Blowout losses worry Canes

Carolina outscored 24-8 in defeats

RALEIGH -- The mood around the RecZone was a little grim Thursday morning. A five-goal loss will have that effect on a hockey team.

For the Carolina Hurricanes, the result was all the more frustrating given the way they played in the first period Wednesday night.

Justin Williams could have had two or three goals before the first intermission -- or gotten a penalty call on a short-handed breakaway with the Canes down two goals in the second period -- and that would have put a different spin on what became a 6-1 blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

But Williams didn't score, and in the blink of an eye, the Lightning was running away with the game, Vincent Lecavalier's five points moving him into the NHL scoring lead.

"If I'd have scored one of those goals early, it would have changed the outcome," Williams said Thursday after the Canes practiced in preparation for tonight's home game against the Atlanta Thrashers.

"We're a better team when we score first. We know that. We need to get a lot better when we don't."

So much has gone right in the first month and a half of the season for the Canes -- the NHL's highest-scoring team, they went into Thursday's games with the third-best NHL record -- that Wednesday's loss was particularly jarring. However, it wasn't the only time it has happened.

There was also the 5-1 loss to Tampa in the team's previous meeting, the 7-4 loss to the Montreal Canadiens and the listless 2-0 loss at the Washington Capitals.

This might not be such a concern if it hadn't been such a problem last season. (Even two years ago, there was still the odd collapse early, particularly a 9-0 loss to the Thrashers in November 2005, and things seemed to work out OK.)

"With our system sometimes, we can get a little antsy, maybe a little too aggressive at times," Hurricanes defenseman Glen Wesley said. "We expose ourselves, especially with the way we play our system. That's something we can correct. It's something we've gone through in the past and probably continue to have those moments."

It's not that the Hurricanes can't come back when things don't go their way early. The Canes gave up the first goal both Monday at the Florida Panthers and Saturday at the Thrashers, and came back to win both.

"Last night they got one and it certainly opened up for more," Canes coach Peter Laviolette said. "We've given up a goal before and battled, and we've scored the first goal and lost games. But there are a couple stinging losses in there to Tampa Bay."

In the first two wins of the three-game road trip, against Florida and Atlanta, the Hurricanes tied the score before the first period was out. Not once have they won a game they have been trailing at the first or second intermission.

In their five regulation losses, the Hurricanes have been outscored 24-8.

"We haven't hung around," Williams said. "We've lost some stinkers -- 5-1, 6-1, 2-0 games. We didn't really hang around and grit it out. Sometimes when you're not at your best you should still be able to maintain and squeak out a point."