In losing to the Lightning, the Canes learn a painful lesson on where they want to be
In a sense, there was mercy in it ending like this. The Carolina Hurricanes were spared worrying about what might have been. Their season ended at the hands of a team that did everything they tried to do, but did it so much better.
A shutout at the hands of Andrei Vasilevkiy on Tuesday was a fitting finish to the series, a 2-0 loss to fall in five games to the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team that didn’t miss when it had the chance.
“We had in our minds, something different than this,” Sebastian Aho said. “I thought we were ready to take the next step. And the next step is to be the best, right?”
They were not ready to take the next step. The Hurricanes were bodied out of the playoffs by the Boston Bruins the past two years; they ran into a mentally tougher team this time that also happened to have more talent.
Just as there can be no illusions about how far the Hurricanes have come in three seasons under Rod Brind’Amour, this series laid bare how much there is left to do. This was a fast-paced series, a test of skill as much as will. It was decided, as playoff series often are, where talent truly shines: special teams and goaltending.
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“Our talent is close, but clearly we got beat in the talent area,” Brind’Amour said. “The big areas: PP, PK, that’s the area we’ve got to get better. We were good all year, but when you’re up against the best, it’s a great comparison. That’s how it’s done.”
Tampa’s power play was vicious — 1-for-2 on Tuesday and that was all it took — and the Hurricanes too often tested fate with undisciplined play.
Vasilevskiy bobbled only once and the Hurricanes couldn’t capitalize, while Alex Nedeljkovic and Petr Mrazek each gave a game away.
The Lightning’s top line was better, the Lightning’s fourth line was better.
Game, set, match, series, season.
There were still two great missed opportunities in this series: Game 1, when Nedeljkovic’s blunder gifted the Lightning a win, and Game 4, when the Hurricanes and Mrazek collectively collapsed after getting four past Vasilevskiy and taking a two-goal lead on the road.
On such delicate fulcrums, a playoff series can pivot. Especially against a team as experienced as the Lightning, a power play as clinical, a goalie as unflappable.
“We’re very close,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “Obviously we had a strong season. We had a solid playoffs. We couldn’t quite pull it together here at the end, close to the end, I guess. We still have a lot of really good young players that get it and are understanding the game and understanding how to win. We still have to find a way to be better in all aspects.”
The Hurricanes worked too hard over the course of a shorter-than-usual but harder-than-usual season to win the division to be summarily dismissed like this, and above and beyond the missed opportunities in this series, an even bigger one will loom in memory for a while.
The eventual survivor of this division always had a case to make as the best team in the NHL, having emerged from the Carolina-Florida-Tampa crucible; only the eventual winner of the Colorado Avalanche-Vegas Golden Knights series can argue. Whoever it was that emerged from this series was going to feel very good about its chances if the New York Islanders indeed close out that series. (The Bruins would be a different story for the Hurricanes, perhaps not the Lightning.)
Anything can certainly happen in the postseason, but the Islanders and Montreal Canadiens don’t appear to be at the same level — especially now that the Lightning has Nikita Kucherov back, salary cap be damned.
The Hurricanes may have been superior over the long haul of the regular season, but the Lightning were a little bit better in every way in the postseason. There’s no getting around that, no excuses to be made, no mystery about it now.
The regular-season success was a huge step forward but there’s so much work still to be done.
And there are difficult decisions to be made. Dougie Hamilton has almost certainly played his last game for the Hurricanes, and possibly Jordan Martinook, Brock McGinn and Mrazek as well. Even Brind’Amour isn’t under contract for next season, although owner Tom Dundon would be insane to let it come to that.
Still, it won’t be the same. Nor should it be.
“There’s a next step we have to find,” Brind’Amour said. “That’s what’s left.”
Wherever they thought the bar was set, as a Stanley Cup contender, the Hurricanes learned in the hardest way they aren’t in a position to clear it yet. The way this series went, the way it ended, left no doubt.
This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 10:11 PM.
