RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Game One of any best-of-seven series isn’t going to decide how the series plays out. But Game One of the Eastern Conference Final didn’t do anything to dispel the narratives that have surrounded the Carolina Hurricanes in the postseason.
You know the ones—the ones that say they can’t win in the playoffs. Tuesday’s loss marked 13 straight conference final defeats for the club. And then there’s the notion that the Panthers simply have the Hurricanes’ number—five of those 13 losses have come at Florida’s hands.
“You guys are going to say it, but what do you want to do?” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said Wednesday morning, responding to a reporter asking if those narratives have become a factor. “Are you going to change your game? That’s not going to work. I know it doesn’t work.”
The Panthers, with the same core roster they have now, swept the Hurricanes in 2023. All four of those games were decided by a single goal and two went to overtime. But in that series, Florida was the better team—and they looked that way again in their 5–2 victory over Carolina in Game One of the Eastern Conference Final.
“The past is the past,” Jaccob Slavin said. “We gotta focus on tomorrow night right now. I don’t think you can ever let that become a factor because I don’t think it has a role to play in what we have to accomplish moving forward.”
While the 2023 conference finals may be in the rearview, there were some clear parallels in Game One—namely, Carolina’s continued struggle to find its rhythm offensively. In four of their last five conference final games, the Hurricanes have scored two or fewer goals against the Panthers.
“It’s going to come,” Seth Jarvis said of the Hurricanes’ offense. “Obviously we have to find different ways, but like I said before, it’s about executing.”
Calling Game Two a “must-win” often feels like exaggeration, but given Carolina’s lack of success against the Panthers—and in the conference finals overall—it’s going to feel like just that when the puck drops Thursday at the Lenovo Center.