Strength on strength, Hurricanes haven’t had an answer for the Panthers’ best players
Matthew Tkachuk scored in overtime, again, against Jaccob Slavin and Brent Burns, again, and zipped straight to the corner, out the door and off the ice, again.
The Carolina Hurricanes at least didn’t drag this one out through four overtimes. The Florida Panthers needed less than two extra minutes for a 2-1 win. It was over mercifully quick, as this series will be if they can’t turn things around.
They’re up against it now, and not because of bad breaks or hard luck or a lack of effort or any of that. They’re getting beaten by a team that’s playing better when and where it matters most.
That’s it. That’s all.
“We’re playing hard,” Slavin said. “We’re playing well.”
He’s not wrong.
But his team is also down 2-0 after Saturday’s loss, the Hurricanes’ 10th straight in the conference finals, an improbable streak that spans Rod Brind’Amour’s career as coach and captain. The last time the Hurricanes won a game in this round, he scored the game-winner, 17 years ago.
In a series that so far has been decided by the finest of margins, the Panthers are winning every battle that matters, strength on strength. And where the Hurricanes have advantages — their fourth line, special teams — they haven’t been able to capitalize.
Aleksander Barkov has been the best skater on the ice by a wide margin, dictating play whenever he’s out there. Jordan Staal, saddled with ineffective linemates in a slumping Martin Necas and rusty Teuvo Teravainen, can’t keep up.
Sebastian Aho’s line isn’t winning the battle the Hurricanes need it to win handily against Anton Lundell’s line. The Hurricanes’ top pairing of Slavin and Burns has been on the ice for both of Tkachuk’s overtime winners — snakebit, to be sure, with Slavin’s stick getting stuck in Burns’ skate Saturday, but still.
And Sergei Bobrovsky has been great, no question, but the Hurricanes haven’t made it nearly tough enough on him. Teravainen put the puck toward the middle of the net instead of inside the post on a second-period at wide-open empty goal, allowing Bobrovsky to somehow scramble across and get his blocker in front. Staal, with all the time in the world on a two-on-one in the third, fired it into Bobrovsky’s chest.
Jalen Chatfield’s goal was a deflection in front; too many of the Hurricanes’ shots were from the outside without traffic, an old cliche but one for a reason. They dominated the opening 10 minutes, exactly the response the Hurricanes needed after the gut-wrenching Game 1 loss, and only had the one goal to show for it.
Brind’Amour’s been through this before, down 2-0 to the Montreal Canadiens after losing both games at home to start the 2006 playoffs, struggling to get anything past Cristobal Huet, starting to crumble under the weight of unfulfilled expectations. His players, he said, don’t care about that. There’s nothing he can share from that experience that will matter to them.
But there’s another old feeling creeping in here, familiar from a year ago when the Hurricanes went through some of the same struggles against the New York Rangers, familiar from every regular-season game when they piled up chances but not goals.
The Hurricanes have one five-on-five goal in 11 periods against Bobrovsky. It doesn’t matter how well you play if that’s all you have to show for it. It’s still a make-or-miss game.
“It’s tough because, again, these are the tough losses,” Brind’Amour said. “You’re right there and you know you maybe should have had it tonight. It is what it is, though. We’ll do the same routine we just came through. We’ve been through this. This is not new to us. We’ve been kicked in the teeth here a lot these last few years and we’ve always responded. I’m pretty sure that we will the next game.”
It’s easier to respond, though, when there are structural issues to fix. It’s not that they’re playing poorly, overall. It’s not that they’re not trying. It’s not that they’re not creating chances. It’s that the Panthers are getting more from their best players — Barkov, Bobrovsky, Tkachuk — and the Hurricanes so far don’t have an answer for them.
If someone doesn’t step up and meet that challenge in the next 48 hours — Aho, Necas, Seth Jarvis, second-round hero Jordan Martinook, whoever — this may have been the last time their shadows darkened the PNC Arena ice this season.
They earned home-ice advantage in these playoffs. Now they have to earn the right to come home.
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This story was originally published May 21, 2023 at 12:11 AM with the headline "Strength on strength, Hurricanes haven’t had an answer for the Panthers’ best players."
