My how the mighty have fallen.
Well, they haven’t fallen completely yet – but the Carolina Hurricanes Hockey team, which just last week looked utterly invincible, is now on the opposite end of the spectrum. On Monday, May 13, the team was licking its wounds and trying to remember where it kept its bottles of magic winning potion after the team was shellacked in Boston by the Boston Bruins on Sunday in a 6 to 2 loss that wasn’t as close as the score makes it appear.
The Canes, who swept the New York Islanders in four straight games in their previous series, are now 0-2 in the current series with the Bruins – a best-of-seven series that will determine which of the two teams goes to the Stanley Cup Finals.
On Sunday, the hapless Hurricanes, using a matador defense and a prevent offense, went down 5 to 0, before managing to score a couple of late-game inconsequential goals. At one point, the Canes had given up 10 straight goals to the Bruins – extending into the previous game, which Boston took with a score of 5-2.
The bad losses are particularly surprising given that the Hurricanes had a rare luxury in the playoffs: the ability to get some rest and recuperation. Because the Canes won four straight games against the Islanders, the team had about a week off while the Bruins took six games to defeat the Columbus Blue Jackets, winning that series 4 to 2.
The good news for the Canes is that both of the whippings the team took this week were up in Boston and now the Canes return home to Raleigh for the next game on Tuesday, May 14 against the Bruins at 8 p.m.
Hurricanes Team Captain Justin Williams, said after the disappointing May 12 loss to the Bruins, “I think all in all we need to rediscover who we are.”
He added, “You know, you spend all this time reading articles about how great you are and then sometimes you’ve gotta come out and you’ve gotta eat a poop sandwich – and it doesn’t taste good.”
