After a terrible second period, things only got worse for Hurricanes in loss to Bruins
Worst period of the playoffs so far, unquestionably.
Worst period of the season, maybe.
Worst period of the entire Rod Brind’Amour era, up for debate.
It wasn’t so much the Carolina Hurricanes were lucky to only be down a goal coming out of Saturday’s second period. It was a miracle they weren’t down three. Outhustled, outskated, outhit, outbled (more on that in a second), outshot and outplayed — and that was all before Andrei Svechnikov fell awkwardly on his right leg in front of the net and had to be helped off the ice in the third.
A bad period and a bad game still managed to get worse at that point, the Hurricanes falling 3-1 to the Boston Bruins in Game 3 of their first-round series, and if Svechnikov is out for any length of time, it’s going to be hard for things to get much better.
“Right now, it’s tough,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “You see a kid go down and it looks really bad, that’s all that’s going through my head. I hate it for him.”
On an afternoon the Bruins found out their starting goaltender was going home two hours before the start of the game and were again missing their leading goal-scorer, they still managed to take control of the series thanks to a shockingly listless and inept Hurricanes performance, one that looked more like the end of a 12-day West Coast road trip in January and less like a playoff game.
“We’ve got to be there mentally,” Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “We know how to play the game and we know how to do it the right way. We’ve got to get back to doing that.”
Even a gift-wrapped goal from Jaroslav Halak, the replacement for the opted-out Tuukka Rask, couldn’t stem the tide. He fired the puck from behind the net right into the right mitt of Nino Niederreiter, back from being a healthy scratch in Game 2, for the easiest goal of Niederreiter’s career.
In the absence of a primary assist from Halak, the Hurricanes had very little to offer. A decent first period gave way to an absolute aberration of a second in which they were outshot 20-8 and comprehensively outplayed. At their best, the Hurricanes are initiating and attacking. They have been, for almost all of this series, passive and reactive.
“I thought we had a really good first period,” Hurricanes forward Justin Williams said. “I don’t know after that, if we thought it was going to be like that the whole time, they weren’t going to push back? I don’t know what it was. They pushed back.”
The Hurricanes couldn’t even get high-sticked right. The Bruins scored their first goal on a double minor after Trevor van Riemsdyk caught Joakim Nordstrom in the mouth and drew some blood. Dougie Hamilton was clearly high-sticked in the face twice and couldn’t get a call on either.
The Hurricanes’ ongoing frustration with the officiating will center around those plays and not yet another goal review that went against the Hurricanes when Halak appeared to swipe Jordan Martinook’s shot across the line in the first period. Replays were inconclusive; the call on the ice would have stood either way.
But they can point to four no-question, by-the-book, no-interpretation-needed penalties by the Bruins in this series that haven’t been called: the two clear high-sticks to Hamilton on Saturday, Charlie McAvoy ripping off Jordan Staal’s helmet in Game 2 and the slash that broke Brady Skjei’s stick in overtime of Game 1. In a series that has been within a goal in the final minute of all three games, that adds up.
But none of that can excuse the Hurricanes’ performance Saturday, which was entirely within their own control. The Hurricanes had every chance to beat the Bruins in Game 1 despite being outplayed and picked up a deserved win in Game 2. They were in this one at the start but managed to lose touch as the game went on. Sean Kuraly’s short-handed goal to start the third was all but inevitable.
“We let off the gas a little,” Brind’Amour said. “That team’s too good. If you give them an inch they’re taking a mile.”
It’s still early enough in the series that more of this is not inevitable, with or without Svechnikov. But the Bruins are the stronger team, in record and mentality, and the score did not reflect their dominance Saturday. If the Hurricanes can’t find a way to play better than this, things are only going to get worse for them.
This story was originally published August 15, 2020 at 3:06 PM with the headline "After a terrible second period, things only got worse for Hurricanes in loss to Bruins."
