Too rested and too rusty, embarrassed Hurricanes need games to get their groove back

There is such a thing as too much rest.

A hockey season has a rhythm to it, even in the times when it’s uncomfortably busy, the circadian procession of practices and games and morning skates, not always predictable in the micro but, for seven long months, very much so in the macro.

Interrupt that, and it’s like a record scratch. Everyone’s dealing with it because of COVID, so it’s hardly unique to the Carolina Hurricanes, but Thursday was a night where it felt particularly acute. This was bound to catch up with the Hurricanes, and did it ever in a 6-0 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.

They’ve had as many games postponed in the past 31 days (seven) as they’ve actually played, and until Thursday they’d won five and gotten a point out of the sixth. But the curious late cancellation of Tuesday’s game in Philadelphia and the mental wear and tear of traveling for a game that wasn’t played appeared to finally push the Hurricanes over the edge.

Or maybe it’s just the inevitable accumulation of all the uncertainty. This is a normal schedule for a college player like new goalie Jack LaFontaine, but not a pro used to grinding it out in January. Not only is it a jarring disruption, it’s a bill that’s going to come due in these next few months when the NHL tries to wedge those games back on the schedule in what’s probably going to be an endless parade of home-road back-to-backs and other travel nightmares.

All excuses? Perhaps. In the end, every NHL team is going to go through this. The good ones will power through it, the way the Hurricanes had been powering until Thursday. (The bad ones will lose a bunch of games, then somehow get an unexpected postponement and a good night’s sleep before — yawn, stretch — a full practice the next day instead of playing.)

But the reality is this: These weren’t the Hurricanes we’re used to seeing, the team that got off to a hot start and hasn’t really slowed down since. They weren’t sharp. They gave up breakaway after breakaway. They weren’t their usual aggressive, imposing selves. When they weren’t missing the net they were firing it into Elvis Merzlikins’ chest. They were outshot at home for the third game in a row.

“Saw it coming,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said, ruefully, second-guessing himself for not figuring out a way to shake things up ahead of this.

“I felt like we were going to be scrambly and rusty. I expected that,” Brind’Amour said. “That doesn’t affect how hard you’ve got to work. We didn’t come ready in that department. That’s what you get.”

Missing Jaccob Slavin certainly didn’t help, but this is the same team the Hurricanes tagged for seven unanswered goals just 12 days ago, and when they were down 2-0 through two periods Thursday it certainly didn’t look like they had a similar outburst in reserve.

They came out firing to start the third, with multiple chances to score in the opening four minutes, only to give up the 3-0 goal on a circle-to-circle pass and Patrik Laine one-timer. At 4-0, newly arrived rookie goalie LaFontaine — five days removed from playing against Michigan State — gave up a goal on the first NHL shot he faced, a Cole Sillinger breakaway.

Not content with hanging him out to dry once, the Hurricanes allowed a second. LaFontaine at least made one save to avoid any chance of ending up the answer to a trivia question.

“We’re not going to go into full panic mode,” Tony DeAngelo said, “but we stunk tonight.”

It was a rare moment of capitulation, not often seen with Brind’Amour behind the bench, and you’d think they’d at least try not to embarrass the kid. A sign, perhaps, of just how much of their mojo the Hurricanes have lost navigating the fits and starts of the schedule.

“It definitely crept in these last few weeks, on and off,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “Obviously the Philly game was tough but we’ve had average practices. We came out flat and stayed flat and continued to be flat. It was embarrassing. I feel bad for our goalies. I really feel bad for Jack.”

There are eight more games left in the 17 days before the All-Star break — where Sebastian Aho and Frederik Andersen, and perhaps Andrei Svechnikov, will join Brind’Amour in Las Vegas — so this may indeed be the end of this slackening of the schedule, COVID willing and the creek don’t rise.

The Hurricanes don’t need any more time off. They need to get their groove back, and soon, because there’s going to be a point soon where the games come too fast and too furious and this ebb tide will be remembered a lot more fondly than it was endured.

Luke DeCock

The News & Observer

Luke DeCock is a former journalist for the News & Observer.