SSDD.
Same... stuff, Different Day.
That's sort of the reality for the Carolina Hurricanes following their 2-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets Monday night.
They once again outshot their opponent by over 20 shots, the final count was 43-22, yet they only managed to put one puck behind the opposing netminder, who's a backup, which veteran Canes fans will find extra grim humor in.
Laurent Brossoit, who entered the game rocking a solid 0.877 save percentage, decided to have the game of his life and channeled his inner Henrik Lundqvist to really stick it to Carolina.
The Hurricanes never even directly beat Brossoit with a straight on shot. Martin Necas scored by throwing a puck off of Dylan DeMelo's skate from below the goal line.
On the flipside of the goalie battle, it wasn't even a bad game by Antti Raanta who had just his fourth game with a save percentage over 0.900 this season.
"He kept us in there and that's what he needs to do," Brind'Amour said.
The two goals against Raanta were hardly his fault and his head coach agreed.
Kyle Connor alone in front after receiving a pass off a 2-on-1 and Nikolaj Ehlers from the slot after receiving a pass from the corner.
"Definitely that top-end talent is elite," Brind'Amour said. "As good as you get. And when they're humming along, it's tough to handle. Obviously they were the difference in the game."
The issues with both of those goals though? Coverage mistakes... again.
We took a couple of breathers and they capitalized on it," said defenseman Jalen Chatfield.
And that's the same story we have heard over and over with this Hurricanes team. Guys just making those mental mistakes or taking a breath.
But don't get me wrong. Overall, this was a pretty good game by the Canes.
They put up a ton of shots, didn't give up too much and were fairly disciplined too. You play that game 10 times and you likely win nine.
"If we can get that kind of game night in and night out, which basically we have here for the last month, we should get good results, so we just have to stick with it," Brind'Amour said.
Except the Hurricanes have played that game over and over and the results have been more like 50/50.
"We play kind of the whole season like that," Necas said. "Lots of games this year I feel like we kind of dominate if you look at it from a shots perspective, but we're not winning.
"We always get a lot of shots, but I feel like we gave up... We don't give up that many shots, but when we give up some shots, they are grade-As and it's tough on the goalie. We just have to figure out that because it's happened a lot this season. Games like that."
So while, yes, there are things to clean up as there always is, the other thing you always have to remember with hockey is that it is a game dominated by luck.
So while you can start to theory craft about some larger problem that's perhaps lurking below the surface for this team, Occam's razor already has the most likely answer.
And Rod Brind'Amour would be inclined to agree.
"At the end of the day, I don't know much more we could have done."
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