"Honestly, that's probably the worst thing. … On special nights like this, you want to play hard and win. You want it to be a great night from him," James Reimer said. "This doesn't affect his career in any way, obviously. He's had a storied career so far. As a teammate, you want to do your part, back him up and support him. You want to give him a good night. It's a punch in the gut when it doesn't work out."
The emotions surrounding the night could have clouded the Canes, though one would think it would feed their motivation. The trade deadline and a late move that sent Haydn Fleury, a well-liked teammate in the locker room, to Anaheim, could have also contributed to the dud on the ice.
But …
"Yes, there's a lot going on, but so what? You've got a job to do," Brind'Amour said. "We talked about it and emphasized all that. This was not good, obviously."
"There's definitely no excuse," Nino Niederreiter said. "At the end of the day, the way we came out and played tonight's game was no good."
And that, in short, is supremely disappointing. Especially on a night like this. Especially at home. Especially against the Central Division's last-place team.
But, let's look at the bigger picture. This was just the Canes' 10th regulation loss in 41 games. 10. In 41! Only the Colorado Avalanche are left holding single-digit regulation losses with only a month left to play in the season. By virtue of the regulation wins tiebreaker, the Canes fall into second place in the Central Division, but they're still in a prime position to challenge for first down the stretch.
Taken as a one-game snapshot, there's no doubt this game was putrid. But games like this can happen over the course of a season. Get it out of the system now, take a day off, flush it out in practice on Wednesday and, after the team's last two-day gap in between games this season, get right back to it on Thursday.
