The Carolina Hurricanes are now facing elimination, after blowing a two-goal lead and losing by a score of 4-3 to the Boston Bruins in Game 4.
This is what happens when you take an entire period off against the Boston Bruins. Carolina was outshot 15-0 at 5-on-5 in the third period (according to NaturalStatTrick.com) and let the Bruins back into the game. For the fourth game in a row, Boston was the better team overall.
Even before the third period, the game was realistically a lot closer than the 2-0 score. Torey Krug and David Krejci both missed on some pretty excellent chances and Justin Williams’ first goal probably shouldn’t have gone in. There was no tip and from what I could see, no screen either and it was just mishandled by Jaroslav Halak. Even Jordan Martinook’s goal, was one that Halak probably wants back.
People may put some of the blame on James Reimer but I don’t think he’s the one at fault here. Breaking down each of Boston’s goals, Haydn Fleury got beat terribly, leading to Jake DeBrusk’s chance on the first goal, then Jake Gardiner got outworked along the boards and Connor Clifton capitalized with a great shot to tie it. On the third goal, everybody left Brad Marchand alone which is something you just can’t do and the fourth goal was the result of a terrible giveaway in the Hurricanes' end, even though Reimer probably should’ve had that one.
Carolina simply collapsed in the third period. Going without a single shot at 5-on-5 in a period is unacceptable and the mistakes just kept piling up and getting worse.
The Hurricanes are now facing a ton of adversity. They need to win three games in a row against a team that was a win away from the Stanley Cup last year and has completely outplayed them so far.
They’ve got to take this game by game if they’re going to get back into this series.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Do you believe the Hurricanes can battle back to win the series?
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