Carolina Hurricanes: Takeaways from 3rd Straight Loss to Tampa

After last night’s tough loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Carolina Hurricanes have lost back-to-back games for the first time all season. To be fair, though, the losses did come at the hands of the defending Stanley Cup Champions.

Last night was yet another rough game for the Carolina Hurricanes; despite being ahead just about the entire game in shot totals and scoring chances, Curtis McElhinney stood on his head and allowed the Bolts to take the Canes down for a third straight time.

More from Cardiac Cane

• 2023 Southeast Rookie Showcase: Takeaways from the Canes’ Strong Showing in Florida
• Week Two Coverage Of College Hockey In NC
• Derek Stepan Ends His On Ice Career As A Hurricane
• The Southeast Rookie Showcase Will Be a Good Look at Carolina’s Future
• Noesen Ready To Provide Depth For Canes

I’m not entirely sure where to begin going over exactly what went wrong.

The Canes came out of the gates ready to win a hockey game, and would take the lead going into the first period; they’d hold onto that lead until the 2nd period in which Tampa would tie it up going into the 3rd period.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the 3rd period is where it all went wrong for the Carolina Hurricanes.

Not only was Curtis McElhinney channeling Martin Brodeur last night, but bounces all over the ice were just not going in favor of the Canes. This, coupled with absolute garbage officiating, seemed to deflate the Carolina Hurricanes and led to arguably one of the worst 3rd period performances I’ve seen from this team since 2016-17.

There’s quite a bit to take away from this game, but I’m sensing more of an overarching theme here. When the only two people to score in your last THREE games (regardless of opponent) are Jesper Fast and Brett Pesce, you’ve got some things to figure out.

With players like Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, and Vincent Trocheck headlining this roster, getting absolutely zero consistent offensive production from your top forwards is unacceptable.

I’m not entirely sure when or where the wheels fell off, but it seems the magic that guys like Jordan Staal and Brock McGinn once were riding high on has all but worn off at this point. It was nice while it lasted, but the Canes’ top goalscorers need to start doing what they’re paid to do: score goals.

Last night was incredibly frustrating. Hell, the past three games in general have all been frustrating; they’ve all pointed out obvious changes the Canes need to make, yet those changes are being neglected in lieu of changes elsewhere (scratching Jake Gardiner or Haydn Fleury instead of Brady Skjei, benching Morgan Geekie in favor of Warren Foegele, playing James Reimer instead of Alex Nedeljkovic, etc.).

I know, I know; winning 2 of 5 games in the regular season against the defending Cup Champs isn’t as bad as it seems at face value. I get it. It could’ve been much, much worse.

I’ll leave you all with this, though: the Carolina Hurricanes, at some point, are likely going to have to overcome the Tampa Bay Lightning repeated and consistently in the playoffs to have a shot at winning the Stanley Cup. If this team plays the way they played the past three games, we’re going to see the Canes get swept in 4 games, and it should come as a surprise to nobody.