"We were off."

"Not a good game."

"We never had anything."

"We've gotta be better."

 "A little concerning."

These were the words echoed by Rod Brind'Amour and select players following the Carolina Hurricanes disappointing 5-2 loss against the Florida Panthers Friday night.

It's a sentiment that has become a bit too common for the Hurricanes already despite being just 14 games into their season.

"We didn't have everybody on board," said alternate captain Jordan Martinook. "I feel like, for the most part, we were off. Our whole group was just off. It's disappointing because that's the team that ended our season last year and you want to come out and show something. Show that it hurt you last year. We didn't do enough to win that game."

The Canes have built an identity on being a hard-working team that relentlessly forechecks and seems to always come away winning those 50/50 battles, but there's a growing concern in regards to some rogue individualism.

"I think it's more individually," said alternated captain Sebastian Aho when asked about getting the team all on the same page. "You've gotta be willing to prepare for every night and take a lot of pride in that."

If Carolina isn't going as a cohesive unit, if one or two guys don't commit, the whole system falls apart. 

That was evident as tonight featured yet another road game where the Canes have conceded over four goals against.

Missing coverages, turnovers, poor reads, losing puck battles. Those are the reasons why Carolina is constantly bleeding goals. It was the same tonight and it all can be tied back to a lack of commitment and effort..

"We have to remember what makes us successful as a group," Brind'Amour said. "We've gotta put the work boots on. Right now, we're not really doing that enough. We've done it in spurts this year, but if you've watched us over the last five years, it's every night and right now, it's not. We're not quite there. It just leads to one thing and then another. Not a good result and it starts with that.

"You've gotta win your battles. You've gotta understand that it's going to be hard. Simple. We've got guys that right now thinking that... It's too hard of a game to try to look for a little bit of an easy way. That's never going to happen."

The Canes had some jump early, with Jesperi Kotkaniemi cashing in his sixth goal of the season on a third-chance effort. 

Martinook put the initial shot on Florida netminder Sergei Bobrovsky, then Jesper Fast put a second one on net and then Kotkaniemi was in front and didn't miss on his chance.

But that was about where the game stopped going Carolina's way.

Less than two minutes after the Hurricanes' goal, Jalen Chatfield lost Matthew Tkachuk in the slot and he buried it.

Then the Panthers sprung an odd-man rush with Tkachuk feeding Uvis Balinskis for another goal.

Then Evan Rodrigues shot a puck off of Raanta which rebounded straight to an unmarked Aleksander Barkov for yet another goal.

"Our top guys weren't very good tonight and you're not going to win if they're not consistently at least matching the other team's top guys," Brind'Amour said. "You watch those top guys, they were all over it. I don't know where our top guys where. That's part of it."

Even when the Canes seemed to have a spark after a third-period goal by Aho brought them back within one, they had no continued push. 

"Even in the third period, when you're pushing to tie the game, we just didn't have anything," Martinook said. "When we needed a push, we didn't have any push and that's a little concerning."

So where do the Hurricanes go from here?

It starts with buying in.

"It starts with the compete level," Aho said. "Up and down throughout the lineup, we've got to be better. Sometimes intention might be there, but execution is not."

Carolina knows how to play good hockey. They've done it for five years now, ever since Brind'Amour took over.

"It doesn't matter who you put on the ice, it usually looks the same way with this team," Martinook said. "You have the top guys competing, working hard and it just trickles down. I'm not saying that our top guys haven't been doing that or that our bottom guys haven't been doing that, but when we're on, it's because everybody is competing, everybody is working. Everything starts with work with this team."

Luckily, the Hurricanes won't have to dwell on the loss long with a Saturday night matchup less than 24 hours away against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena. 

"That's the beauty of the league," Aho said. "There's a lot of games and they come quick. Obviously tomorrow night is a big test against a very good team again. I'd hope to see us get a good start and have a full, complete effort throughout the game. Just doing the details the right way and playing the game the right way. That's the main goal for tomorrow."

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