NEWARK, N.J. -- Rod Brind'Amour said three words that summed up the Carolina Hurricanes performance in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on Sunday.
"We were horrible," the Hurricanes coach said.
He didn't stop there after Carolina lost 8-4 to the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center and had their lead in the best-of-7 series halved to 2-1.
"We were no good," Brind'Amour said. "I don't know what else to tell you. I've never seen us play like that. But I give the credit to the other team. They were on it. They were dialed in."
They won Games 1 and 2 at home by a combined score of 11-2 because they got to their game early and never let the Devils take a peek at the space they need to pick up the pace and play to their strengths, which is creating speed through the neutral zone.
On Sunday, the Devils got their speed game going early and the Hurricanes had no chance.
New Jersey opened it up and scored three goals in the first 12:51, and four on its first 12 shots in a span of 20:53 to chase Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen from the net.
"We looked surprised," Hurricanes center Jordan Staal said. "We shouldn't have been."
It was 7-2 before Staal and Seth Jarvis scored back-to-back shorthanded goals 50 seconds apart in the third period.
"Everyone was just a little off," Staal said. "Sloppy with the puck, slow on our skates, slow on our forecheck, just a couple inches off here and there. Give them credit, they battled hard and they won all the puck battles, especially early. They played a little freer once they were up and that's their style and their game that we don't want to play."
Certainly not, and as soundly as they beat the Devils in Games 1 and 2, Staal said the Hurricanes talked about what to expect in Game 3 with the series shifting to New Jersey. He said they knew the Devils were going to try to play fast, try to open it up early.
"Obviously, they're comfortable at home and they're a team that is ready and willing to take off and stretch you out, and I don't think we were quite ready for that," Staal said. "They really just kind of moved the puck quick through the neutral zone and we didn't really get a chance to get on top of them and play our style, and really just defend better. I feel bad for Freddie. We needed a better start for him."
To Brind'Amour's point of never seeing the Hurricanes play like they did, this type of loss truly was so uncharacteristic for them. They're a team that thrives on its work ethic, on coming out of battles with the puck, on driving their game down their opponent's throats.
The Devils did all of those things.
"You go into a 50-50 battle, it's 50-50, and they were on the better side of a lot of them," Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook said. "That doesn't happen with this group very often."
Forward Stefan Noesen said, "It starts with battles. I thought we were a little bit on the edge of our stick, trying to poke plays. They got some bounces that went their way and when you work that hard that's what happens."
That doesn't necessarily mean the Hurricanes didn't work hard or their work ethic should be called into question after Game 3. That would be overdramatizing one playoff loss.
"It can be work ethic, but you guys see us, all year long we work as hard as we can and I don't think anything is ever for a lack of effort," Noesen said. "Rod speaks to that pretty good and he establishes that and instills that in us from Day 1 of training camp. Sometimes it doesn't go your way and today was one of those."
So it's time to regroup and the Hurricanes, a veteran team that has been through the playoff grind before, should not have a problem assessing their problems from Game 3 and fixing them before Game 4 on Tuesday.
Heck, just last round they had a 2-0 lead with back-to-back wins at home against the New York Islanders before getting soundly beaten 5-1 in Game 3. The Hurricanes won 5-2 in Game 4 and won the series in six games.
"To a man everybody in here knows that we can be a lot better, which is a good thing," Martinook said. "We've shown it. Just got to rebound."
