RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Carolina Hurricanes (20-29-7) fell 4-1 at home to the New York Islanders (38-19-1) in the third meeting between the two teams this season. The loss gives the Hurricanes a 10-6-3 record in 2015, but they've now lost three straight at home and didn't get off to a good start in this one.
1. The slow start made it impossible to see how the Hurricanes stack up against an elite team
The Hurricanes are evaluating each and every one of their players, and some have acquitted themselves well against the league's upper echelon. The Islanders fall into that category, but the Hurricanes just came out flat in the first period, and really gave themselves no chance against a team this good, even when they started to make a push.
"First slow start in a long time, in my opinion," Hurricanes head coach Bill Peters said.
The two teams had already met twice this year, but it was the first two games of the season for the Hurricanes. The team fought hard and lost both to the Islanders, but obviously both teams -- particularly the Hurricanes -- have changed quite a bit in the meantime.
And yet the Hurricanes looked worse somehow, mostly because of the start.
The team flew in from Ottawa late Monday night and got in early on Tuesday morning in the midst of a winter storm. But the Islanders faced the same circumstances and still looked like the much crisper team early, out-shooting the Hurricanes 14-7 in the first.
"We definitely didn't start on time. I felt like our spirit wasn't really our best. There's no excuses because they were flying in last night too, traveling," Hurricanes' center Andrej Nestrasil said. "So that was a big mistake. We've got to play our best game every night and we didn't in the first period."
The Hurricanes penalty kill has been among the league's best, but even that unit let in an early goal. And when the Hurricanes had a power play of their own, they couldn't get it back.
They out-shot the Islanders 31-16 in the final two periods, and they got their first goal 11:14 into the third to make it just 3-1 and very nearly got a second before the Islanders scored on an empty-netter.
Even at the time it felt like too little too late, and it obviously was.
"They just were ready and they jumped on us at the start of the game. They created a few shots at the start and then I think we bounced back and played a solid game, but we had a few scoring chances that we didn't capitalize on and they did, so that's the difference in the game," Hurricanes' center Jiri Tlusty said.
2. Bill Peters let his actions do the talking
Peters has insisted all season long that players will earn their playing time through what they do in games and in practice. Play the way he wants them to play, give effort and they'll get rewarded, both on the ice in terms of results and in terms of ice time.
The other night after the loss to the Wild, he said his team had "too many passengers" and minced no words in assessing his team's play. He rarely does.
But after this game, a game in which his team came out flat -- something he despises -- he was relatively kind.
"Not a whole bunch of concerns, to be honest with you. There are some guys that probably needed to play better and wanted to play better that didn't," Peters said.
But some of the distribution of minutes was eye-catching.
Three of the Hurricanes' better offensive players in Jeff Skinner, Elias Lindholm and Alexander Semin either didn't play (in the case of Semin) or played sparingly. Lindholm saw the second-fewest minutes of anyone who played (12:47) after playing only in 11:12 of action against Minnesota on Saturday. He'd recorded a point in three of the last four games but was a -2 on the night and took four shots.
Skinner's 13 minutes of ice time were his third-fewest of 2015 so far and fewest since he saw just 11:45 of action against Anaheim on Feb. 3. But he'd been in a drought and had snapped out of that, scoring goals in the last three games, even as he was a -5 in that stretch. He was a -1 in this game and took five shots, missing four.
Semin has been a healthy scratch plenty of times this year, and the Hurricanes are going to have to figure out what to do with him and his hefty contract soon enough.
None of this is to say that the ice time is specifically related to how well any of them were playing, per se. But Peters has decreased both of their ice time some in recent games, and the talented young goal scorers are arguably the future of the team. If they're in a slump and not helping, he will sit them, no matter what the reason.
3. The success of that fourth line of the Hurricanes didn't carry over
The Hurricanes' fourth line had been rolling coming into this game, with a combined 25 points in the Hurricane's last 18 games. The Hurricanes were 6-1-1 during that 18-game stretch when one of them scored a goal.
In this game, that group didn't perform as well. Brad Malone did take three shots and dish out four hits, but Jay McClement didn't take a shot and won less than 50 percent of his faceoffs while Patrick Dwyer took just one shot (but did have three hits and a blocked shot).
Jiri Tlusty -- The 26-year-old had his first goal since January 27 and just his third of 2015, this one coming in the third period to cut the score to just 3-1 with plenty of time left. He also had two hits and a blocked shot.
Tim Gleason -- The defenseman led the team in on-ice time both total and even strength, and he had a team-high six hits to go with a blocked shot. He was a -1 on the game, but the Hurricanes needed all the physicality they could get in this one and he attempted to set a tone.
Justin Faulk -- He continues to be the Hurricanes' workhorse, playing the second-most even-strength minutes of anyone (over 21) and blocking two shots while adding two hits and taking four shots. He missed some shots, but he played a lot.
