After four games in Western Canada, the Carolina Hurricanes have come out with nothing.
Following a 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks Saturday night, the Canes have now lost four straight in regulation for the first time since 2019 and are struggling to find answers.
The struggle with inconsistency is a new reality in the grand scheme of Rod Brind'Amour's tenure as head coach, but now 27 games into this season, it's already gotten old and stale.
We're hearing the same lines night in and night out following losses about failures to buy in or defensive misplays or guys not showing up.
At some point, guys need to take accountability and say enough is enough. There's too much pride in that room to think it won't happen at some point, but the question is, how long will it take?
The loss to Vancouver started off perhaps different than any other game we've seen from Carolina. Out of the gate, the Canucks dominated the Canes and suppressed nearly all their offense.
While that was one that I haven't seen before, the goals against were more typical of how this season has gone.
On the first goal against, Elias Pettersson put a shot on net and Sam Lafferty just simply drove through the middle between both Brent Burns and Jaccob Slavin with ease to pick up and score on the rebound.
Then on the second goal against, Pettersson sent a pass cross-crease to Ilya Mikheyev for the tap in. What really made this goal bad was that Martin Necas was between Mikheyev and the puck and could have tied up the winger, but instead he just got outbattled.
"We gave them two goals," Brind'Amour said. "Just lack of coverage. Just standing there watching the guy tap it in. That can't happen against any team, let alone a good team that knows how to play and plays hard.
The Hurricanes responded quickly after that goal, with Jordan Martinook getting his first of the year, but Vancouver soon restored their two-goal lead.
Brock Boeser outmaneuvered Slavin below the goal line, Jordan Staal chased after him to try and support, but took himself out of the play and then J.T. Miller streaked in off a line change, which neither Necas nor Michael Bunting picked up on, and Miller blasted Boeser's feed from the slot.
"Again, all I can think in my head is how we just gave two goals up," Brind'Amour said. "They made nice plays on them, but they're covered. That's not going to work."
Carolina would continue to battle at least and Dmitry Orlov found Brady Skjei with a high-end pass for a late power play tally and then early in the third period, Brent Burns and the Hurricanes' fourth line converted, with Stefan Noesen getting the goal to tie it up.
But as has been so often for the Hurricanes, they get so close just to still fall.
Less than a minute and a half after tying the game, the Canes conceded the game-winning goal as Sebastian Aho was beat around the back of the net by Pettersson who stuffed a wraparound in on Antti Raanta, a play that the team desperately needed a save on.
It's the same problems that have been plaguing the team. Poor defensive play in their own end, a lack of reliable goaltending and a top-half that has gone cold offensively.
"When you give up a goal just here and there, right now, we don't have that margin," Brind'Amour said. "That's been the interesting thing. But at the end of the day too, we've gotta get more out of some of our guys. Our top guys are not scoring. They're not really contributing offensively, which is making it hard."
The Hurricanes need to figure something out and fast because they've now fallen to sixth place in the Metropolitan Division and the schedule will only get harder for them.
"That's not the standard we've set before," Aho said. "We're not happy about the game right now. Just have to be better overall. So many details in the game that we just have to do better in."
One last thing to note though, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, the Hurricanes did hold a players-only meeting following the loss.
"We're obviously not happy and we're frustrated," Aho said on the meeting. "We've done a lot of talking. It's not the first meeting that we've had, but the time is now to show it to us and everyone what we're capable of. The only way out is together."
We'll see if anything comes to fruition with that when the Canes get back in action Tuesday night against the Ottawa Senators.
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