Hurricanes must change narrative to get past Panthers in Eastern Final

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Rod Brind'Amour knows the narrative following the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final. The coach knows what is being said about his team in the media and amongst fans. He certainly knows why because, well, there's no hiding from the facts.

Thirteen consecutive losses in this round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2009. Nine straight with Brind'Amour as coach since 2019. The past five against the Florida Panthers -- four in 2023, all by one goal with two in overtime, and 5-2 in Game 1 on Tuesday.

"Well, you're going to talk about it, you guys are going to say it, but what do you want to do?" Brind'Amour said. "You're going to change your game. That's not going to work. I know it doesn't work. I know you could try to go there, open up, start risking, start doing different things, and it's not going to be the answer. So, yeah, I hear you."

Brind'Amour also knows the way to change the narrative when the Hurricanes play the Panthers in Game 2 at Lenovo Center on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

"We go over and over and over how we're going to create more scoring chances and give up less," he said. "That's the game. That's what you're trying to figure out. Attention to details and not giving them the freebies. For me, we gave two freebies last game. You take those off the board, now we're in a game. That's what we just have to find a way to do."

OK, so how do they do it?

Scoring the first goal would make a huge difference.

The Hurricanes are 5-0 in games when they score first this postseason and 3-3 when they don't. They were 30-7-2 in the regular season when they scored first and 17-23-3 when they did not.

On the flip side, Carolina has given up the first goal in seven of its nine games in the conference final under Brind'Amour, obviously going 0-7. It scored first in Games 1 and 2 against Florida in 2023 but lost both in overtime.

If you wanted to go back to 2009, it's 11 of 13 games the Hurricanes have trailed first, of course going 0-11. Specific to this series, this Hurricanes team and the opponent, scoring first is paramount.

Florida is 7-2 when it scores first in the playoffs and 2-2 when it doesn't. It was 33-10-0 when scoring first during the regular season and 14-21-4 when it didn't.

"Both teams, we have kind of have the same gameplan of getting it out as quick as we can and keeping it in the [offensive] zone as much as possible, so any time you can get a lead with that style of play, it's huge," Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. "And it's hard to dig yourself out of a hole, especially at this time of the year when every team is playing the same way."

To score first, the Hurricanes have to execute and finish. That's been a problem against the Panthers in particular. They haven't scored more than three goals in any of their five conference final games against Florida since 2023.

"I thought the first period, especially, we created a lot of chances, especially on the rush," forward Seth Jarvis said. "Finishing a few of those would be a different game, but that comes with you have to finish them. Having chances to score is one thing, capitalizing on them is another, but you have to get the chances, and I thought we did a good job of that."

There's also the quite large factor of gifting the Panthers opportunities to score, which very clearly cannot happen in Game 2 after it was a problem in Game 1.

Sebastian Aho's retaliatory roughing penalty at 6:59 of the first period put the Panthers on the power play. The Hurricanes, particularly Brind'Amour, vehemently disagreed with the call, but what matters in that moment is killing the penalty, which did not happen.

Carter Verhaeghe cashed in at 8:30 to give Florida a 1-0 lead.

Scott Morrow's errant high cross-ice pass out of the defensive zone landed out of play for a delay of game penalty at 4:31 of the third. Sam Bennett scored on the man-advantage at 6:08 to give Florida an insurmountable 4-1 lead.

When Brind'Amour references "freebies," that's what he means.

"The margin for error is so little against this team that when they give you a chance you have to find a way to put it in, just like they did to us," Brind'Amour said. "We didn't give up much, but when we did, it was in the back of the net."

The Hurricanes again won't give up much in Game 2 if they stay true to who they are and their style of play. Their game is predictable, and they basically dare you to stop it every single time.

But, again, the result will come down to execution and finishing.

One team in this series has done that well in the conference final. The other is the Hurricanes.

Until that changes, the conference final losing streak will not end. It's at 13 and possibly counting -- nine under Brind'Amour, the past five against the Panthers.

"I mean, if you want to go there, four of those losses came in 2009, none of us are on that team," Slavin said. "We've been in every game so far, maybe besides [Tuesday] night, so we've had chances to win. It's just about bearing down and getting the wins because obviously we need them right now."