It was deja vu for the Carolina Hurricanes who once again dominated on the shot counter, but couldn't come away with the win, losing 2-1 to the Winnipeg Jets Monday night.
Martin Necas scored the lone goal for the Hurricanes, a wraparound that went off the foot of Winnipeg defender Dylan DeMelo.
Here are my three takeaways from the loss:
Goaltending
Most of the loss can be chocked up to a career night for Laurent Brossoit. The Winnipeg netminder was calm, cool and collected in net on Monday and made quite a few impressive saves along the way.
His glove was active and he was tracking the puck well in those chaotic net-front moments.
The biggest difference though were the save he made early because if Carolina could have capitalized on their pressure early, that game probably goes a different way.
Overall, it was a good night for goaltending on both sides. Antti Raanta had a strong bounce back performance in net, starting for the first time since his 8-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 24 as well as battling through a possible illness.
Neither goal can really be blamed on his performance, so it's at least a promising sign for the future.
Breaths
Only two goals against for Carolina, but each came from some missed assignments.
Winnipeg's first goal, which came on just their second shot of the game after giving up the first 12, came during a partial line change.
Jaccob Slavin was up in the o-zone challenging for a loose puck as this team changed and Michael Bunting, who came on during the change, was supposed to take his spot. However, he failed to really mark Kyle Connor in the neutral zone and it looked like he also perhaps wasn't expecting the Jets to transition as quick as they did and so he subsequently lost the race to the front of the net to Connor.
Rod Brind'Amour has spoken before on how Bunting is still learning how the Hurricanes do things away from the puck and that seemed to be one of those moments.
The second goal against all started from an errant shot by Jordan Martinook.
It was an example of how throwing pucks towards the net isn't always the best strategy as it led to an easy clear and transition by the Jets.
The Hurricanes weren't even caught chasing the puck carrier though. The issue was that guys started playing a zone defense rather than finding a man to cover. Jordan Staal and Seth Jarvis both collapsed to the net front, but the eventual goal scorer Nikolaj Ehlers was unmarked in the slot. Martinook was also nearby Ehlers and failed to pick him up until it was too late.
Frustrations
These are the types of games where things can start to unfold.
Start of a long road trip, you play the game you want to through nearly 60 minutes, but the results don't come, which has happened with some regularity this season.
The game plans have been solid, but for whatever reason, other factors have led to mixed results.
It's situations like this where frustrations can lead to doubt which can lead to a stray away from the systems.
Carolina has to stay mentally engaged and not let the loss affect their commitment to their game and the way they want to play.
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