Frustrated Hurricanes find no comfort at home as winning streak comes to an end
Paul Maurice was fond of noting that the first home game after a road trip was always the toughest. Too often, that was a crutch for a poor performance easily explained otherwise. But there was, and is, probably more than a nugget of truth in that cliche, the dip that can come after pouring it out on the road and expecting things to come easier at home. They never do.
After the first undefeated three-game road trip in franchise history, in the regular season at least, the Carolina Hurricanes came home to prove Maurice right, all these years later. They jumped out to a two-goal lead on the Philadelphia Flyers in all of five minutes, with Brian Elliott looking to his right to see if Carter Hart was coming out of the bullpen after letting in a pair of weak goals.
Things were actually coming easier for the Hurricanes at home. Until they weren’t.
The next 55 minutes were a slog, full of curious officiating -- affecting both sides, but certainly curious -- and a performance that won’t go on any end-of-season highlight videos, save perhaps Brock McGinn’s behind-the-back, no-look pass to tie the score in the third. The Flyers scored a pair after that for a 5-3 win, the result the Hurricanes probably deserved for a performance Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour called “sluggish” and Teuvo Teravainen called “soft,” a word not used lightly in the hockey world.
“We gave away a couple goals tonight,” said Lucas Wallmark, the recipient of McGinn’s cross-crease pass, the fourth line being the Hurricanes’ best on the night. “You can’t do that.”
It’s exactly what the Hurricanes hadn’t done on the road in wins over Buffalo and Minnesota and Chicago, maybe not the deep end of the pool but still, six out of six on the road is six out of six on the road. That the Hurricanes had never done that before in franchise history is a little shocking in itself, the only other occurrence coming last spring when the Hurricanes won Game 7 in Washington and Games 1 and 2 in Brooklyn without coming home first.
That gave them four wins on the hop and the momentum they had lost during a rough patch that included another frustrating loss to the Flyers, the team the Hurricanes can’t seem to beat this season. The Hurricanes had the edge in that game two weeks ago but lost 4-1; they never really got going Thursday. The opening five minutes seemed like a distant memory by the time the Flyers capitalized on two Hurricanes colliding behind the net to make it 4-3.
“We keep finding ways to lose to them,” Teravainen said. “It’s never very fun.”
There wasn’t much for either team to savor from this one. The officials called three different penalties for dissent in the first period, including the rare penalty called by a linesman, Shandor Alphonso demanding an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the Flyers’ Jakub Voracek while preparing to drop a faceoff. An already-choppy game never quite got on track.
The Flyers made a better hash of the slop than the Hurricanes, but the fact that the Hurricanes never really imposed their will allowed that to happen. When they’re on their game, they are a relentless, pressing, attacking force. When they’re not, there are gaps everywhere. It’s hard to play the way Brind’Amour wants them to play. It takes commitment and effort and perseverance and diligence. Any slippage leaves them exposed. Like this.
“Frustrating game,” Brind’Amour said. “You’re going to give up some goals, but this was way too easy on the goals.”
Just when the Hurricanes seemed to have it going, they’re back to square one. Maybe they were due for a clunker. Or maybe it was just the natural order of things in the first game home after a road trip, a claim Maurice would never fail to make. Brind’Amour didn’t go that route Thursday, but no one would have said anything if he had.
This story was originally published November 21, 2019 at 10:32 PM.
