It's almost inexplicable how bad the Carolina Hurricanes power play has been.

After their third straight game without a goal on the man advantage, the Canes are now 0-for-15 in the series and in fact, more so they are -1-for-15 as they surrendered a shorthanded goal tonight in their 3-2 overtime loss to the New York Rangers Thursday night.

"We're not executing very well," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "You have to give them credit, they're doing a great job on the kill. I thought the first two and a half power plays were actually quite good. We had a lot of good looks and then gave up that shorty and then I thought we got away from what we were originally trying to do. Obviously that's three games in a row with the same story."

To go that dry, to not even get a fluky bounce off of a shinpad or two, feels impossible.

But the Hurricanes are managing the impossible and even the players are at a loss for words.

"I don't know what it is exactly," said Sebastian Aho. "I wish I would have an answer for you. I mean, if I had an answer, maybe we would score some goals every once in a while. They... I mean... again, I don't know. It's tough. They've done a good job at it, their goalie has made some saves, but having said that, that's not good enough. It's on us to find a way."

It's not like the Canes aren't trying stuff though.

There was a more concentrated effort on crashing the net and generating traffic tonight and Tony DeAngelo even got the go with PP1 after Brent Burns was yanked following the shorthanded goal against.

But the results were still the same.

"Obviously it's very bad," said Andrei Svechnikov. "We're trying to work but I guess we can't find it. We had a couple of good looks and had a couple of good shots. If it would just go in the net you would feel that confidence and feel all that other stuff.

"I don't know what we have to do, but we have to do something special here."

Something special is certainly what the Hurricanes will have to do if they don't want their season to unceremoniously end in just the second round of the postseason.

The Canes are now the 210th team in NHL history to face a 3-0 series deficit.

Of those 210, only four have ever comeback to win the series.

If the Hurricanes could have scored just one power play goal at any point in this series, they're not in this situation.

Two goals on the man advantage and this might be a whole different series.

That's how tight the margins have been in these games, yet time after time, Carolina has been on the wrong side of those margins.

Three straight one-goal losses.

Five losses in their last five playoff overtimes.

The team's last eight losses have all been by a single goal.

"Everyone's focusing on how bad we're playing, but we're really playing pretty damn good," Brind'Amour said. "I look at that. I'm separating it. There's two games going on here and if you want to write the right story, that's what's going on. And we're losing the one badly, but we're doing pretty damn good on the other one. It's just about figuring out how to make this story a little better. That's the difference."

But despite Brind'Amour's messaging, whether he's believing what he's saying or not, it doesn't matter. 

There is no victory in morals.

It matters not how "well" the team is playing if the results are the same.

The Canes are just not finding ways to come out ahead, while New York's stars are rising to the occasion. 

Tonight, it was Artemi Panarin with the between the legs deflection just 1:43 into overtime.

Two days ago, it was Vincent Trocheck on the doorstep in double overtime.

Go back a year, it was Matthew Tkachuk again and again and again.

Let's not get things twisted though. Carolina's top guys have been carrying the load all series.

In this series alone, Sebastian Aho has six assists, Jake Guentzel has three goals and Andrei Svechnikov is wrecking house with nine hits while also having a goal and three points.

Past them, no other forward has more than a single point in the three game series.

The depth isn't coming through.

But neither is the Rangers'. In this series, the only goals for New York have come from five forwards, all players in their top-six.

Tonight it was Chris Kreider, Alexis Lafreniere and Panarin. Go back two games and you can add in Mika Zibanejad and Trocheck

The simple matter of the fact is that they've elevated themselves to another level despite the lack of support while Carolina's have not.

They've been good, but they're not matching New York and that's been the difference.

If the Hurricanes want to pull off the impossible, someone is going to have to play hero. Whether that's someone from the top line or finally someone else on the team doesn't matter.

Someone has to show up or this team's season will be over.

"It hurts and you have to be realistic," Brind'Amour said. "They're probably as down as they're ever going to be and you have to feel that. That's the keeping it real part. You have to pick yourself up and come back tomorrow. We're still playing."