Carolina Hurricanes: Takeaways from (Another) Bad Loss to Dallas
The Carolina Hurricanes dropped yet another loss, and another 2 points to the Dallas Stars, this time at home. Here’s what happened.
Be forewarned, this is going to be another one of those takeaway articles. Just a little caveat before we get started.
Last night’s loss is not the game any of us expected from this team, especially after coming off of one of the biggest wins of franchise history, let alone this season.
If that weren’t enough, the Carolina Hurricanes were widely touted as the ‘winners’ of the 2020 NHL Trade Deadline after acquiring Brady Skjei, Vincent Trocheck, and Sami Vatanen.
I would like to say that every single new face played just fine last night. Skjei may have had one bad turnover that led to the Stars’ first goal, but you can’t blame the guy entirely. It was his first shift on a brand new team in a system that he had only practiced with a single time that morning. The rest of the game, Skjei was absolutely flying.
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The same can be said for Trocheck. A few missteps here and there, which he even mentioned in the intermission interview were due to him responding as if he were in his old system. Outside of those less costly missteps, Trocheck was just as impressive as Skjei.
Last night’s loss is inexcusable. It is insane to me that the Carolina Hurricanes can play with as much heart and desperation as they did in front of David Ayres, yet leave their own rostered teammates out to dry on a consistent basis.
Alex Nedeljkovic, in no way, shape, or form, deserves any criticism for the loss last night. Sure, the Dallas Stars had less than 20 shots on goal that game. Every single one of their shots on goal were higher danger and higher quality than anything the Carolina Hurricanes were throwing Anton Khudobin‘s way. Joel Edmundson specifically can be shouldered with the blame of at least 2 of those goals. Skjei with the first (but we already spoke about that), and Jaccob Slavin with the other, which is surprising to say the least.
I stopped livetweeting this game from the Cardiac Cane Twitter account due to the sheer lack of effort by anyone who was wearing a Carolina Hurricanes jersey on Saturday night. Everyone who wasn’t in a Hurricanes jersey that night showed up to play, and did their jobs as best they could. My postgame thoughts tweet from the CC account sums up my feelings perfectly:
https://twitter.com/CardiacCane/status/1232502224716271616
The team we saw play last night is nowhere near a playoff team. They have the potential to be, sure. Even more so now with the deadline acquisitions. But if they continue to play like that, we won’t even be able to win a playoff series, let alone a Stanley Cup.
The Carolina Hurricanes seemingly left the heart and desperation behind that they so badly need, and that so wonderfully paid off for the Saturday night in Toronto.
Sure, there are games that are just not going to go your way. Sure, there are new guys and I’m sure the chemistry of the locker room is a bit different than it was on Sunday morning. I get that. What I don’t get is how a team that played like they wanted to be in the playoffs in front of an emergency backup goalie can play such flat, uninspired hockey in front of their own goaltenders, especially one coming up to prove himself from the AHL.
Alex Nedeljkovic deserved better than that. Frankly, we all did.