The Carolina Hurricanes were defeated 4-1 by the Florida Panthers Tuesday night at PNC Arena.
The Canes (0-3-0) were outworked for much of the game while breakdowns in the neutral and defensive zones were too prevalent to overcome for a team struggling to score, especially on the power play.
“I didn’t think we did much of anything,” Carolina head coach Bill Peters said “There wasn’t many aspects, many areas of the game that I liked.”
Netminder Eddie Lack made his regular-season Hurricanes debut but didn’t receive much help from his teammates early, as most of the first period was spent in the Carolina zone with the Panthers (2-1-0) seemingly skating circles around the Canes.
“They worked harder,” Peters said. “they were more desperate, they were hungrier, and they played harder for sure.”
Less than two minutes into the game, a Hurricanes player lost his man in the defensive zone, leaving Florida forward Nick Bjugstad all alone in the slot. Lack had no chance stopping a bullet over his shoulder from Bjugstad.
I didn’t think we started on time,” Peters said. “And I didn’t think we competed.”
Carolina did a better job limiting Florida’s chances in the second period and eventually the Canes offense showed signs of life.
Hurricanes forward Brad Malone did his best to make a lasting impression on the coaches after cracking the lineup for the first time this season.
Following a Panthers turnover, Malone set-up Hurricanes forward Elias Lindholm with a perfectly placed pass into his wheelhouse. Lindholm lasered a one-timer past Florida goalie Al Montoya to tie the game 1-1.
Things unravelled in a hurry for the Canes in the third period as mistakes proved to be costly.
Eddie Lack made a pad save on Panthers forward Dmitry Kulikov but the puck rolled off his pad and made its way across the goal crease where forward Connor Brickley deposited it into a wide-open net.
Carolina forward Victor Rask failed to tie up or lift Brickley’s stick on the play. Brickley simply outworked Rask and wanted the goal, the first of his NHL career, more than Rask wanted to prevent it.
“I didn’t think we won any races,” Peters said. “and we didn’t look like we were hungry to get the puck.”
Not even a minute later, the Hurricanes turned the puck over in the offensive zone and Panthers forward Jaromir Jagr raced down the ice with the puck, quickly putting a hard shot on Lack. The puck trickled past Lack and settled behind him where Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov outcompeted Canes’ backcheckers, putting himself in position to easily score.
The Hurricanes pulled Lack with about three minutes remaining in the game, allowing them to put a sixth skater on the ice, in hopes of scoring two quick goals – to no avail.
Florida forward, and former Carolina Hurricane, Jussi Jokinen scored on the empty net with a shot from his own defensive zone, sealing a 4-1 victory for the Panthers.
Ultimately the Hurricanes were too sloppy and made too many mistakes to win the game, giving away the puck to the Panthers 18 times. For comparison, Florida had six giveaways in the game and the Canes had 10 total in the first two games combined.
The Canes struggled all night with the man advantage, failing to score on four power play opportunities. Carolina is now a measly one-for-13 this season on the powerplay – only four NHL teams have a worse success rate.
Peters made it clear that Tuesday night’s performance isn’t acceptable and he expects to see a much hungrier group on the upcoming two-week road trip.
“There’s one thing that we have to focus on and that’s work ethic, right now,” Peters said. “If you’re going to play like that, you’re not going to win a game.”
