RALEIGH — The Hurricanes’ see-saw season continued Wednesday with a disheveled 3-1 loss to the visiting Flyers.
Owen Tippett, Travis Konency and Ryan Poehling scored for the Flyers, while Stefan Noesen had the lone goal for Carolina.
It was the Hurricanes’ first home loss of the season and left the team searching for answers.
Three observations
1. No team wants to be “chasing the game,” but that’s exactly what Carolina had to do after Philadelphia’s Tippett scored on a long shot just 1:50 into the game on Pyotr Kochetkov (20 saves). The Hurricanes pressured after the goal but couldn’t figure out Flyers goalie Carter Hart (31 saves), and Philly extended the lead to 2-0 in the first and then 3-0 just 29 seconds into the middle frame on goals by Konecny and Poehling.
“We got behind, and then it’s good intentions, we’re trying hard but sometimes doing a little too much and didn’t really get a good flow going,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
2. The Hurricanes finally got on the board 11 minutes into the second period when Carolina executed a perfect rush up ice.
Dmitry Orlov started things by retreating to his own zone to retrieve the puck. He circled the Carolina net and shrugged off a Flyers forechecker before passing up to Noesen in the neutral zone. Noesen one-touched a pass to Jack Drury, who gained the blue line and passed to Tony DeAngelo near the top of the right circle.
DeAngelo cruised to the faceoff dot and passed across the ice to a trailing Noesen, who one-timed the puck past Hart from the left circle to cut Philly’s lead to 3-1.
Orlov → Noesen → Drury → DeAngelo → Noesen
That's as clean and crispy as it gets. The fourth of the year for #23. pic.twitter.com/uxsFGpXtMX
— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) November 16, 2023
3. Captain Jordan Staal had some pretty direct comments for his team following the loss, which dropped the Hurricanes to 9-7-0 on the season.
“As a group, it doesn’t look like we’ve completely bought into how we want to do things,” he said. “And it’s gonna look like that, it’s gonna be a .500 club that wins some games, loses games and just kind of ho-humming. It’s certainly a little frustrating, and we’re going to need to have everyone. … And it’s gotta start soon.”
More than anything, inconsistency seems to be the main culprit in Carolina’s play.
“When you have an expectation and you see it done and done well, then you expect it again, obviously,” Staal said. “And that’s our standard, and it’s just like hit or miss (right now). I mean, it’s like everyone’s on, ‘Let’s go!’ or it’s literally just, I don’t know what it looks like. So it’s just not consistent enough.”
Number to know
777 — Consecutive games played for Carolina defenseman Brent Burns, who didn’t participate in Wednesday’s morning skate but was in the lineup against the Flyers to extend his streak. Burns last missed a game Nov. 17, 2013, the last of 13 games off the ice due to a facial injury suffered after being hit in the mouth by the stick of Senators goalie Robin Lehner.
Plus
Andrei Svechnikov, Hurricanes forward — No, he didn’t get his first goal of the season, but Svechnikov was a force in the second period, trying to drag Carolina into the fight. His hit on Louie Belpedio was probably the Hurricanes’ biggest of the young season.
Andrei Svechnikov! 😳 pic.twitter.com/SPyHxyNiJt
— Walt Ruff (@WaltRuff) November 16, 2023
He had all of his team-high six shots on goal in the final two periods, and Brind’Amour called him “the best player in the game” once some line shuffling triggered his play in the final 40 minutes. He also had his token penalty, but his obvious urgency overshadowed the call.
Minus
Martin Necas, Hurricanes forward — How else can you say it? Necas needs to be better. He has just four 5-on-5 points this season, none in the last eight games. His attempts to become the triggerman on the first power play unit have taken away his skating, leaving him looking stationary and stationary.
They said it
“It’s frustrating, but it’s got to stop. And that’s going to be on me here pretty soon to start shaking things up if we continue to do that because we are too good to be inconsistent.”
— Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour
