Ouch.
The Canes suffered a brutal 6-5 overtime loss at home against the Nashville Predators on Friday. An unforgiving schedule featuring the third game in four days resulted in some uncharacteristically slow and often sloppy play to nix a winnable game.
A haggard Carolina (16-12-2) squad salvaged a point by surviving up until overtime, but the overall lack of giddy-up reared its ugly head again on a quick game-winning goal for Nashville (17-13-0). On the heals of a six-game, 12-day road trip, playing the back half of a back-and-back started in Detroit just 24 hours prior did the Canes’ energy no favors.
“We didn’t have any jump,” said Rod Brind’Amour. “You could tell. We were late on everything. Giving up lines, not tightening up anything. That’s why it looked like that. I give the guys credit for trying. I thought we were a little off and a little fatigued.”
The Hurricanes squeezed five goals out of a surprisingly low total of 31 shots on goals, but Antti Raanta’s night to forget in the crease ended up outpacing the offense. The veteran netminder allowed six goals on 30 shots without the caveat of poor defensive play or bad puck luck. Whether letting pucks squeak by his pads, getting back too slow on wraparounds but missing straight-on shots in clear view, this simply wasn’t Raanta’s night.
Offensively, the majority of the game’s 11 goals came in two sub-90 second segments during the second period. Defense became entirely optional at the 03:47 mark when Roman Josi had all day to convert a wrap-around chance to knot things up at 2-2. Carolina fired back a minute later with a gutsy goal by Jalen Chatfield.
Nineteen seconds later, Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis teamed up to execute the crispest goal of the night and arguably of the season thus far. Jarvis also earned his 100th NHL point by assisting Aho on the goal.
A Ryan O’Reilly power play snapped a 22-shift streak by the Canes penalty kill unit and instigating another trio of goals in quick succession. Martin Necas pulled Carolina ahead 5-3 just 25 seconds later before Tyson Barrie made it a one-goal game again after another 27 ticks of the clock.
Carolina’s power play provided a silver lining for the disappointing result. Tony DeAngelo’s re-entry into the fold as a sort of power play specialist gave the Canes a boost over the past few games. Carolina converted on both of its full power plays against the Predators and got some good looks during an abbreviated advantage later on, with DeAngelo playing a big role in that unit’s recent success.
“Tony, on the first power play, came back,” said Martin Necas. “He’s good on the power play. Be confident, make some plays there. That’s what the power play is about. It’s good that we help each other, help us out with the power play. But the five on five is still not there.”
The Hurricanes will rest up on Saturday before returning to PNC Arena Sunday to take on the Washington Capitals. After another grueling road trip over the past couple weeks, Carolina will seek to regain its strength before regrouping in the friendly confines for a chance to return to the win column.
“It’s not been an ideal schedule, for sure,” Brind’Amour said. “But everyone has tough parts of their schedule. Ours hit us here at the start of the season with a couple of really weird road trips and this game tonight. But everybody has to go through it. I hope they take a day to see some family and refresh. Then hopefully come back with a little more fight to our game.”