The Carolina Hurricanes suffered a late third period collapse Tuesday night at Lenovo Center as the Canes fell 6-3 to the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Canes took an early 1-0 and then 3-2 lead, but some poor decision making with five minutes to go in regulation put the nail in the Hurricanes’ coffin.
After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour along with Jalen Chatfield, Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook spoke with the media. Here’s what they had to say:
On stress leading to mistakes: When you’re killing penalties, like in the first period, it was a perfect example. We came out great and then we get two and it just flipped the game. All of a sudden, their best players started getting going and then it just kept going. It felt like we were in the box for a lot of it. We’re going to make mistakes. A good team, they’re going to force you. They knew we were playing with a lot of inexperience back there, but I thought they hung in there really well. Somehow found a way to a tie game and then with five minutes to go, we make a bad decision. We have to make better decisions there, that’s really the difference. Especially when their best players are out there. They make you pay.
On being down to four defensemen for parts of the game: Yeah, that’s tough. Then we took a penalty with one of the D, so we actually had a forward playing D for a while there. It’s not ideal, but we’ve been saying this for a while. It’s the NHL. It’s a tough league when you have a full lineup, let alone one with guys that are battling. It is what it is. We have to find a way when we’re in those kinds of games and we still have a chance to win, we have to make better decisions.
On Shayne Gostisbehere leaving the game: He just felt something in his midsection area and he had to come out. That’s tough.
On if it’s the same injury he dealt with prior: No, I don’t think so.
On Andrei Svechnikov: He was more involved. Obviously he got a goal, but he was just more around it. I think he had really a couple of other really good chances right at the start of the second period, had a chance in tight. He was definitely more involved tonight.
On Jordan Martinook: That line is always good. Whether they’re on the scoresheet or not, they get the tough matchup assignments and have to do the heavy lifting and they continue to do it.
On Alexander Nikishin: He had a good game. He was noticeable in a real positive way, I thought. A couple of good opportunities, broke his stick a couple times on a few good chances. It was definitely, I thought, one of his better games.
On only getting one power play opportunity: The more disturbing thing is the disparity. It’s been pretty much all year. We just constantly are in the box and there’s not a lot of equal time. Usually it evens itself out, but it hasn’t. Part of it is when the other team is putting on pressure, maybe it should look that way, but when we do it that way, I very rarely see us getting four or five more power plays. That’s concerning because you just can’t sustain it when you’re in the box that much more than the other team. It just puts way too much stress on your group.
On playing Domenick Fensore over Mike Reilly: To be honest, Dom was playing really well and it was more for the second unit power play. Dumb decision because I didn’t know we’d only get [2] seconds of power play time. That was really the decision. He’d been really lighting it up and controlling that part of the game, so I thought it’d be an asset.
On what the game came down to: Just not getting the job done. Down a few guys, we know that, but we battled hard. We got a group in here, that when we face adversity, we get through it. I think we just have to dig into the details and play better and finish stronger.
On having to play every other shift when the team was down to only four defensemen : I mean, it is what it is. You can’t cry or whine about it. We had a few guys out, but you have a job to do and you have to step up and make plays and play hard out there.
On if finding familiarity is tough with new faces on the blueline: Yeah, no. Obviously you’d like to build chemistry with your guys, but these guys all know how to play the right way here when they come up. They all communicate out there, talk on the bench and I feel like we’re all on the same page. So it’s not too much.
On if there’s at least moral victory in the way the team has been able to battle through adversity: If you say so. It’s tough right now, losing that game. I just know we have to be better and we will be. We’ll get back on it tomorrow and watch some video and be ready to go in the next game.
On the young guys stepping up: These guys are ready. You see them all camp and throughout the summer. We’ve got great depth here and it’s exciting for the future. Whenever these guys come up, me personally as one of the guys on defense, I just want to make sure they’re ready, excited, confident because they’re here for a reason and we need them to play good and step up. It’s hard some nights when you have to play big minutes, but we have a job to do.
On if he can take anything away from this game: I mean, it got a little squirrely in the second period when we were down to four D. It’s a little tricky having to go out for back-to-back shifts, taking penalties, losing blades, breaking sticks. The second period wasn’t great, but I thought the rest of the game was fine, but we still obviously made a couple of mistakes and they have some elite players that put it in the back of the net. My mistake on the PK went to the back of the net and obviously at the end of the game, there were a couple of other plays. They did a good job in clearing our chances. Good team. We gave it all we’ve got, we were battling for sure, but we have to be smarter.
On dealing with the losses on defense: We were just trying to help out our D the best we can, which we weren’t doing a great job of. We were playing in our own a bit in that second period and I think they smelled blood. Like I said, when we got through that second period, I thought the third period was great. We worked hard, made some good plays and battled back. But a tough ending. We have to find ways to win and be smarter.
On having only one power play opportunity: We were looking for a couple calls there, but they did a good job of keeping it pretty tight. I think we didn’t really play enough in their end and kind of make them take calls and penalties. I think we can do a better job of getting back to the Canes way of creating chaos and creating havoc in front if we want to get some calls too.
On Joel Nystrom coming back out after taking a puck to the face: Tough kid, obviously. Those aren’t pretty, but he was good. Playing great for us and battling through a lot. We appreciate what he’s done so far.
On what the game came down to: I guess probably managing the puck. We get the lead there, obviously they tie it. We have five minutes left, obviously we want to try and score, but we don’t want to be giving up anything. But then we give up two goals, an empty net. Not ideal.
On losing his skate blade: It’s happened to me a few times, so you’re just trying to get back to the bench as quickly as you can. That’s all there is to it. It’s not fun.
On if there are any moral victories the team can take from the game: There’s no moral victories in hockey, but I wish there was. Our job in here is to try and win hockey games. We haven’t done that the last couple of nights. We have to come out Thursday with the mindset that we’re going to dictate every part of the game. I have faith that we’re going to do that and we’ll meet and figure out what we can get better at. We just got to get back to what makes us successful. We’re kind of a ways away from that. I know we’re missing some key pieces, but we can still bring some guys along that way.
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