Carolina's game against the Ottawa Senators had all the makings of a disappointment for the home team. We've seen the Hurricanes get shut down by opposing goalie a few times this year and it looked like it was going to happen again tonight as Senators goalie Craig Anderson played about as good of a game as you can ask for. Carolina played their best first period of the season, outchancing Ottawa 7-2 at one point, but Anderson turned down just about everything that was thrown his way. It took a deflection by Eric Staal to finally beat him with less than five minutes remaining in the first period and after that, Carolina played a very smart game in all three zones to take home 1-0 win.

The biggest complaint i had with the Hurricanes performance against the Bruins on Monday was that they were playing "not to lose" in the third period rather than trying to win. This wasn't the case tonight. There were some moments where Ottawa controlled the pace of play, but Carolina did continue to press and create chances for themselves in the second and third periods. They just couldn't get anything past Anderson, something that many other teams have struggled with this season. The defense also did a nice job of keeping most of Ottawa's shots to the outside and when they did let them slip through, Dan Ellis was there to backstop them. Ellis definitely played a good game and made more than a few great saves, but the team in front of him also did a great job of keeping Ottawa's top players in check. This was just the kind of game the Hurricanes needed before their two-week road trip which begins tomorrow night in Philadelphia

Many people believed that tonight's game against the Boston Bruins would be a good test for this Carolina team that appears to be on the upswing but still has plenty of kinks to work out before they can be called a contender. The Hurricanes gave the Bruins a good run for their money for the most part in this game but ultimately came up short as the same bad habits occurred yet again and they ended up costing the Hurricanes. Those who have watched these first five games probably know what these said habits are by now; slow starts and bad special teams play.

Carolina got off to an awful start by giving up a shorthanded goal and followed it up by surrendering a powerplay goal shortly after. Their play at even strength was strong for the first two periods or so but the fact that they couldn't do anything with the six powerplays they were given came back to haunt them as it gave them multiple opportunities to get back into the game early on. Despite the bad powerplay, the Canes managed to rally back in the second period on the back of strong five-on-five play and some good linematching by Kirk Muller to eventually tie things up at 3-3 heading into the second intermission. That's when you would think that Carolina would begin to tip the scales in their favor, but they came out flat in the third period, couldn't get any offense going and were dominated by the Bruins. It resulted in David Krejci scoring the game-winner with less than two minutes remaining and the Hurricanes taking their third loss of the season.

The Bruins were playing to win the game while the Hurricanes were simply trying not to lose. Considering that the Bruins are one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference and the Hurricanes were playing with basically five defensemen, things could have been a lot worse, but it's still frustrating to see them a lose a game that they could have won had they not fallen into the same old habits.

Obviously it's a long season and a young team with a lot of new pieces like Carolina are going to suffer some growing pains, but the Hurricanes not being able to create any sort of offense in the third period is a large concern in my eyes. So is their powerplay dropping another goose egg despite getting six attempts and their tendency to come out sleeping for the first 5-10 minutes of a game. They are all fixable errors and they will be corrected in time but there is less time to fix things like this in a shortened season, so the Hurricanes will need to right the ship quickly. Fortunately for them, they have the next few days off before they take on the Ottawa Senators on Friday. That should allow them some time to get healthy and work on some of their flaws in practice before it's too late.

Calling any game a "must win" situation is silly when it's only three games into the season but tonight was a game that Carolina really needed to win for their fan's sake. After starting the season with two blowout losses, scoring a grand total of two goals in the process, they really needed to play a good game tonight to at least lift the spirits of the fanbase and they did just that and more tonight. Not only were the fans treated to an exciting game, they got to see the Canes net six goals and see their captain Eric Staal record the 13th hat trick of his career. This was far from a perfect game, but this is exactly the kind of performance the Hurricanes needed to give their team a much needed confidence boost.

Everyone was wondering when Carolina's offense would break out and after scoring on only 2 of 78 shots in their first two games, they lit the lamp on 6 of the 38 shots they took tonight (technically 5 of 37 not counting Staal's empty netter). They also continued to win the shot battle tonight at even strength 27-24 and also outchanced Buffalo overall 22-20. It just goes to show you that shooting percentages can't stay low forever and good things will come as long as the team continues to win the shot battle and consistently produce quality chances on top of that. Going a perfect 6/6 on the PK and scoring a shorthanded goal also helped matters, as the Canes finally had a good special teams performance.

Carolina got a bit lucky tonight, which is great because nothing went right for them in the first two games, but they also had a very strong performance from just about all of their top players and earned every bit of this win.

Breakdown coming after the jump.

There are a lot of things I could say about the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. I could talk about how the Hurricanes, once again, got off to a slow start and allowed a goal on the first scoring chance of the game. Then, I could explain how they outshot Tampa Bay 36-26 but ended up losing because of being outplayed in the special teams department and getting worse goaltending than the opposition. After that, I should mention that a couple of Carolina's top guns in Eric Staal and Alexander Semin had a combined 13 shots on goal and 26 shots attempted but came away with no goals to show for it. That would provide a nice transition into how the Canes, as a team, have scored only two goals on 78 shots in their first two games. In the end, though it doesn't matter because this team has been outscored 2-9 on the season and remains winless.

Anyone with common sense knows that the Hurricanes aren't going to continue to convert on 2.5% of their shots in the long-term but teams go through stretches like this all the time. Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, it's happening at the beginning of the year against divisional opponents, which is exactly what they didn't want to happen. This is only two games and there is time to make up for lost ground but this is probably the exact opposite of how Carolina wanted to start their season and there is still plenty of work to be done before this team is in full-form. Much like their opening night loss to Florida, there are positives to take away from this game but there are more areas for fans to be concerned with.

A night that began with excitement and tension ended in disappointment and frustration as the Carolina Hurricanes dropped their first game of the season in a blowout loss to the division rival Florida Panthers. With the schedule being so heavy on divisional play, getting wins or at least strong performances against teams like Florida, Washington, Tampa Bay and Winnipeg is going to be important and the Hurricanes got off to possibly the worst start imaginable. This is only one game, though and the Hurricanes certainly were not the only team to lay an egg on opening night. I know that they need to avoid a bad start, but this is just one game out of 48, so the most they can do now is put this loss in the back of their mind's and move onto their home opener on Tuesday night against Tampa Bay.

Blowouts have an odd way of working because what is shown on the scoreboard isn't always indicative of what happened during the game. This was the case tonight as most people who watched the game would agree that the Hurricanes played better than the 5-1 loss may lead some to believe. They outplayed Florida at even strength, doubling them up in shots 33-16 and had plenty of good chances that were brushed aside by Jose Theodore. The problem was that the Hurricanes fell behind early, took bad penalties and Florida made them pay for just about all of them, resulting in the Panthers getting a 4-0 lead in the first period. In addition to that, they couldn't make the Panthers pay for the mistakes they made and went 0/6 for the night on the powerplay. After Alex Kovelev scored a soft goal at the side of the net to kick off the second period, the lead was insurmountable and all the Canes could do was peel away at the lead. They had a few good chances to make the game somewhat competitive including getting a few powerplay opportunities, but Theodore had other plans and they ended up taking home a 5-1 loss.

This is a crappy way to start off the year but if anyone is planning on jumping off the bandwagon now then you probably haven't been watching hockey very long. Special teams and goaltending were the main differences tonight and this is just one game in a long season. It's too early to claim that the sky is falling but this game did cause some major concerns for Carolina, specifically on the penalty kill.

Tonight's recap will be a little different from the usual form because I was in attendance for the Canes-Capitals game and obviously could not log chances, so I will get those done as soon as the game becomes available on NHL Game Center live (which should be Tuesday night). Instead, I'm going to talk about my experience as an opposing fan in the enemy environment and give my thoughts on the game from the 403 section of the Verizon Center.

Here's what my view was like.

You might be a little high up, but there is truly no bad seat in the 400 level at Verizon Center.

It's kind of tough being a Canes fan in Maryland because there's only so many times a year I can watch my team, which is why I always try to make at least one trip to Chinatown per year to watch the Hurricanes take on the Capitals. I haven't been able to go as often as I would like since tickets are hard to come by (last time was in 2009 when the Canes won 5-1) but I do my best and was glad that I was able to see the Canes tonight. This game didn't have as good of a result as my last visit, but it was still a great effort and one of the few times this year that Carolina registered over 40 shots. Not a loss to hang our heads about, but I really thought the Canes could have gotten out of DC with at least a point. Tomas Vokoun had other ideas.

More thoughts after the jump

The Canes were an even 1-1-1 last week as they ended their road trip and were able to earn five out of a possible eight points. Some would say they are lucky to come away with more than two points this week because they were outplayed in almost every game. In Boston, it took a huge first period effort from Cam Ward and some incredibly stupid penalties from the Bruins for the Canes to come away with a 4-1 win. Then in St. Louis, the Canes came to play for the first 20 or some minutes and then completely turned off the jets and lost 3-2 in overtime. After that was the disaster in Winnipeg where the Canes had another 2-0 lead and then allowed Winnipeg to score five unanswered goals thanks to some bad penalties, shaky goaltending and a bad bounce or two. What was funny is that was the only game this week where they weren't outshot. Either way, the Hurricanes special teams are what won and cost them a couple points in the standings this week but this team is still getting shelled at even strength and it's going to be a big problem soon if things aren't fixed. With that said, let's take a look at some of the top performers and underachievers for Carolina over the past week.

Read more after the jump

In my game preview, I said that the Canes needed to stay out of the box because there's a good chance that special teams would play a huge factor in this game. I was about the last part of this because special teams did play a factor in this game as the Canes struck twice shorthanded and once on the powerplay, the latter goal gave Carolina the lead with less than two minutes to go. The problem was the Canes were unable to stay out of the box as they were shorthanded seven times in this game but killed off all of their penalties and managed to produce some offense out of it thanks to an over-aggressive Sabres powerplay and some great awareness from their penalty killers. You could argue that the Canes were outplayed in this game (which they were for a good portion) but you live and die by special teams in the NHL at times and Carolina managed to win that battle in this game.

Ten thoughts

• Carolina was outshot 26-18 at even strength tonight and it could have been a lot worse had it not been for the 31 others that were blocked or missed the net. Like I said, the Sabres controlled most of this game but the special teams were the reason Carolina came on top....that and the next bullet point.
• Aside from some rebound issues, Ward was at his best tonight. 39 saves on 42 shots and he made quite a few key stops when the Canes were shorthanded. Definitely built off a strong performance against Boston with an even better one tonight.
• Being over-aggressive on the powerplay will cost you at times and it burned the Sabres tonight. The first shorthanded goal was due to a Sabres defenseman pinching in and leaving Thomas Vanek to defend the point. He lost control of the puck and Brandon Sutter hustled to the neutral zone to get it and snipe a goal past Ryan Miller. The second started with a turnover behind the Carolina net which went right onto the stick of Jiri Tlusty. With Marc-Andre Grangani pinching, Tlusty and Tim Brent had a two-on-one against Christian Ehrhoff and were able to easily get around him and score on a rebound chance.
• Spreaking of being aggressive, Jay Harrison's offensive skills are getting slightly better as he recorded his first goal of the season tonight on nice little wrister. Unfortunately, his offensive mentality hasn't quite blossumed yet as a bad pinch led to the Sabres second goal.
• When looking at the corsi numbers for tonight, it's no surprise to see a lot of Canes in the negative column with how badly they were outshot at even strength. However, it's interesting to see that Robin Regher and Tyler Myers were the only Buffalo defensemen with a negative rating. Those two were assigned to Staal and/or Skinner line for most of this game. Staal had five shots on goal and six total attempts, Skinner had three on goal and five attempts. These two along with Jokinen were very strong at creating offense.
• Bryan Allen and Tim Gleason were getting hammered by Thomas Vanek's line for most of this game but these two did some serious heavy lifting on the penalty kill and were a big reason why Carolina won this game. I have really liked what I've seen out of this pairing when it comes to defensive play. 
• Of course, I have to say something about Allen's hit on Jason Pominville, which looked pretty bad at first glance. I thought the hit was pretty late (you could argue that Allen had time to let up) but it shouldn't be anything more than an interference call. A scrum like the Gleason/Gaustad fight was bound to happen after that.
• Carolina may have been outplayed for most of that game but they kept the Sabres on lockdown for most of the third period. They only allowed three scoring chances that entire period and the only reason the game was tied was due to a bad bounce. Although, the Sabres were possessing the puck a lot more that period, most of their shots came from the outside and weren't of good quality. Canes did a solid job of finishing this one off...until the bad bounce occurred.
• I know we escaped with the win here but the team simply can not keep taking this many penalties every night, especially ones like the too many men on the ice call late in the game. Chad LaRose has been around long enough to know not to play the puck when he is supposed to be going off for a line change. Huge mental lapse. 
• If Maurice is going to split up Skinner and Staal, then I would love to see Jokinen and Skinner back on the same line. Those two had some great chemistry last year and the pass Jokinen made to Skinner tonight to set up the game winner was so nasty. Although, I'm sure part of the reason Maurice split up those two was to get one of them away from Myers and Regher.

After last night's collapse against the Lightning, I didn't have too high of expectations for Carolina's game against Washington tonight. When a team is playing the second game of a back-to-back on the road against a team with a high powered offense, it's normal to go in not expecting much. Thankfully, the Canes showed a lot of resilience tonight and managed to earn a point in the standings. Unfortunately, some of the mistakes that occurred last night happened again and Carolina ended up losing this game in overtime 4-3. Overall, it wasn't that bad of a performance by Carolina but there's still a lot of work to be done over the next few days.

More thoughts after the jump.

A new season means a new sense of optimism for many teams and you want to at least put together a strong performance to start the year even if you don't win. The Carolina Hurricanes did this...for about half of the game and then a complete meltdown occurred and ended up getting blown out on opening night. It's disappointing but brighter days are ahead and there were a few positives that you could drag out from this game, as odd as it sounds.

The Canes were the better team for the first 20 minutes tonight as they really had their legs going, kept the Lightning pinned in their own zone for most of the period. They outshot them 16-12 and took the lead 8:07 into the game with a goal from Jeff Skinner. The play started when he forced a turnover in the neutral zone, got the puck back to Tim Gleason on the point who was able to get a shot on net and Skinner quickly put in the rebound. The Canes continued to put pressure on the Lightning for the rest of the period and most of the second until Chad LaRose misplayed a puck in the neutral zone, which led to a turnover and Tampa Bay soon capitalized on it when Martin St. Louis scored on a rebound after the Canes failed to clear the puck multiple times in their own zone. 

Things took a turn for the worst when rookie defenseman Justin Faulk took a bad interference penalty in the second period and it was followed by Jussi Jokinen taking an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after which put the Canes on a 5-on-3 and as you colud probably guess, Tampa Bay scored quickly on it. Things just snowballed after that. Tampa Bay completely shutdown Carolina in the transition game, bottled them up in the neutral zone and continued to build on their lead after baiting Carolina into taking multiple penalties. Once the Lightning scored twice in ten seconds, you could tell that it was pretty much over.

Carolina completely let their foot off the gas after falling down 3-1 and paid the price, which is going to kill you against a team like Tampa Bay who plays in a system that thrives on other team's mistakes. If Carolina plays like they did for the first 20-30 minutes in this game, they have a better chance at winning but they didn't and you can chalk it up to a lack of effort and a lot of missed opportunities. Just be thankful there are still 81 games left on the schedule and I'm sure Carolina will turn in better performances than this later in the year. 

Ten Thoughts

• Jeff Skinner was Carolina's best player tonight by a longshot. He was all over the ice doing whatever he could to create chances and get Carolina back into this game. He was placed on Staal's line for this game but he certainly didn't need to rely on Staal too much to create plays. Carolina's only goal was due to him forcing a turnover in the neutral zone and he was constantly doing everything he could to put pressure on Tampa Bay. I'd go as far to say that he was the driving force on this line and not Eric Staal (although he had a pretty good game too).
  
  
• Justin Faulk's first NHL game was a rough one. He took a couple of pretty bad penalties and was caught out of position on Adam Hall's breakaway goal. He'll improve with time, though and it's too early to jump on the "Send him back to Charlotte" bandwagon.
  
  
• When I said that missed opportunities were a reason Carolina lost, it was basically another way of saying the powerplay was lousy. They had five PP opportunities tonight, didn't score on any of them and generated a whopping three shots on net. Compare that to the Lightning's two powerplay goals and seven shots on net then it should be easy to see why Carolina lost this game. I also don't know what the point was of having Jay Harrison on the second powerplay unit. I think we'd be better off putting a forward on the point there.
  
  
• On the other special teams side, I thought the penalty kill was pretty solid even though they gave up two goals. The first one was a 5-on-3 and the other was off a weird looking rebound. Tim Brent, Brandon Sutter and Patrick Dwyer were very solid on the PK tonight and I'm glad that these three logged a lot of minutes there instead of LaRose and Staal.
  
  
• I'm not one to say that things need to be shaken up after one game but I honestly do not know why Paul Maurice thinks that Jiri Tlustly should play on Jussi Jokinen and Chad LaRose's line. He has little offensive upside and isn't that good defensively either so I'm not sure what he brings there. Let Zac Dalpe play there instead of on the fourth line so he can get some more experience.
  
  
• The first line was very good tonight at even strength but the rest of the lineup was pretty invisible in my opinion. Hoping that some other players can step it up but the lines definitley need to be chagned a bit for that to happen.
  
  
• Tough to say who was the best defenseman for Carolina but I thought Tim Gleason and Joni Pitkanen did a pretty good job of keeping Steven Stamkos and Martin St. Louis in check for most of the game. Pitkanen logged more minutes than any other Hurricane tonight and had a nice play to stop a breakaway from Stamkos. Gleason had a good night at even strength but he was on-ice for both of the Lightning's powerplay goals.
  
  
• Have to give credit where it's due and say that the Lightning played a pretty solid game overall and showed a real killer instinct towards the end. Eric Brewer and Victor Hedman made sure that Skinner's line didn't have much room to work with at all after they took the lead and they didn't look back.
  
  
• Ward played a good game overall despite giving up five goals but there wasn't much he could do about any of them aside from maybe the second powerplay goal. Roloson was good at the other end but he didn't need to go out of his way to make that many big saves.
  
  
• Good night at the face-off dot for anyone not named Eric Staal (6/22) or Jussi Jokinen (5/12). There's that.

There's definitely some positives you can draw out of this game despite the 5-1 loss but the fact that the team just seemed to stop trying after falling down two goals is a huge cause for concern and with a high-powered Capitals offense next on the schedule, they can't afford to turn in another performance like that if they don't want a repeat of tonight. I'll have the scoring chances next.

Three Stars:

1. Martin St. Louis

2. Jeff Skinner

3. Steven Stamkos