Carolina Hurricanes: Extend Losing Streak to Senators

The Carolina Hurricanes extend their losing streak to four teams that have been lower than them in the standings. Now, the Ottawa Senators, who were tied for worst in the league, have defeated them.

After losing three games in a row at home against the New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers, and New York Rangers, the Hurricanes needed a win tonight to stay healthy in the long-term playoff race. Procrastination does not end well, the Hurricanes continued their losing streak tonight against the Ottawa Senators.

The Senators have been a laughing stock ever since after their exit from the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017 to the Pittsburgh Penguins. They were dead last in the league last season and were guaranteed a top draft pick that they had already traded away to the Colorado Avalanche for Matt Duchene, who they ended up losing anyways.

A complete mess over in Ottawa, their mess continued to this season, where before this game, they were tied with three other teams to being at the bottom of the league. The Hurricanes couldn’t handle Ottawa, despite their reputation.

The first period seemed to be all Senators, other than the Ryan Dzingel and Vladislav Namestnikov fight where Dzingel showed us all that he’s a part-time boxer, off the ice as he dominated that fight. Filip Chlapik started the scoring off a bad James Reimer rebound and guess who? Namestnikov who lost a fight earlier would score to give a 2-0 lead to the Senators.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who was on our sights for the 3 Keys to Breaking the Losing Streak, added the cherry on top of the Senators first period scoring to give a 3-0 lead for Ottawa. Pageau has been Ottawa’s leading goal scorer and he made his presence known in this game. A powerplay in the second period would allow Andrei Svechnikov to score from a Dougie Hamilton feed, giving Svechnikov a tie with Hamilton for 2nd in goals on the team.

Brady Tkachuk would put a dagger to end the hopes of a Hurricanes comeback late in the game on Reimer, celebrating with a NHL 94 celebration. The Hurricanes seemed to not be able to catch a break all night.

Reimer’s unfavorable rebound control was felt, poor line changes continued to this game that allowed for Chlapik’s goal, and lack of offensive threats made a poor game for the Hurricanes.

Despite the Hurricanes winning the majority of the faceoffs and shots on goal, they’ve found themselves once again on the wrong side of the scoreboard. They actually scored a powerplay goal and killed all four of Ottawa’s powerplays and only had 8 giveaways compared to the Senators’ 31 giveaways.

The Hurricanes will get another shot at breaking their losing streak and trying the Ottawa Senators again on Monday on home ice in Raleigh, where they lost their last three at home. This allows for management and the players to adjust accordingly to their mistakes against the same team they just played.

The panic over this losing streak is understandable, but the season is not even a fourth of the way complete yet. Lots of hockey left to be played and the chance on Monday for redemption, to climb out of this slump is necessary to repair this team’s lost confidence.

Question for Cardiac Cane Readers: Can the Hurricanes finally find themselves back on the win column on Monday?