Right away, it was clear that the Carolina Hurricanes were not ready for Thursday's game against the Boston Bruins.
I mean, offensively they looked not half bad, stringing together some quality opening shifts, but it was once the puck left their sticks that things got bad.
And I mean bad.
Just 2:12 into the contest, Bruins captain Brad Marchand slipped past the Hurricanes defense and was sprung on a breakaway and although Frederik Andersen made the initial save, Brent Burns ended up tripping the diminutive forward into Andersen which caused the puck to trickle in.
The Canes then surrendered two more breakaways and a 2-on-1, but Andersen stood tall through those.
"After their first goal, they used their momentum really well. It felt like maybe the first few shifts were pretty even," said Sebastian Aho. "A lot of buzz going on back and forth, but they got their first goal and kind of took over that period from there."
The Hurricanes' defense continued to be porous and with David Pastrnak standing along goal line by the boards, everyone just vacated the lane and the guy with over 100 points just waltzed in and roofed on by Andersen.
"Little breakdown there and again, some players you can get away with that, not that guy," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour.
Pastrnak followed that up with some more wizardry by lacing a pass around Seth Jarvis and through a pair of legs only for Danton Heinen to pitchfork it in for a 3-0 lead.
It was perhaps the worst the Canes have played defensively this season and it looked like the team was in for a long night.
"I think we were sluggish to start," Brind'Amour said. "We weren't ready for that pace. I think that's kind of on me. Knowing the way we took these last four days was more mentally getting away and I think we weren't ready to get to it. After the first, it was probably a fairly even game, but the game was pretty much over. You can't give teams like that that kind of first 10 minutes."
But Jack Drury dropped the gloves near the end of the period and perhaps that little spark helped wake the team up a bit.
"His line was our best line," Brind'Amour said on Drury. "Should have played them more really. They were somewhat effective. They play hard, they do it right. It was a good game for their game."
The Stefan Noesen - Jack Drury - Jesper Fast line had 11 chances for and just a single one against. They were physical, involved and as Brind'Amour said, the Hurricanes' best line.
The second period proved to be much more fruitful for Carolina who not only tightened things up defensively, but also started to get the offense going as well.
After back-to-back kills, including a four minute one thrown in there, the Canes were awarded with a 5-on-3 and the team made it count with Jake Guentzel batting in an airborne puck past Jeremy Swayman.
"Those were big kills," Aho said. "Obviously it could have been 4 or 5-0 if we don't kill those. So they were huge. Obviously got a power play goal as well. So I mean, we had some looks like I said, but that's a really good hockey team and you can't expect to win if you give them a 3-0 lead. Having said that, we still had our looks to get back."
The following shift, Carolina really turned up the pressure, but a follow-up goal was just always out of reach for the Hurricanes.
They generated chances and had traffic in front, but Boston locked things down and Swayman was clean the rest of the way.
"We know that good teams won't give us anything," said Jesper Fast. "Unfortunately we gave them a couple in the first period. It's hard to get back from that.
So despite controlling most of the remainder of the game, the Canes could not get out of the hole they dug themselves into, ultimately falling 4-1 as the Bruins added an empty-net goal at the end.
Carolina will be right back at it tomorrow as they host the Washington Capitals who very well may be on the edge of their playoff hopes.
"We know we're a good team and when we play the right way, we're a really hard team to beat," Fast said. "Like we've showed this season, we're a really good team. So we just have to show that tomorrow."