RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes (24-32-7) got a few days off to rest -- but the rest might have ended up leading to rust, as they fell 3-1 to the Minnesota Wild (36-22-7), one of the hotter teams in the league.
1. Not a good start, again -- to the game, or to the month of March
The first period was a pretty lackluster one for the Hurricanes, and they found themselves in a 1-0 hole that could have been worse. But it wasn't the score, or even the shots (the Hurricanes were out-shot 8-5 in the first) that bothered head coach Bill Peters.
When he stepped up to the podium, he immediately made a face as if he'd accidentally tasted something sour.
"Not very good," Peters said, shaking his head. "Not very good. We weren't very good."
That was the extent of his opening statement, and there wasn't much left to add.
He's big on how his team starts games, and obviously they started out flat. But the Hurricanes have now done that twice in a row. When asked about the better second period his team had, Peters could only quip, "Well, hard not to though, right?"
"I didn't think we had anything going in the first. Didn't have any energy. Didn't have any jump. Didn't have any execution," Peters said. "So it was easy to be better in the second and third than we were in the first. A disappointing way to start a game."
Everything about the early performance was flat, and that was disappointing to both Peters and the team.
"We just didn't have our legs going. I don't think we had enough energy really. You could feel it in the second period, we started to get going, and then in the third, they got those two quick ones and just took the wind right out of our sails," Riley Nash said. "On Sunday, we've got to be ready right from puck drop and continue for 60 minutes."
Sunday is when the Hurricanes will look at avoid a three-game losing streak for the first time in 2015 when they host the Edmonton Oilers. They had started out 2015 so well, with a 7-3-2 mark in January and even a 7-5-1 record in February. They headed into March on a surge, having won three in a row.
Now, they've lost two straight and while those have come against two of the best teams in the NHL, his team hasn't looked like the group he saw in the earlier part of 2015, and that is what upset Peters, who said his team looked "unorganized" and "disinterested" at times.
"Didn't look like we wanted to put the work in in order to be successful. We used to be this hard-working, honest group. Haven't been the last two times out," Peters said.
2. Devan Dubnyk is one of the hottest goalies in the NHL, but the Hurricanes didn't make things tough on him for awhile
After taking just five shots in the first, the Hurricanes got off the schneid a bit and out-shot the Wild 33-11 in the final two periods. But Dubnyk, who started his 23rd straight game for the Wild, has now led his team to an 18-3-2 record since he was traded to Minnesota. That's not an accident.
As the Minnesota Star-Tribune's Michael Russo pointed out, the team allowed 58 goals in the 14 games before Dubnyk's arrival, and have allowed 36 goals in the 23 games since he's taken over.
But with just five shots in the first, the Hurricanes didn't give him much to think about. And when they did, they weren't ready to capitalize on potential second and third chances, something you have to do against a goalie who's 6-foot-6, 210 pounds.
"I think he saw way too many pucks. He's a pretty big guy, and obviously he can see around a lot of guys but we need traffic there," Nash said. "I think any goalie in the NHL, when you get traffic, they're very average. I don't think we had enough of that. Hopefully we can regroup and get them on Sunday."
As Skinner said, the Wild's defense has protected Dubnyk well, but the Hurricanes have to do a better job of getting traffic around the net.
He's a big guy in there, so you have to find ways to get traffic and get second and third opportunities because he's usually going to make the first (save) just because of how big he is, and he can move a little bit out there," Skinner said. "We've got to find ways to get seconds and thirds, and you've got to be desperate to get those."
3. Anton Khudobin wasn't even immune to the struggles
After neither Cam Ward nor his teammates played in the loss at Chicago on Monday, Anton Khudobin -- who's been rotating with Ward for much of 2015 anyway -- earned the start in the Friday night game against the Wild. He finished the Chicago game and allowed one goal in the final 20 minutes.
He hasn't been that good against the Wild this year in two starts, allowing nine goals in the two games. Maybe it's something about that team -- he's had two of his lowest save percentages of his 2015 starts against the Wild -- but he's been struggling a bit in his last few starts anyway.
In the beginning of 2015, he won his first six starts in a row and allowed nine goals in those games, but he's won just one of his last seven starts in the meantime, and that was his spectacular performance against Washington when he saved all 28 shots he saw. He's been below .900 in save percentage in seven straight starts now.
The team in front of him hasn't always done him any favors, but he didn't help in this game. "Just like the rest of us. Didn't look sharp at all. Didn't look sharp," Peters said of Khudobin.
Rasmus Rissanen -- The Hurricanes' sixth-round pick in 2009 played in his first NHL game after getting the call-up from the Charlotte Checkers, and the defenseman finished with eight hits in 16 minutes of ice time. "I try to hit as much as possible. That's my game, kind of. Every time I get a couple hits, I get my game going on," Rissanen said afterwards.
Riley Nash -- He got his first goal in the last 17 games (since January 10) in a well-executed 2-on-1 rush, and was one of only three Hurricanes to finish on the positive side in plus/minus.
Jeff Skinner -- His pass on that Nash goal was a beautiful one on the 2-on-1 break, and he has points in eight of the last 11 games now for the Hurricanes. One more assist will be the 100th of his career.
