Hurricanes Call Players-Only Meeting in Vancouver Following Fourth Straight Loss

The Carolina Hurricanes fell out of a playoff spot during their losing streak, and frustration's rising. It's not a position the Rod Brind'Amour-coached Hurricanes often face.

VANCOUVER - The Carolina Hurricanes are in unfamiliar territory.

After winning three straight division crowns and being a popular pre-season pick to win the 2024 Stanley Cup, the Hurricanes are waking up Sunday morning sitting sixth in the Metropolitan Division after dropping a 4-3 decision to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night. 

Four games into a six-game sojourn, the Hurricanes don't have a single point to show for their six nights on the road to date. They dropped a 2-1 decision in Winnipeg on Monday, following by a 6-1 blowout loss in Edmonton on Wednesday, then let a 2-0 lead slip away before falling 3-2 to Calgary on Thursday.

After Saturday's game, Sebastian Aho shed a little light on the players-only meeting that followed the loss.

"Obviously we're not happy, and we're frustrated," he said. "We've done a lot of talking. That's not the first meeting that we had. The time is now — to show it to us, and to everyone, what we are capable of. The only way out is together."

It's understandable if the Hurricanes are a bit shell-shocked. Since Rod Brind'Amour took the reins in 2018, he was named coach of the year in 2020-21, and in 370 regular-season games over his first five years, Carolina amassed a record of 226-107-37 for 489 points. During that span, their points percentage of .661 tied them with the Colorado Avalanche for third-best in the NHL.

Through 27 games this season, the Hurricanes are 14-12-1, which works out to a points percentage of .537.

"We haven't really gone through times like this before as this group," said Martin Necas, the 2017 first-round pick of the Hurricanes who is now in his fifth season as an NHL regular. "It's tough, but you've just got to build off the little things. We've all got to be better and just help each other out."

After a flat start in their 2-0 win over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday, the Canucks were sharp early against Carolina, outshooting their opponents 13-7 in the first 20 minutes. Five of the Hurricanes' seven shots came with the man advantage during the last 1:27, including 35 seconds of 5-on-3 time.

Vancouver opened the scoring at 6:17 of the first when Sam Lafferty chipped a rebound off an Elias Pettersson shot past Antti Raanta.

At 6:54 of the second, Pettersson set up his other linemate, Ilya Mikheyev, with a goalmouth pass to the back door that extended Vancouver's lead to 2-0. 

To their credit, the Canes responded almost immediately. Rogers Arena voice Al Murdoch was still announcing Mikheyev's goal when Jordan Martinook streaked down Main Street and beat Thatcher Demko for his first of the year at 7:23.

J.T. Miller extended the Vancouver lead to 3-1 with 6:14 left in the second with a hot shot from the slot after Brock Boeser shook off Jaccob Slavin to gain possession of the puck along the end boards.

But a last-minute goal from Brady Skjei kept the Hurricanes within a goal heading into the third period. And despite their gruelling schedule this week, they stuck with it till the bitter end.

On Wednesday, Brind'Amour went viral for his uncharacteristically sharp criticism of his team during his on-the-bench interview in Edmonton.

Saturday, he mixed in some positive messaging.

"The third was great," he said. "I didn't feel like they were on our end but unfortunately, their best player — one of their best players — got us, you know, on a nice individual effort."

After Stefan Noesen tied the game 3-3 just over two minutes into the third, Pettersson picked up his third point of the night, and what proved to be the game-winner, a cheeky wraparound effort after he outmuscled Aho behind the net.

But Brind'Amour didn't let his players off the hook for their missed coverage on the earlier goals.

"Just lack of coverage," he said. "Just standing there watching the guy tap it in. That can't happen against any team, especially a good team that knows how to play and plays hard."

Brind'Amour called the idea that the third period was something the team could build off for the last two games of this road trip a "positive spin."

"It's not like we got dominated, but we didn't certainly get to the game that we have to play to be successful," he said. "All I can think of in my head right now is how we just gave two goals up. 

"I mean, they made nice plays on them. But — they're covered. That doesn't work."

The Hurricanes did win the special-teams battle on Saturday, killing all three of their penalties while going 1-for-5 on the power play. And they dominated the third even before pulling Raanta with just over two minutes to go, outshooting Vancouver 10-3 while registering six high-danger shot attempts in the final frame, according to naturalstattrick.com. 

It was probably Carolina's best game of the trip to date. But wins on Saturday by the Washington Capitals, New York Islanders and Tampa Bay Lightning all put pressure on the Hurricanes' place in the tightly packed Eastern Conference standings. 

They're still just two points out of a wild-card spot, but they're used to watching these battles from a comfortable perch above the fray. And they're also now just two points ahead of the Montreal Canadiens, with the same number of games played. 

Some of Carolina's numbers this season are outstanding. As usual, they're high in expected goals share at 5-on-5, also from Natural Stat Trick — currently ranked third at 55.92 percent. And they average a league-leading 34.2 shots per game while allowing a league-low 25 shots against. 

But those numbers aren't translating. They're in the middle of the pack in goals-for and against, on special teams and in the standings, where their .537 points percentage ranks them 17th as of Sunday morning — just a hair below the Arizona Coyotes (.538).

And then there's the goaltending. While Frederik Andersen is sidelined for the foreseeable future due to a blood-clot issue, Carolina's team save percentage in all situations is the worst in the league, at 86.69 percent.

The Hurricanes have had a tough schedule. They've played 16 of their first 27 games on the road and have already been on two big road trips out west. So they may be able to make up some ground when their travel eases up later in the year.

But while they desperately want to snap out of this funk, life doesn't get easier anytime soon.

From Vancouver, they'll head back all the way back east to play in Ottawa next Tuesday and Detroit next Thursday. That kicks off a back-to-back set, which sees them opening a three-game homestand on Friday against Nashville before hosting Washington and Vegas.

Then, it's off to Pittsburgh on Dec. 21 before wrapping up the pre-Christmas schedule back at PNC Arena on Dec. 23 against the Islanders.

For now, two big questions loom:

With just over a week until the holiday trade freeze takes effect on Dec. 20, will we see GM Don Waddell make a deal to try to help his group get back on track? 

And as Brind'Amour coaches out the last year of his current contract, how do his team's current challenges affect his negotiations for an extension?

“We are going to get it done, for sure,” owner Tom Dundon said in a text to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic back in September. 

Last time around, in 2021, negotiations came down to the 11th hour before Brind'Amour signed a new three-year deal. And because he has indicated that he wants to stay in Raleigh, Dundon is operating from a powerful bargaining perch. 

Only Jon Cooper, Mike Sullivan and Jared Bednar have been in their current positions longer than Brind'Amour — and all three enjoy a little extra job security because they've won Stanley Cups. 

Does the landscape change if the Hurricanes don't soon put this dip behind them and get back to their usual winning ways?