Carolina Hurricanes: It’s all kicking off after Calgary loss

NFL Hall of Famer Deion Sanders once said; “If you don’t want me to dance, keep me from scoring.” Last night’s loss against Calgary has opened a real can of worms amongst Carolina Hurricanes fans.

In some ways fans of the Carolina Hurricanes need reminding of this quote. Vitriol continues to pour down on former Hurricane-turned-Calgary Flame Elias Lindholm after he mocked the Storm Surge in the immediate aftermath of the Flames’ 4-3 win in Raleigh last night. Who didn’t see this eventually happening? Yet this whole fiasco could have simply been avoided if Carolina had won the game, instead of playing wildly inconsistent hockey and falling on the wrong side of several poor referring decisions.

The Sebastian Aho line looked magnificent early on with a tic-tac-toe goal that left Flames goaltender David Rittich absolutely bamboozled. It was one of the prettiest goals the Carolina Hurricanes have scored this season.

The Canes’ lack of discipline and inconsistency showed up shortly thereafter. Calgary quickly tied the game on a power play goal after Nino Niederreiter took the bait from Matthew Tkachuk and was rewarded with a roughing minor for his efforts. This set up the villain of our story Elias Lindholm to score on a tip-in.

In the second period another former Hurricane, Derek Ryan, re-introduced himself to the Carolina Hurricanes faithful, scoring on a wraparound goal where almost every Canes defender had a chance to stop him and failed. A Justin Faulk broken stick on a subsequent Canes power play led to a break the other way and a short-handed goal for the Flames, putting the Canes in a 3-1 hole:

"“Our power play got minus-1 against us and that can’t happen. We have to execute and score goals. Those are crunch times. Instead of being 2-2, it’s 3-1 [Calgary]. It’s a tough hill to climb sometimes, especially against one of the better teams in the League.” — Hurricanes captain Justin Williams"

Dougie Hamilton soon cut the deficit in half with a bullet from the dot that froze Rittich solid, and the Hurricanes seemingly had control of the third period until a controversial no-call on goalie interference led to a Noah Hanifin goal and a 4-2 Flames lead. The league really has to get to grips with what is called for goalie interference and what is not – too often, the Canes are on the losing side of these calls and they are deciding key games in our season. Sebastian Aho did score with under a minute left to make it 4-3, but the Canes’ efforts were not enough.

As if seeing three former Canes score at a packed PNC Arena wasn’t enough, the post-game activities were where things really got interesting. Lindholm, Hanifin, Ryan, and Flames coach Bill Peters were booed loudly by the home crowd when they were welcomed back. However, Lindholm drew the ire of the Canes faithful by mocking the Storm Surge and sending the fan base into a rage. Some fans even threw their Lindholm Jerseys towards the ice in anger, and social media was a blaze with threats.

https://twitter.com/Sportsnet960/status/1092176898031906816

Here’s the thing: as much as Canes fans love the Storm Surge, the team and their fans HAVE to be prepared to be ridiculed and mocked for it by opposing teams. It isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – especially amongst hockey “purists” – and if a team’s fans plan on dishing it out, we must be ready to take it and laugh it off. It was nothing personal just part of the game.

On a positive note, that tough loss should provide the Carolina Hurricanes with plenty of ammo and fire heading into Pittsburgh for what is a must-win game against a division rival sitting six points ahead of them in the standings.