Carolina Hurricanes: Season hanging in the balance after latest loss

The Carolina Hurricanes got shut out again for their THIRD shutout in the month of December as they failed to score* against the New Jersey Devils. It was one of the team’s most frustrating performances of the season.

I am writing this fresh off watching the game and am very upset at the outcome of this one. I’m upset at the offense, the powerplay, the coaching, the officiating, you name it. The only person who I am not upset at is Curtis McElhinney, who was outstanding again for the Carolina Hurricanes today making 29 saves on 30 shots for a .966 SV%. On the other end of the ice was MacKenzie Blackwood, who celebrated making his third NHL start by getting his first career shutout with 37 saves*.

Carolina looked strong at first as McElhinney kept them in the game with several magnificent saves. Warren Foegele, Teuvo Teravainen, and Sebastian Aho each received magnificent passes in the seconds after some of those McElhinney saves, and each was a dangerous chance to score. Each of those chances went by the wayside as Blackwood, time and time again, made equally magnificent saves:

The Carolina Hurricanes continued to look befuddled on the powerplay, going none for five with only FIVE SHOTS across them. I have no idea what they are doing, they don’t know what they are doing, they spend half the powerplay trying to set up the most PERFECT positioning only to lose the puck and spend the second half trying to get it out of their own zone. At the end of the second period, the powerplay completely collapsed and Pavel Zacha found himself on a breakaway shorthanded. After McElhinney magnificently stopped the first shot, Zacha scooped up his own rebound and threw it into the net. There was just two seconds left on the second period clock:

That goal was no way on McElhinney, who could only watch helplessly as Carolina’s offense failed to create any sort of offense no matter which personnel came out on the powerplay. They continued with the failed experiment of dumping and chasing the puck in the zone instead of carrying it across the blue line. Each time the Devils seem to outbody the Canes to the puck and push it down to the Carolina zone.

I cannot stop saying good things about McElhinney’s performance. No matter how much the defense tripped up, no matter how bad the offense was, he remained dedicated to giving this team a chance to get back into this game and win it. About halfway through the third period, the Devils had thought they scored their second goal of the game to effectively put this game out of the reach of Carolina’s woeful offense. Yet it was immediately waved off because McElhinney had found and covered the puck before a triad of Devils sticks physically pushed him into the net:

Now you are wondering what all the stars (*) I have been putting in this article are for. It’s for the most frustrating thing that happened all game. More frustrating than going on the powerplay five times and walking away with nothing. More frustrating than losing this game with a goaltender that only lets in one goal on 29 shots. It was the game-tying goal that never happened. Well, according to the refs and Toronto.

With Curtis McElhinney pulled for the extra attacker, the Carolina Hurricanes went to work on a 5v4 that happened due to matching roughing calls. Justin Williams found himself uncontested on the blue paint in front of Blackwood. The perfect screen. Teravainen found himself with the puck at the point and shot a perfect shot that went past Blackwood and into the net! They celebrated, well until they saw the ref that waving it off for contact between Williams and Blackwood:

Naturally Coach Brind’Amour challenged such a bogus call and the refs contacted Toronto. A few seconds later the headphones came off and they came out to give the consensus. NO GOAL. Everyone was blown away by that. The coaches, the players, the fans. The league should be embarrassed to have made that call. This one will stick with Justin Williams and the Hurricanes for  a while. It will stick with the fans even longer as they Hurricanes should have scored more to nullify such frustrations to begin with.

Now for an obscure statistic that sounds unbelievable, yet is entirely true. This loss marks the first time that the Carolina Hurricanes have dropped to 2 games below .500 in OVER TWO YEARS. The last time that happened was after a loss to the New Jersey Devils on November 6th, 2016 which dropped them to 3-5-3. They lost the next two games, one in OT and one in regulation before winning the next five and haven’t looked back until now. Puts the last few years of mediocrity into perspective doesn’t it?