The Carolina Hurricanes seem to have hit their ceiling in the playoffs under head coach Rod Brind’Amour once again. Unfortunately for the Washington Capitals, that ceiling is in the third round and not the second.
The Hurricanes dropped their 15th straight Eastern Conference Finals game on Saturday, losing to the Florida Panthers 6-2 in Game 3. As Bleacher Report put it, they’re:
Carolina has completely fallen apart against the Panthers after making quick work of the Capitals in a five-game, second-round series. In three games against Florida, they have been outscored 16-4 after only allowing seven goals to the Caps in five games.
The complete and utter collapse has come from all angles and in all areas of the team’s game that seemed air-tight against Washington, frustrating Capitals fans who watched the Canes play near-perfect hockey in the second round.
Five-on-five meltdown
Carolina’s signature five-on-five dominance from the regular season persisted into the playoffs against the Capitals but has been completely neutralized by the Panthers. They have scored just one five-on-five goal against Florida after averaging two per game against the Caps in the second round.
While their ability to generate offense has nosedived, the club’s five-on-five defense has been an even bigger issue. Carolina has been outscored 12-1 and is giving up 16.4 percent more expected goals and 11.4 percent more scoring chances to the Panthers than they did the Capitals.
Hurricanes vs. Capitals and Panthers at five-on-five
Goaltending from hero to zero
On top of Carolina’s relentless five-on-five pressure, they also received the best goaltending in the playoffs from number-one starter Frederik Andersen through two rounds. Andersen has been so bad against the Panthers that Brind’Amour pulled him for the third period of Game 2 and replaced him as the team’s starter with backup Pyotr Kochetkov for Game 3.
Kochetkov responded by giving up six goals on 28 shots against in a 6-2 loss. The two goalies have a combined 5.33 goals-against average against the Panthers after Andersen held the Capitals to just 1.19 goals per game in the second round.
Frederik Andersen’s stats against Capitals and Panthers
Special teams on the fritz
The Hurricanes did not allow a single power-play goal in their first-round series against the New Jersey Devils, killing off all 15 power plays they faced in five games. The Capitals fared slightly better than the Devils, converting on two of their 15 chances against the Canes’ vaunted penalty kill.
Heading into the Conference Finals, the Hurricanes had the best penalty kill in the playoffs, killing off 93.3 percent of power plays. Among the four teams remaining in the postseason, the Canes are the least successful shorthanded (55.6 percent) in the third round after the Panthers scored four goals on their nine power plays through three games.
The Hurricanes have scored three power-play goals of their own, but two came in the same game, their 6-2 loss in Game 3.
Finishing ability now absent
Despite throwing anything and everything at the net in their series against the Capitals, the Hurricanes still shot a respectable 8.6 percent at five-on-five. Through three games at Florida, they are shooting an absurdly low 1.8 percent on 56 shots.
For comparison’s sake, on a very similar total of five-on-five shots (57), the Panthers are shooting a ridiculous 21.1 percent.
The Hurricanes aren’t getting offense from their usual sources. Coming into the third round, Andrei Svechnikov was second in the playoffs in goals (8). He has zero goals and just one assist in three games against Florida.
Seth Jarvis is the team’s lone point-per-game player against the Panthers. Jarvis has three points (1g, 2a), and two of those points have come on power-play goals.
Carolina’s fifteen-game losing streak dates back to the 2009 Conference Finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins. While Brind’Amour wasn’t the head coach of the team, he was the club’s captain. The Hurricanes eventually hired him as bench boss in 2018, and he’s 0-11 in that role.
After the Panthers swept the Hurricanes out of the 2023 Conference Finals, Brind’Amour went on a now-classic rant, refusing to accept that his team had lost four games in a row.
“That’s the unfortunate part of this is that we’re going to look back and everyone’s going to say you got swept and that’s not what happened,” Brind’Amour said then. “I watched the game. I’m there. We’re in the game. We didn’t lose four games. We got beat, but we were right there. This could have went the other way. It could have been four games the other way.”
We’ll see what he has to say this year if they can’t turn things around – and fast – in Game 4.
