It was perhaps one of the worst efforts in the Rod Brind'Amour era.
It's fairly rare to have a game where you don't deserve to win at all, yet also feel like you were somehow robbed at the same time.
But that's pretty much exactly what happened in the Carolina Hurricanes' 4-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken Tuesday night at Lenovo Center.
After back-to-back blowout losses to the Florida Panthers just a few days prior, one would have expected the Carolina Hurricanes to come out flying in their next game.
But instead, the Canes had perhaps one of their worst efforts in the Rod Brind'Amour Era, putting up just 19 shots in a pitiful effort.
"There hasn't been a lot of those games," Brind'Amour said. "We just couldn't get on the forecheck. They did a nice job of just chipping it and putting it back and we knew what was going on, but you have to be there. You have to be on top of it and when you're just a little off, that's what it looks like. We weren't sharp."
Carolina looked like it was skating through mud for most of the night and that lack of energy never seemed to waiver.
It also probably didn't help that the Canes started in the hole, surrendering the opening goal just 19 seconds into the game as Jaden Schwartz split the Hurricanes defense for a partial breakaway.
After 40 minutes, the Hurricanes were trailing 2-1 and had only managed to put up seven shots on the board one of the worst performances we've seen from a normally very consistent team.
"I think the better point is what happened in the first two periods where we didn't get anything going," Brind'Amour said. "You start the game and you give up a goal right away. That's kind of unacceptable. We fought back a little bit, but you can't play two periods like that."
The Hurricanes did manage to find some life though thanks to the NHL's point leader Martin Necas, who set up Eric Robinson for the team's first goal and then scored a power play tally on a filthy individual effort to tie the game.
Necas was about the only thing running hot Tuesday night and it even seemed like he gave the team an improbable lead halfway through the third period as he set up Jack Drury for a go-ahead goal, but a controversial goaltender interference call changed the trajectory of the game.
Eric Robinson was ruled to have made enough contact with Seattle netminder Joey Daccord to "prevent him from playing his position" and so Carolina's go-ahead goal was struck from the board.
"The explanation was that sometimes they call it that way, sometimes they don't," Brind'Amour said. "He said they decided that there was enough contact on the goalie that he couldn't play his position. Doesn't matter that he's not in the paint. You always assume it kind of has to be in the paint, but... and they did say it's 50/50. They just thought that it was enough that he couldn't play his position so... We lose a lot of those."
When asked if the officials explicitly told him it was a 50/50 call, Brind'Amour went on to say:
"He came over and said, 'You remember one time last year you had one where the goalie's head was just outside the blue paint and even though there was contact, we called it a good goal because it wasn't enough.' I don't know. We all know this goalie interference thing is very subjective, I guess. We just always seem to end up on the wrong end of them. That's what's a little bit frustrating."
Probably not a great sign when even your officials are saying that the calls from the NHL's Situation Room are pretty much subjective and at best a coin flip.
And less than a minute after that call, the Kraken get a lucky bounce and all of a sudden, they were back in the lead.
The Hurricanes tried to muster another push, but none would come and Seattle would pad the lead on yet another partial breakaway to seal the game away.
"First of all, they played a good game," Brind'Amour said. "You have to give them credit. So let's not take that away. But we stunk. Our top guys have to come and that includes everybody. There's a lot of top players here that weren't good tonight and if we're going to win, we're going to need those guys being top guys. They have to look the part and it just hasn't been there."
Necas, Carolina's top player showed up, but the rest of the top six staples were fairly quiet.
Sebastian Aho had one shot on goal and was a -2 and had just a 38.46 CF%.
Andrei Svechnikov had zero shots on goal and was a -3 and had a 36.36 CF%.
Jack Roslovic had one shot on goal and was a -3 with a 38.89 CF%.
The trio has definitely been off the past week or two and they're struggling on both ends of the ice too.
Brind'Amour has tried to shake things up with each, electing to go with new lines for Tuesday's game after the back-to-back losses, but those didn't work either.
"Well I've done that, so that's not the answer," Brind'Amour said on trying to shuffle his lineup. "I tried that over and over and over and that's just clearly not doing anything. We have to look in the mirror and just do your job. When you're out there, you have to do your job."
Carolina finally got some decent goaltending as Pyotr Kochetkov returned to action, stopping 24 shots in his return to action, but now their overall game is starting to unravel.
The Hurricanes are better than their past few games suggest and they need to not only get those top players going, but to also just get back to their simple, direct style of play.
Else, I fear that this may be a long month.