If Tuesday night’s 6-4 loss to the Boston Bruins is not rock bottom, the Carolina Hurricanes do not want to find out what is.
What ended as the worst loss of the season did not start out that way. After giving up a late goal in the first period, the Canes dominated the second thanks to two power-play goals from their two most talented forwards in Finns Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen and a late tally from veteran Justin Williams, and extended the lead to three with a short-handed tally from forward Brock McGinn.
About halfway through the third period, the Canes appeared ready to cruise to a victory over one of the league’s top teams and get within shouting distance (five points) of a playoff spot. That’s when the wheels fell off. In a span of 1:17, the Canes surrendered three goals on a pair of odd-man rushes and a defensive-zone turnover, and just like that, the game was tied. As has been the case in many games this season, a strong effort was undone by defensive mistakes.
With four minutes left in the game, defenseman and co-captain Justin Faulk, mired in arguably the worst season of his pro career, took a delay of game penalty for clearing the puck over the glass, and Bruins forward David Pastrnak notched the game winner on the ensuing Bruins power play.
Embarrassing does not begin to describe a game like that. Blowing a three-goal, third-period lead on your home ice is inexcusable. And really, the loss serves as a perfect microcosm of the Hurricanes’ 2017-18 season.
The Canes came into the season brimming with optimism. The offseason additions of goalie Scott Darling, who had shined as a backup with the Chicago Blackhawks, was supposed to fix the Canes’ long-time goaltending woes. Third-pairing defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk and penalty-killing center Marcus Kruger were supposed to shore things up defensively, Williams, a member of Carolina’s 2006 Stanley Cup Championship team, was supposed to add needed goal scoring and leadership up front.
The Canes were picked by many of the national media as a darkhorse to end their eight-year playoff drought, and the fan base expected it.
Things have not worked out that way. Darling, with a .888 save percentage and 3.08 goals against average, has been one of the worst goalies in the NHL this year, leading the Canes to a scenario that was not supposed to happen again, with Cam Ward as the workhorse. While Ward has had a solid year, you can’t win with only one goalie.
Van Riemsdyk has been serviceable on the third pairing, and Williams has done his part, chipping in 15 goals and 45 points and being a voice in the room. So with Kruger currently in the AHL, half the team’s offseason additions have panned out.
There have been bright spots on offense, namely the play of Teravainen and Aho, but the Canes have still struggled to put the puck in the net, with an offense that ranks 26th in the league. Forward Jeff Skinner, who had a career-high 37 goals last year, has had a down year with 20 goals and 41 points in 70 games.
On defense, which is supposed to be the team’s strength, the results have not been there either. Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce have still been an impressive shutdown pairing, but fellow third-year Noah Hanifin has not progressed as hoped, and Faulk has had an abysmal season. The Canes make far too many defensive mistakes at key moments of the game.
The end result is that the Canes are seven points back of the New Jersey Devils with 12 games to play, and the Devils have a game in hand. Barring a miracle, the NHL’s longest-active playoff drought will hit nine years. The Canes have moved into a playoff position a few times, but hit a stretch of poor play and fell out each time. With 70 games played, the Canes are actually two points worse than they were last year.
So, what happens next? Changes. The only question is how many and how big. The first of these from ambitious new owner Tom Dundon should offer some insight, as former general manager Ron Francis has been transitioned to President of Hockey Operations, and the Canes will hire a new GM that will report directly to Dundon.
Head coach Bill Peters could be on the chopping block as well. Peters, who said at the start of the year and repeatedly throughout that the Canes had a group capable of making the playoffs, has not been able to coax the necessary results out of his most talented roster in four years.
When asked by Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal Tuesday night if there was something fundamentally wrong with the Hurricanes, Peters responded with “That’s a good question.”
The new general manager, when looking to make needed improvements to the Hurricanes, should have no more than five untouchables in trade talks: Aho, Teravainen, Slavin, Staal and Pesce.
A season that started with so much promise for the Carolina Hurricanes will almost certainly end the same way as the eight preceding it. Tuesday night’s ugly loss offered up a near-perfect mirror image of that season.
