They gathered as a group for one last time Sunday, hours after their season officially ended, and spent 30 seconds staring at the floor with the same thought. Two points short of a playoff spot after losing two potential clinching games, the Carolina Hurricanes were left wondering what might have been.

And now, that's all they have left.

"We had as good a chance as anybody to come out of the [Eastern Conference]," Hurricanes forward Justin Williams said. "I really liked our team, the way we were playing. Starting the playoffs we would have had close to a healthy lineup.

"That's what makes it even more tough. We missed out on the playoffs, but we also missed out on competing for the big prize we had an opportunity to win."

Racked by injury after injury, the Canes started hot and played well down the stretch, only to lose three of their final four games and miss the playoffs. In the end, they paid the price for a lackluster December and January.

And what a price. The absence of postseason revenue that already had been penciled into the budget will have an impact on the franchise's bottom line. And the Hurricanes made history by becoming the first Stanley Cup champion to miss the the playoffs the next two seasons.

Buoyed by a healthy lineup and the return of Matt Cullen, who left as a free agent after the championship season, the Canes envisioned another run at the Cup. Instead, they face another summer of recrimination and regret.

"It's an empty pit -- woulda, coulda, shoulda's," coach Peter Laviolette said. "It's a very difficult pill to swallow for everybody."

A year ago, as the Hurricanes tried and failed to avoid becoming the seventh defending Stanley Cup champions to miss the playoffs the next season, they went 2-5-0 in their final seven games.

This season, the Hurricanes went 2-3-1 over their final six games, losing three of the final four -- including two games against teams that already had been eliminated from the playoffs -- as the Washington Capitals claimed the division title.

Really, it came down to two games, two chances to clinch the division.

Last Tuesday, they were in Washington. A win would have eliminated the Capitals. Instead, with a 4-1 loss, the Canes gave them new life.

And when the Florida Panthers came into the RBC Center on Friday and won for the first time since December 2002, the Hurricanes saw control of their destiny slip through their fingers. The division title followed 24 hours later when the Capitals closed out the season with their seventh straight win.

That was the end, the Canes' fate decided four hours away in a game completely out of their control. They led the division for all but 16 days this season, but one of those days was the only day that mattered.

"It's pretty frustrating the way it ended," center Eric Staal said. "It's tough to explain."

Open for debate

The circumstances that ended the season will long be debated among fans, from Laviolette's lineup decisions in the final week to Cam Ward's play in his second full season as a starter to the fact that the Hurricanes -- who won more games (43) than five playoff teams -- let the season come down to the last week in the first place.

Perhaps more notable in the long run was that the Canes were even in that position at all. In their 10th season in North Carolina, they faced more injuries than any of the previous nine, losing seven players for a month or more and fighting a nasty flu bug through the winter months.

They played the final two months of the season without their captain when Rod Brind'Amour tore up a knee on Feb. 14. Not once, from opening night to the last day of the season, was their entire lineup available for a game.

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