat Carolina 3-1.
