Staff photo by Chris Seward
The Canes' Matt Cullen (8) and Ray Whitney (13) react after the Sharks Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored against them during third-period action during Carolina's 5-1 loss Sunday afternoon.
RALEIGH -- In the winter of 2003, after a dismal six-goal loss to the
Los Angeles Kings, the Carolina Hurricanes reached the inevitable
conclusion that no matter how hard anyone tried or what anyone did,
their season was only getting worse. And it proceeded to get worse,
all the way to last place.
Is it possible the Hurricanes have reached that point on the first day
of November, after a dismal four-goal loss to another West Coast team?
After all, this is the first time the Hurricanes have gone nine games
without a win since then.
This team doesn't have the injury problems or overwhelming lack of
interest the 2002-03 team developed as it slid down the standings, but
it also doesn't have a whole lot of answers, either.
"We're all taken aback," Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said. "That's
part of it. Things you've seen work well in the past haven't, and
areas you expected to be strong aren't."
Even before giving up two goals in 82 seconds Sunday, mere moments
after scoring the game's first goal, the cracks in the facade were in
plain view as the celebration of Ray Whitney's 1,000th game became an
exhibition of why the Hurricanes are the second-worst team in the NHL
and have the fewest points in franchise history through 13 games.
Five minutes into the 5-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks, as the
Hurricanes tried to get in position for a controlled breakout, Joni
Pitkanen got tired of waiting behind the net for his teammates to get
into position. He fired the puck up the boards and out of the zone,
throwing it away in an indictment of the Hurricanes' grasp of the
basics of the game, from teamwork to effort to passing to patience, as
they failed to execute one of the most routine plays in hockey.
It was not an isolated incident. In the second period, a lone San Jose
forechecker provoked Niclas Wallin and Joe Corvo into icing the puck.
That defensive pair would later make a fundamental coverage mistake,
but so would the other two.
Effort wasn't so much the issue Sunday -- the Hurricanes played hard,
for the most part, and had chances to score -- as the inexplicable
lapses of concentration and fundamental mistakes, the symptoms of a
team bereft of confidence and paralyzed by indecision.
"Nobody wants to be on the wrong side of a video session the next
day," Whitney said.
The nine-game winless streak is Carolina's longest since the final 11
games of the 2002-03 season, an 0-9-2 stretch that by general
acclimation marked the worst hockey ever played by this franchise.
It's astonishing how quickly this team has fallen apart. A group that
played with such passion and togetherness in the playoffs retained
none coming into the season and has generated none since then.
All-Star Games have been played with more cohesiveness.
Some initial struggles were inevitable, given the low-intensity
training camp and brief four-game preseason for the league's oldest
team, but even the most pessimistic observer would have expected the
Hurricanes to be better than 29th in the NHL this at this point.
Asked if he was surprised this was happening to a veteran team,
Whitney acknowledged, "This whole season is surprising with a veteran
team."
Of course, this can all turn around with one goal, one win, one
winning streak. But this malaise has also lasted far longer than
anyone could have expected, to the point where it's doing legitimate
damage to the Hurricanes' playoff hopes.
Already 12 points out of first place in the Southeast Division, the
Hurricanes have to find some answers before this hole gets any bigger.
Even that legendary 2002-03 team wasn't this bad this quickly. No team
in franchise history has been this bad this quickly.
