If there was any optimism left among the Hurricanes fanbase then tonight's 6-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs probably killed all of that. We've been treated to the same story for the last two weeks with the Hurricanes getting outplayed by their opponents, showing no desperation and getting blown out. Tonight's game was a little different. They were certainly outplayed by the Leafs, getting outshot 26-16 at even strength and outchanced 22-13 overall, but for the first time in awhile, the Canes showed some determination and were able to fight their way back into the game after trailing 2-0.

They got the help of a shorthanded breakaway goal from Eric Staal and a timely powerplay goal from Alexander Semin, but it just goes to show you how much winning the special teams battle can help a team. The Hurricanes had absolutely no business being in this game after how they played in the first period, but they were able put themselves in a position to win in the third period thanks to good special teams. They took advantage of this opportunity in the third period with Jordan Staal getting a mini-breakaway after a misplay by the Leafs defense and giving Carolina a go-ahead goal. For that moment, it looked like there was hope the Canes could break out of this slump and at least build some confidence heading down the stretch of the season.

The only problem with this theory is that they were still getting outplayed and continued to let the Leafs forecheck dominate them. Toronto would eventually get a powerplay out of this and scored on the tail end of it with a rocket from the point from Dion Phaneuf. Now Carolina was in a battle just to earn a point in the standings and that went away after Joffrey Lupul went coast-to-coast, skated around Carolina defenseman Joe Corvo and undressed Justin Peters to give the Leafs the go-ahead goal. The Canes were now deflated and began to sink to the levels that we have been accustomed to the last few weeks in their comeback efforts.

The final score might be a tad misleading because the Leafs added on two empty net goals in the final minute, but this probably could have been a blowout when you considered how much better Toronto was than Carolina. This was yet another bad performance by a team that does not look like they have playoff aspirations this season. I know their underlying numbers are promising and they are mostly just underperforming right now, but stretches like this can be a dagger in a shortened season, so anything the Hurricanes ground the Hurricanes make up after this could be too little too late.

The team's confidence is shot right now and they are playing at a level that is much lower than what should be expected of them and I'm not sure if anyone knows how to fix it. You can call for players to be benched or traded and for coaches to be fired but that isn't going to fix anything at this point. The problem with this team right now seems to be much bigger than that and the responsibility goes to everyone involved in the organization. There's not much they can do about this season other than ride things out and hope for the best.

Seven goals. That is all the Hurricanes have scored in their last six games and unsurprisingly they have gone winless during this stretch and are slowly falling out of the playoff picture. The defense and goaltending is going to receiving the bulk of the blame for Carolina's recent struggles, but you also need things called "goals" to win games and the Hurricanes aren't getting any of them right now. Either they run into a hot goalie, don't get any scoring chance production or get stuck in their zone way too much. Tonight, Ondrej Pavelec gave them a lot of fits, stopping 38 of the 39 shots he faced and the Hurricanes own defensive play left a lot to be desired and it resulted in yet another 4-1 loss.

Most people thought the Hurricanes would come out strong tonight after four days off and a grueling bag skate in Friday's practice, but the team looked off from the get-go. Winnipeg had more energy and scoring chances in the first period and only fell behind early because the Hurricanes got an early powerplay and took advantage of it. Even with the rough start, the Canes were tied with Winnipeg 1-1 at the first intermission and had a chance to take control of the game in the second. They actually had the edge in territorial play for the first part of it, but they ended up losing any momentum they had gained after Jordan Staal took a hooking penalty and Winnipeg scored on the ensuing powerplay. This was followed up by an odd goal from Nikolai Antropov a few moments later and the Hurricanes found themselves in the same situation that they've been in for the last two weeks. Playing from behind and having their opponents dictate the rest of the game. 

It feels like we have been forced to watch the same game on repeat for the last couple of weeks and it's no joke that the fans are sick of it. This is the most important part of the season and all the Hurricanes have done is lay down while other teams continue to leap frog them in the Eastern Conference. They've already los ta ton of ground in the Southeast Division race with this loss tonight and have yet to show any urgency during any of their last six games. I'm not sure what needs to be done right now but what I can say is that what we are seeing right now is not a playoff team. This squad can play at a much higher level than what they've shown recently, but they have no confidence right now and their time is running out. Some serious work needs to be done if this team wants to put together a huge run and the responsibility falls both on the players and coaches. 

We've all seen this movie before. The Hurricanes came into this game in need of a win and were taking on a struggling team who were in a similar situation. The Canes may have lost their last four, but the Devils had only won three of their last 10 and really starting to lose ground in the playoff race. This was a perfect chance for them to right the ship and get a much needed win. Adding to that, the Hurricanes were also receiving a bit of a morale boost with Tuomo Ruutu returning to the lineup so this was the perfect night for them to get things back on track.

The result? Another dud of a game and a 4-1 loss. You would think that the Hurricanes would put together a more complete performance after getting embarrassed by Florida on Tuesday night, but this game ended up being very similar to that. The Canes were outworked in just about every area and their offense was held stagnant for most of the night by the Devils. Taking nothing away from the Devils since they played a terrific game defensively, but when a team totals only seven shots on goal through 40 minutes of play, I think it's safe to say that they were outworked and didn't give their best performance. That was the case for the Hurricanes tonight and it's the same thing that we have seen for the past week or so where the team plays well in spurts but was outworked overall and deserved to lose.

What's most frustrating about this loss in particular is that for the first 20 minutes, Carolina looked like a team that was going to turn things around tonight. They came out with a lot of jump and played about as good of a first period as you could imagine, outshooting the Devils 11-4 and had plenty of opportunities to get on the board. Unfortunately, Martin Brodeur had an answer for all of the Hurricanes chances and Carolina found themselves trialing after one after giving up the strangest goal you'll ever see. The Devils were whistled for a penalty, which prompted goaltender Dan Ellis to go to the bench so the Canes could get an extra skater. It was then that Jordan Staal tried to send a pass to Tim Gleason but the puck ended up ricocheting off the boards and into the Hurricanes vacant net. If there was one play that can sum up how everything has been going for the Canes lately, that play would be it. When you're shooting at only 3% at even strength over five games, that's generally a sign that the Hockey Gods aren't shining on you and this goal was just icing on the cake.

Even with that, the Hurricanes did a lot of good things in that first period and could have built off it to tie the game in the second. That obviously didn't happen and the Hurricanes "response" to this was having only seven shots on goal in the remaining two periods and getting outscored 3-1. Just more of the same old things we've been seeing too often from this team for the past week or so and it's getting to the point where the fans are getting restless.

Did the team have some bounces go against them tonight? Absolutely. Would they have made the difference in them winning or losing? No, because they were outplayed tonight and have been getting outplayed, outhustled and outworked in just about every game for the past week. They still have time to turn it around but the Hurricanes are trending in the wrong direction at the absolute worst time. Having four days off to get refocused might help them but the only thing that matters is what they do during game time, which has been severely lacking as of late.

Bad games happen over the course of the year and the Hurricanes have had their share of them this season, but their 4-1 loss to the Panthers tonight my have been the absolute low point of the season. It wasn't so much the fact that they lost but more that they were outplayed and outworked by a Florida team who had won only two out of their last ten games coming into tonight. We've seen how good this Hurricanes team can be plenty of times this year but for whatever reason, they have had trouble playing against bad teams and it's been especially true within their division. They let two points slip away against Washington last week, laid an egg against Tampa Bay on Saturday and put in yet another terrible performance tonight where they gave up 44 shots on goal to one of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference.

Losing this game or any of their last four doesn't automatically disqualify Carolina for the playoffs, but any chance they had at gaining separation from the rest of the Southeast Division is all but gone. Winning these games was all about the Hurricanes making easier for themselves later on in the season and after going a combined 1-3-1 in their last five, Carolina will likely be in a dogfight for a playoff spot for the rest of the season. Not that they deserve to be in the #3 spot after their performances in some of these games, especially tonight's.

I'm not one to panic over four bad games and I know this team is better than what they've shown the last week, but tonight's performance was still pretty alarming. The team probably doesn't have to be reminded how important each game is at this time of the year no matter who the opponent is, so I'm not quite sure why they have been playing much lower than their standard lately. There are only 19 games left in the year and the Hurricanes still need to go a little better than .500 to make the playoffs, which they can do but the window is going to get even smaller for them if they continue to play like they did tonight and the injury to Justin Faulk probably makes things a lot worse.

You can't go into the playoffs allowing this many shots per game without at least making up for it at the other end. Dan Ellis isn't going to stop 93% of the shots he sees every night, so the Hurricanes need to shape up their play in just about every area.

A bad loss can cause a coach to react in certain ways and Kirk Muller was apparently very unhappy with his team's performance in Saturday's 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, so he decided to shake things up a bit for tonight's game against the New York Rangers. The result? Another loss, but one where the team got a point and played well for various segments. There will probably be some people who are satisfied with this team getting a point and only losing because of a skills competition, but there were a lot of things to be concerned about tonight and it goes beyond just the fact that the team lost.

There have been a lot of people getting on the Hurricanes for "not playing a full 60 minutes" and this game will be one that a lot will point to as evidence of that. Carolina started off this game on a very strong note, outshooting the Rangers 14-8 and dominating them territorially in just about every facet. They were rewarded for their efforts with a 1-0 lead and could have easily gotten a regulation win if they kept up this level of play. This obviously did not happen, as the Rangers took over the game for the remaining 45 minutes. After getting outshot 14-6 in the first period, the Blueshirts outshot Carolina 30-13 for the rest of the game and had multiple opportunities to take the lead but could never capitalize. Part of the reason for this was due to the spectacular play of Dan Ellis and the Rangers inability to hit the net on several of their chances. Either way, Carolina was very, very lucky to come away with a point after this game.

Imagine the meltdown against Washington last week only without the Canes getting scored on in the final five minutes. That would be somewhat of an accurate description of how this game went. Muller definitely had this team ready to play in the first period but either they ran out of gas early or just fell asleep for the final two periods. With the struggles they have been going through lately, it's easy to forget that the Rangers are actually a very good and talented team who can make you pay if you take them lightly. The Canes were able to avoid getting burned tonight and regained their lead in the Southeast thanks to the charity point . Still a lot of work to do before this team is completely up to standards, though and they'll have to get back to work tomorrow against Florida. 

In any given season, there are always teams who have each other's number. Last year, the Hurricanes had the Bruins number, sweeping them in a four game series and this year, it seems the Lightning have played their best games of the season against the Hurricanes. After their 4-1 win tonight, the Lightning have won all three of their matchups against Carolina this year and have outscored them a whopping 13-4 in those games. If that's not a sign of dominance then I'm not sure what is. You would think that the Hurricanes would look to change this trend tonight after letting at least one point slip away on Thursday night against Washington but they ended up taking a blowout loss tonight and didn't look good at all during the game. 

There are going to be a lot of people questioning this team's effort and compete level tonight, because of how lopsided the final score ended up but I honestly thought the effort was there tonight. For the most part, this team worked hard tonight, tried to penetrate the Lightning's defense and played a full-sixty minutes. The scoreboard didn't show it, but I thought the Hurricanes put in a good effort tonight. Their execution, however, was very poor. Carolina was able to gain the zone numerous times and control the pace of play, but the Lightning knew what they were trying to do most of the time and were able to defend them well.

Then the times that the Hurricanes actually got through the Lightning's defense, they were either overly hesitant (see Jordan Staal passing on an odd-man rush instead of just firing it at the net) or had a few bounces go against them (see Patrick Dwyer's tip chance in front of the net going just wide). Nights like this happen and unfortunately for the Hurricanes, it had to come on a game after they blew a 2-0 lead to another divisional opponent.

I don't disagree that Carolina was far too deliberate with their game plan and should have adjusted after the second period, but as far as effort goes, I think they showed that tonight. They just did not execute well at all and will need to regroup before taking on a struggling New York Rangers squad this Monday. Carolina was in a good spot heading into this week, but the more they lose, the slimmer their room for error becomes and that's becoming even more stressful with the Winnipeg Jets winning eight of their last 10. Thankfully, the door is still wide open for them but they need to play a lot better than they did tonight for it to remain there. 

In the big picture, this loss probably doesn't mean a whole lot in terms of how it affects Carolina's season. It's only their second loss in the span of two weeks and they can regain their lead in the Southeast with a win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. The NHL has a long season and losses are going to happen so there's a good chance that this is just a slight bump in the road for the Hurricanes. While that is true, the way they lost tonight's game to the Washington Capitals was infuriating to watch for the fans, coaching staff and the players.

The Hurricanes started out this game with all guns blazing, getting two early goals in the first period and throttling the Caps in all areas. It looked like this would be another game where the Hurricanes would coast their way to an easy victory but it didn't go down like that. Naturally, they drifted back into a defensive shell in the second period and it ended up costing them with the Caps fourth line catching the Hurricanes napping and scoring to make it a one-goal game. After that, the Canes woke up a little bit and were at least able to limit the Caps chances and play strong defensively. The whole team just looked off compared to their performance in the first period, though. They were fanning on shots, not connecting on their passes and had serious trouble adjusting to the Capitals forecheck which resulted in some downright ugly breakout attempts.

All of it culminated at the end of the second period when Eric Staal was sent to the sinbin for a high-sticking call and the Capitals made them pay for it on the ensuing powerplay to begin the third. Once the score was tied, the Canes started to wake up and play more like they did in the first period and had quite a few opportunities to take the lead. All of which were for naught thanks to the play of Washington goaltender Michal Neuvirth who turned aside 15 shots in the third frame alone and 36 total on the night. Blowing the two goal lead aside, the Hurricanes played well enough to at least earn a point against Washington tonight...until they were guilty of a terrible line change which resulted in a breakaway for Alexander Ovechkin and the Caps were just barely able to get the game-winning goal across the line to seal up a victory.

This was a prime example of a team giving a game away to the opponent. The Hurricanes were in full control for the first 20 minutes but allowed the Caps to get back into because they took their foot off the gas pedal. I don't think there was anything wrong with how they played in the third period overall, but the margin of error is slim in a tie game and the Hurricanes committed a brutal mistake at the absolute worst time possible and it ended up costing them. This was a game where the Canes could have easily gotten at least one point in the standings in but they ended up going home with nothing and have nobody but themselves to blame.

It's really a shame to see a mostly solid game by the Canes go to waste because of a few dumb mistakes and it's especially frustrating when it happens in a divisional game, but they can partially erase this loss with a win over Tampa Bay on Saturday night. They will just need to get these mistakes out of their system.

Carolina's 4-0 shutout over Washington Capitals tonight was eerily similar to the game these two teams played two weeks ago at the Verizon Center. You had one team coming in on a relatively high note and rolling through the game without much trouble while their injury-depleted opponents barely put up much of a fight. The Hurricanes may have been on the wrong side of that duel a week ago but tonight, they were the dominant team and played one of their strongest games of the season. The quality of their opponent should be taken into account here because the Capitals are a team that is currently down in the dumps and were dressing basically an AHL defense tonight, but it's still a win and two points in the books in the end. Add in the fact that this was a divisional win on the road and it's hard to find much to complain about tonight's performance.

Even though the score was close for most of the game, the Hurricanes had control of this contest for a good 80% of the time. Washington had a chance to get things going in their favor early in the first period when their first line created a transition scoring chance, but Marcus Johansson ended up fanning on an open net and the Hurricanes responded by getting a lucky goal a few minutes later. From then on, the Hurricanes dominated play at even strength, took the crowd out of the game and basically just coasted the rest of the way through. This was about as good of a road game as you can expect a team to play and let's hope that Carolina can continue to keep the ball rolling in the rematch this Thursday.

Sometimes the most frustrating losses are the ones when the team plays a solid game but ends up with nothing to show for it because of a few bone-handed mistakes. This was the case for the Hurricanes in their 4-2 loss to the Canadiens tonight. They outshot Montreal 43-28 and played arguably their best 20 minutes of the season in the second period but ended up taking the loss due to a bad start, ineffective special teams play and a few brutal defensive lapses. In other words, some of the same mistakes that have been plaguing this team all season long. The common thought among fans right now is probably something along the lines of "it's been 20+ games, they shouldn't be making these mistakes now! What is wrong with this team?"

Let's step away from the ledge here for a second and remind ourselves that the Canes won their previous four games and looked dominant at times tonight. On top of that, they were playing a very strong Montreal club, so things could have been much worse (think the Washington game) if this team's recent win streak was indeed just smoke & mirrors. Are there things to be concerned about? Absolutely, but it's not enough for me to say that it's time for the team to get a complete facelift because they ended up losing by two goals. There were many encouraging signs to go along with the causes for concern and this was far from the team's worst performance this season.

That being said, the team's performance tonight was sort of a microcosm of how their season has gone, as it was filled with a lot of highs and lows.

With all due respect to the Florida Panthers, tonight was a game that the Hurricanes should have won. They came into tonight's game still winless in Southeast division play and were taking on a Florida team that currently sits last in the Eastern Conference and has been playing some bad hockey for most of the year. Adding to that, Florida also lost their starting goalie, Jose Theodore, less than four minutes into the game forcing a cold Scott Clemmensen into action. If there was a better time for Carolina to get a win in the Southeast, tonight was a perfect opportunity. They are a better team than Florida and all the Hurricanes needed to do was play to the best of their ability and they did just that and it resulted in them winning in a blowout. 

Carolina got things started early with a three quick goals in the first period and just continued to pour it on after that. Usually, you would see teams sit back a little after they establish an early lead and while the Canes did that at times, they didn't let Florida get many great opportunities. They allowed only three scoring chances to the Panthers in the second period and were able to take advantage of some miscues by their defense to add on two more goals, one of which coming from Riley Nash who played the best game of his young career tonight. Eric Staal would add on another in the third period to add salt to the wound and wrap up a 6-2 win for Carolina. 

This was the type of complete team effort that fans have been waiting all season for as every line was contributing for the Hurricanes tonight. The first liners contributed to three goals, the third line had their best offensive performance of the year while the rest of the roster did their part to control play. It was a good way for the Canes to get their first divisional win of the season and get some revenge for being embarrassed by this Florida team on opening night. Now they just need to bring the same level intensity tomorrow in the second game of this back-to-back. If they play like they did tonight, then there shouldn't be much of a problem.