The Carolina Hurricanes have found themselves in familiar spot, a 2-0 series hole after dropping a second straight game at home to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference final.
It was an embarrassing display for the Canes, who lost 5-0 Thursday night at Lenovo Center, from the start all the way to the end. There was never a bright spot in any of it.
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After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour, along with Jordan Staal, Taylor Hall and Andrei Svechnikov spoke with the media in Raleigh. Here’s what they had to say:
The Carolina Hurricanes Should Be Embarrassed
On how you unpack this game [It seemed like it started bad, got worse and you never really got anything going]: Well you just summed it up. Not much to say other than what you just said. It was a tough night.
On if the team is mentally struggling with questions on if they can beat Florida: No, I don’t think that’s it. Obviously we have to just figure out how to win a period. I think we came out with the right intentions, but it was just trying to do too much and then we’re not doing the things we do as a team that normally helps us. I don’t know what I was watching in the first period. That didn’t go well. I said the other day, the margins here are tight. We’re not going to beat this team if we’re not on the same page. Tonight, for whatever the reason… I think the intentions were good. Everyone’s trying, saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to do this,’ but that’s not how we do it. Just backfired. And [the first question] probably put it as good as one could because that’s exactly how that game went.
On if he has any updates on Sean Walker and/or Seth Jarvis who both went back to the locker room: Not yet. I haven’t even seen those guys so we’ll see.
On Andrei Svechnikov: He had a tough night. I know he’s trying, but we have to do it within the way we need to. Be on the same page. And he was on his own page. Didn’t work.
On having a better start on the road: That’s what we’re going to have to try and do obviously. We have to… It’s not ‘just throw this game away.’ We have to learn from it and what doesn’t work. Give yourself a chance. That’s what we need to do. That’s what we did the other night. Obviously same result, but clearly if you go of script, it’s not going to go well. That’s the lesson learned here.
On intentions being good, but execution falling so far away: You have to give them credit. I hope I’m not missing that. That’s what happened there too.
On if the pressure of the situation played a role at all: I would have hoped we would have actually been more on that. I don’t feel like we were that intense for the moment that we needed to be. I felt like we were actually a little too casual. But again, from my standpoint, Florida was on it and you have to give them credit.
On if he knew after warmups that Jalen Chatfield wasn’t going to be able to go: Yeah.
On pulling Frederik Andersen after two periods: It wouldn’t have mattered who we had in net tonight. Wasn’t on him.
On getting the guys to belief down 2-0: That’s a good question. Sometimes it’s easier to recover from a game like that because there’s nothing good out of it. If you’re close, a play here or there makes a difference. There was nothing good from this game for us. We’re going to have to learn, but everybody has to be.
On if there was anything positive to take away from that game: No, not really. It was an ass whooping all the way through the lineup from the goaltender to the forwards. Just have to be better. I don’t know what we were expecting tonight, especially the start just wasn’t good enough. They came at us right away and got a couple quick ones and then you’re behind and then it just got worse, to be honest.
On the difficulty with getting shots off: They’re a good, defensive team. They do a good job of just being on top of you. When we do get it to the points, they’re doing a good job of getting in lanes and clearing out bodies in front and limiting our second chances when we do get them through. Really, our zone time just wasn’t there. When we’re in the zone, they’re just doing a good job of being in lanes.
On finding belief down 2-0 and heading to Florida: It’s one game, and it’s a seven-game series. We know we have to be a lot better. Just have to stay positive there and we know we can find a way to get our game going. If it takes a greasy road win to get us going, it’s going to have to start next game.
On the pressure of having to come out with their best game: I mean, we’re in the Eastern Conference Final, there’s pressure every game and that’s what we have to bring. They’ve just done it better. There’s no question that they’ve been the better team, especially tonight. Last time was a little closer, but I think they’ve kept is simple. They’ve capitalized on their chances and defended well. We haven’t kept it simple and haven’t capitalized on our few chances. There wasn’t much tonight. Just have to do a better job of being better.
On rallying the team: It’s not easy. We have a long road ahead of us, but there’s no quit in this team. You guys have watched us all season long. There’s been plenty of games where we’ve been out of it, but clawed ourselves back. A series is no different. It just takes one. We’ll focus on this next game and we’ll go from there.
On the ‘Shoot the puck’ chants from the fans: What did we have, seven shots at that point? So I don’t blame them. It’s been a staple of our team for so long. We did give up a few good opportunities to shoot and passed up on a couple plays that were not bad plays, but the way the puck’s been bouncing and stuff, it looked ugly. Our M.O. has always been to shoot first, ask questions later and we weren’t doing that tonight. We didn’t create enough chances or really anything.
On what makes the difference: It’s got to be everyone. Everyone has to be pulling the rope. You can’t have any hiccups, you can’t have any guys going off on their own page or making mistakes. You gotta have everyone. Tonight, there was pretty much no one. It needs to be everyone going and everyone pulling the rope for any team to win at this time of the year.
On the penalty kill’s struggles: We’ve been good in the first few series. Obviously this one, they’ve floated a couple in on us. We’ve got to find a way to kill them. Maybe get in lanes, change it up, I’m not sure, but it’s gotta be an important thing that we have to focus on here. We’ll look over it and try to make some changes and get some more kills.
On if this series is just as much mental as physical: This game is mental. It’s all about your brain and your focus. Thoughts can start to creep in and it’s gotta be the thoughts we’ve been thinking all year and that’s playing our game and focusing on our shifts and our battles and doing what we do. When you let those other thoughts creep in, it never looks good. I think we’ve gotta believe as a group in what we have and what we’ve done all year and go steal one in Game 3.
On if he’s worried about those thoughts creeping in: I think tonight was obviously not great, but we’re going to have to wash it and move on. Own a crappy game. There’s no question it wasn’t great. It happens sometimes. Obviously we don’t want it to happen again and we’re going to have to go and take Game 3.
On the self-inflicted wounds: Last game was a better game for sure and we were close and like we said, we made a couple mistakes and they capitalized on them, but tonight was just not good. There really wasn’t much to hang your hat on at all. It really just has to be an own it and wash it and go get them in Game 3.
On what they need to do to get back into the series with Florida: It’s tough to really describe what we kind of need to do unless we play our best game or even close to it. We can say, ‘tip your cap to them,’ but we didn’t play up to our capabilities in these first two games. Obviously the start of the games where what put us in holes. They’re a very good team. They play hard, they play together, they do a lot of things all around well on the ice. It’s going to be difficult for us, but we can’t really evaluate much until we say that we’ve played close to our best.
On hesitancy creeping into their game: A little bit. You can always point to times on the ice when you need to shoot it, but you need to also have some freedom to make plays and whatnot. But yeah, when we look at the shot clock and see that, that’s just not our game. That’s just not how we play. We generate offense by shooting pucks and getting them back and then we draw penalties or get a rebound. We generate momentum and o-zone faceoffs by doing that. We just weren’t able to do it. We had chances to shoot and we didn’t. I think we’re all a little bit at a loss. But this is the playoffs. You’re playing against the best teams right now. Good thing is that we obviously have another chance really soon. Different venue, get on the plane and hopefully that can just put us in a different mindset, different frame of mind, because what we did obviously didn’t work.
On what gives the team belief that they can still get back into the series: They just went seven games against the Leafs, right? They’re not a perfect hockey team and we know that there’s areas to exploit like any team. They’re exploiting our weaknesses right now obviously, but we have to play our game. If we lose doing that, then sure. But you have to dance with the girl that you brought and you have to play your game. We haven’t really.
On if they can play their game when trailing: Yeah. The playoffs are very difficult to come back in. You see comebacks happen, but a lot of the time, they’re sprung on by power plays and things like that. If you’re against the 8-ball 5v5, they’re going to make it tough and they’re going to flip stuff out and the pressure that you’re trying to create is going to sometimes backfire a little bit. You saw that working in our favor against Washington. Listen, it’s two games. They were up 3-0 last year and ended up winning in seven. There’s still a lot of hockey to be played.
On the Aho goal getting called back: It is what it is. If it’s offsides, it’s offsides.
On if he felt like he was trying to do too much tonight: Yeah, I mean, obviously, I made a couple turnovers in our D-zone and they kind of scored. My mistake. My mistake totally. Can’t do anything right now, so have to move on and think positively.
On the difficulty with getting shots off: I think… It’s hard obviously. We played the best team, right now, and it’s just hard to get into their zone, get the puck into their zone. We just have to find a way and try to do that more.
On avoiding trying to do too much despite being in a 2-0 series hole: It starts with me playing simpler and everything will be fine.
On what his mentality was like in the first period: Yeah, tough. No question about it. But it happens sometimes. Just have to stay in control and stay positive. The first period, I didn’t do that, but after I just tried to stay positive.
On what things the team is saying to each other: I mean, we don’t need to say anything at that point. Everyone still thinks positive and go shift by shift and see what happens, but it didn’t go our way.
On if he was surprised by how the game went: Yeah, obviously. We’ve got to find a way.
On the team passing up too many opportunities: Obviously we have to make more shots and all that. I guess trying to find better position, but we were already in good positions. Probably just have to shoot more to score, for sure.
On the team’s confidence levels: Good confidence. It’s just 2-0 still. This is nothing. We have to still think positive and go to Florida and take it shift by shift, like I said.
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