Recap: Canes Drop Heartbreaker

The Carolina Hurricanes suffered a heartbreaking loss in the tail end of a home-and-home, back-to-back set, dropping a 4-3 decision to the Washington Capitals in the final seconds of regulation.
The Capitals erased the Hurricanes' 3-2 lead in the final five minutes of regulation, and Jay Beagle tapped home the game-winner at the 19:58 mark of the third.
Here are five takeaways from Caps-Canes, Part II.

One
This one hurts - literally, for Jordan Staal, who fielded questions postgame with a bloody lip, the plain-as-day remnants of an uncalled high-sticking infraction.
"It was a stick in the face right in front of him, and he chose not to call it," Staal said. "He didn't want to talk to me tonight."
That would have given the Hurricanes a four-minute power play in the final minute of regulation. Instead, the Capitals made a play and won the game late.

"It's pretty obvious, right? 32 seconds to go in the game, should be on the power play," head coach Bill Peters said. "If you don't score there … you start 4-on-3 in OT."
Granted, that non-call didn't directly lead to the Capitals' game-winner, but they certainly would not have been in the same position had the correct penalty been assessed. Still, it's up to the Hurricanes to play out regulation in the same fashioned they played the first 55 minutes of the game.
"It would have been nice to lock it down and get the two points," Peters said. "It didn't happen."
Two
So, what happened on that last-second, game-winning goal? The Hurricanes lost an offensive zone draw, and the Capitals then moved the puck up the ice. Alex Ovechkin gained the zone and had the puck whacked off his stick. Nicklas Backstrom was there to pick it up and centered to Beagle, who banged it home.
"They made a play," Peters said. "Trying to go for the win. Lost the draw, and they made some good plays coming up the ice."
Four minutes prior, it was Brett Connolly taking advantage of a giveaway off the stick of Noah Hanifin to tie the game at three.
"A couple miscues. They capitalized on a couple mistakes," Jeff Skinner said. "You learn from it. Overall you look at the game, and I felt like we played pretty well."
Three
Frustratingly, that was indeed the case for the Hurricanes, as Skinner said: disregarding the final five minutes, the Canes played a solid game, probably one good enough to win their second against the Caps in as many nights. Alas.
"I thought we played a great game. A couple mistakes at the end, but all in all a great game," Staal said. "It definitely hurt. I thought we had a lot of guys step up and play really well. I thought we controlled a lot of the game, too. Two good teams going at it. A couple of frustrating things out there, but that happens sometimes."

As was the case a night ago, the Hurricanes and Capitals entered the third period all square on the scoreboard. On Thursday, it was a 1-1 game. Friday, 2-2. Tonight, it was Skinner breaking the deadlock as he accepted a pass from Lee Stempniak - who was making his season debut with the Canes - and walked around John Carlson before shooting and scoring.

In the first period, Staal scored a power-play goal, his 200th career tally, on a bang-bang play in the slot. In the second, Sebastian Aho scored his ninth goal in his last 10 games, a blast from the point on another Canes' man advantage.
"You take the positives - and there were a lot of positives - and you move on," Skinner said.

Four
In game No. 44, Stempniak made his season debut with the Hurricanes. It's been a frustrating 2017-18 for the veteran forward, who had been sidelined with two separate upper-body injuries for the first three-plus months.
Stempniak logged 13:35 of ice time, including 1:53 on the power play, in his return. In addition to his primary assist on Skinner's goal, he was a plus-1 with two shots on goal and a hit.
"He looked real good. He's been around a while. He's real smart and skilled," Skinner said of his linemate. "It's easy to read off a guy like that because he's consistent. He makes good plays, and you always know where he's going to be."
"I thought he skated good. I was impressed with the jump he had," Peters said. "I thought he had a real good game."
Five
The Hurricanes' injury report was clean just a couple of days ago. And tonight? It ballooned to four players, with Brett Pesce (morning skate in Washington) and Derek Ryan (boarded by Tom Wilson in Washington) out with upper-body injuries and Elias Lindholm and Joakim Nordstrom sidelined with illnesses.
"It's good to see guys stepping up. It's nice to see Stemper back there. A bunch of guys stepped up. That's what you need in this league. It's good to see," Skinner said. "Hopefully we can build on that, because you're always going to need that."
Up Next
The Hurricanes will look to rebound when they host the Calgary Flames on Sunday at 3 p.m. in their final game before the bye week.
"Sunday is a big game. Tough letting points slip tonight. I thought we battled hard," Staal said. "It's going to be a hard one to swallow. We're going to have to get that one down the hatch as soon as we can and come up with a big effort against Calgary."
"You play 82 games. It's one game out of 82. It's obviously not the result we wanted and kind of a tough break, but at the same time it's one game," Skinner said. "We've got to move on. Next game we have another opportunity to get two points."