Hurricanes doomed by slow start in Game 7 of Eastern Second Round

RALEIGH, N.C. -- It all seemed to fall apart in a flash.

Suddenly, the Carolina Hurricanes watched one of their best forwards in the playoffs, rookie Seth Jarvis, exit the ice after a hit from New York Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba.
Suddenly, they were on the penalty kill after having too many men on the ice. Suddenly, the puck was behind goalie Antti Raanta.
Suddenly, all the work put in to reach this point, in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Second Round against the Rangers, was slipping away, down two goals not even halfway through the first period of the series finale.
The Hurricanes were unable to recover and
fell 6-2 to the Rangers
at PNC Arena on Monday, their first loss at home in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They entered 7-0 here against the Boston Bruins and the Rangers.
"It was the same story," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "I thought we had a great first period. And then I look up and we're down two. They got the two power-play goals, and it was a killer. Because I really felt we were playing well. So that's kind of the broken record on this one, this series."
RELATED: [Complete Hurricanes vs. Rangers series coverage]
But two early penalties (hooking on Sebastian Aho at 1:42 of the first and the too many men at 7:46) led to two early goals by New York (Adam Fox at 3:40 and Chris Kreider at 8:00) and -- poof -- all the confidence and all the invincibility of PNC Arena seemed to disappear.
"That just kind of summed it all up right there on that shift," Brind'Amour said.
And the nightmare only got worse from there.
The game, in the end, seemed to be an amalgamation of all of Carolina's foibles from earlier in the series -- a tendency to be undisciplined, a fumbling of what was the best penalty kill in the NHL in the regular season (88 percent), a disintegration of its power play.
"We've got to be able to stay out of the box," defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. "You give teams chances and chances and chances on the power play with their best players playing at their best, things are bound to happen."
Add to that the injuries to Jarvis, who did not play after the hit by Trouba at 7:10 of the first period, and an
injury to goalie Antti Raanta
and a simple lack of scoring and it seemed a near impossibility that the Hurricanes would be able to come back.

It was still 2-0 when Raanta toppled over, a victim of what looked like a right leg injury. The goalie, who himself was pressed into action because of an injury on April 16 to starter Frederik Andersen, had gotten bumped by Kreider. Shortly after, Raanta lunged to his right as Mika Zibanejad had control of the puck. Seconds later, he crumpled face-forward and needed assistance leaving the ice from forwards Vincent Trocheck and Nino Niederreiter. He would not return, replaced by rookie Pyotr Kochetkov.
Asked if Raanta would have been available had the Hurricanes moved on to face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final, Brind'Amour said, "No. No chance. He's going to get checked out tomorrow. He would have been out probably -- I don't know for sure, but he didn't look too good walking out of here, or limping."
Ultimately, it didn't matter.
Kochetkov was in the game for 42 seconds before Ryan Strome scored the eventual game-winner on a 2-on-1. He allowed three goals on 12 shots.
But the problem, as it has been for much of the series, was that the Hurricanes couldn't score.
"I thought at times we were all over them and that's our game, is smothering teams and working them down low," Slavin said. "And we definitely had bits and pieces of that.
"I think what it came down to is we've got to score more goals, whether that's on the power play, 5-on-5, whatever it is. We've got to put pucks in the back of the net."
The two goals they did score were after the game was basically decided, by Trocheck on the power play at 8:11 of the third period, after the Hurricanes were down 4-0, and by Max Domi at 16:13, after the Rangers made it 5-1.
Too many things went wrong for the Hurricanes. Too many problems and too few answers, especially for Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin, who made 37 saves in the series finale.
"We had our chance tonight and we didn't use it," Carolina forward Sebastian Aho said.
It stung most, perhaps, because this Hurricanes team earned home-ice advantage after winning 54 regular-season games and the Metropolitan Division. Things seemed to be different. They were better seasoned and more experienced after being ousted by the Lightning in the second round a year ago.
It didn't matter.
"I think every year, this, when it ends, is always tough," Brind'Amour said. "Tougher maybe because I felt like we were in a different spot this year. It wasn't that we were better than anybody, but I felt like we weren't worse. We were right there. That makes it maybe a little tougher."