It's been a long, long time since I've seen a game like this from the Carolina Hurricanes.

In a must-win game, at home and coming off of a 5-2 loss in which they felt that they weren't that far away in, they played perhaps the worst they've ever played.

After a gut punch in the opening minute, the Canes just continuously unraveled for 20 minutes, then proceeded to limp there way through another 20 and then another before the mercy of the final horn sounded out in Lenovo Center, drowned out by the booing of the few fans who chose to remain.

This is not a young team. This is not a team lacking leadership. This is not a team without guys in the room that know how to win a Cup.

But tonight they were a bad team and they should feel embarrassed.

Again, the Carolina Hurricanes should be embarrassed by what went down in Raleigh tonight.

It's one thing to get beaten. It's another thing entirely to get beaten like they did with barely any shots on goal or semblances of defense.

And it's not like what the Panthers are doing is any different form what the Hurricanes want to do or expect.

They both play high-pressure, forecheck heavy systems that force opponents into mistakes. Everyone knew everything about the other coming into this series?

So what's the difference?

The only explanation here really, at least the only one I can really rationalize, is that Carolina is outclassed.

Plain and simple, Florida is the better hockey team.

And until something proves otherwise, that's just the fact of the matter.

They're the defending Cup champions for a reason, but the Hurricanes put up a better fight against them two years earlier than whatever they've done this year.

And the Canes are easily a much deeper team than they were in 2023. Yet none of that has mattered.

They're in the exact same position.

Is this as embarrassing as the stretch after 2009, when they were just a middling franchise for nearly a decade with not even a sniff of the playoffs? No, but times and standards have changed. 

The expectation now is to be great, not just good.

But let's be real for a moment. The Hurricanes are one of the last four teams standing. That's really, really hard to do, and it comes in a season where many people expected them to be a lot worse than the year prior.

I can't tell you how many comments I read over the course of the season saying how this was either a non-playoff team or a first-round exit.

They've exceeded a lot of expectations, but they haven't exceeded their own.

If they're truly serious about being a winning organization and a perennial Cup contender like they say, they themselves will feel embarrassed by what went down on the ice.

And not just for themselves, but for the thousands of fans that came to support them.

Fans who paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars to come out and cheer on their favorite team, only to be treated to an embarrassing effort lacking composure and heart.

It's unacceptable and the team owes something to the fanbase.

The best thing to give them?

Wins.

Go on the road and get back into this series.

Don't let this be the last memory of the 2024-25 season in Lenovo Center.

Because another sweep in the Eastern Conference Final, the fourth time in 16 years, is just something that cannot happen.