FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Stanley Cup champion and Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams. Calder Trophy winner Sergei Samsonov. Diminutive overachiever Nathan Gerbe. Mr. Game 7 himself, Justin Williams — well, in his second tour of duty anyway.

What do they all have in common? They’re among the players to wear No. 14 for the Carolina Hurricanes. If you really want to get nostalgic, Hall of Famer Dave Keon also donned the number during his time with the Whalers.

The No. 14 took on a different meaning Thursday night as the Panthers humiliated the Hurricanes in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final, giving Florida a 2-0 lead as the series shifts to Sunrise. You’ve heard it enough, but it was the 14th consecutive game Carolina has lost in a conference final after sweeps in 2009, 2019 and 2023.

The last time they won a conference final game was, of course, Game 7 back in 2006, when the Hurricanes — on a game-winning power-play goal by some guy named Rod Brind’Amour — beat the Sabres to advance to the Stanley Cup Final and beat the Edmonton Oilers for the franchise’s only Stanley Cup title.

Adams, by the way, played 14 shifts in that game.

The conference final futility is not something the Hurricanes are particularly thrilled to talk about. Jaccob Slavin, asked about the run being at 13 games after Carolina’s Game 1 loss, shrugged off the unseemly statistic, saying, “The past is the past.”

“Four of those losses came in 2009,” Slavin said. “None of us are on that team.”

Brind’Amour, in his penultimate season as a player on that ’09 team, has been part of all 14 losses — four as a player and now 10 as the team’s coach.

He broke into a smile — not one of joy — when asked about what can best be described as the bleak streak.

“Well, you’re going to talk about it, and you guys are going to say it,” Brind’Amour responded during the news conference. “But what do you want to do? You’re going to change your game? That’s not going to work.”

There’s no doubt something needs to change for the Hurricanes if they’re going to have any chance to recover from what looks like a dire situation. The Panthers look confident and relentless; Carolina looks timid and fragile.

The past may not mean much, or even anything, but some threads run across the four Hurricanes teams that stalled in the Eastern Conference final. Break some of them, and maybe there’s a new narrative to write.

Allowing 18 power-play goals

No, we’re not going to suggest bringing back Mike Zigomanis, Mark Recchi, Radek Dvorak or Cedric Paquette — some of the players who wore No. 18 for the Hurricanes over the past two decades — would put an end to Carolina’s bleak streak.

Eighteen is how many power-play goals the Hurricanes have allowed in those 14 consecutive conference final losses. Take away that the Penguins scored just three in four games in 2009, and Carolina has given up 15 PPGs in 10 ECF games with Brind’Amour as coach.

Yikes.

It’d be one thing if the Hurricanes were mortal on the penalty kill, but they’ve been the league’s best since Brind’Amour took over as coach. In the last 10 ECF games, they’ve allowed a PPG in all but one game. Toss in the Pittsburgh series, and Carolina has given up two power-play goals in half of the 14 games in the streak — including both games in this series against the Panthers.

Simply put: Get back to being good on the penalty kill.

“We’ve got to find a way to kill them,” Staal said after Game 2. “Maybe getting in lanes, change it up, I’m not sure. But it’s got to be an important thing that we focus on here, and we’ll look it over and try to make some changes and get some more kills.”

Outscored 57-22

In 2023, the Hurricanes played the Panthers as tightly as possible in a four-game sweep. Carolina allowed only 10 goals in that series, and half of those games went into overtime — including the epic four-overtime Game 1 loss.

In the other three ECFs, the Hurricanes have allowed a stunning 47 goals in 10 games.

Those “ass-whoopings,” as Staal called Game 2, don’t predict good things for Carolina in the rest of this series.

In 2009, Pittsburgh won 3-2 in Game 1 but then put a crooked number on the Hurricanes in Game 2, winning 7-4. That was followed by 6-2 and 4-1 losses.

Against the Bruins in 2019, Boston hung a combined 11 goals on Carolina in the series’ first two games, never trailed in a 2-1 win in Game 3 and closed things out with a 4-0 series clincher.

The Hurricanes scored seven goals in those six games, and three were in 2023’s Game 4 loss to the Panthers. In total, Carolina has scored 22 times in 14 Eastern Conference final games.

Sebastian Aho’s six points

Sebastian Aho had a goal taken off the board at the start of the second period in Game 2, and his performance Thursday — despite having no points in a 5-0 loss — at least offered a glimpse of properly channeled desperation.

His six points in 10 conference finals games are the most of any Hurricanes player during the bleak streak. Second is Seth Jarvis, who has four points in six games, with Jordan Martinook tied for third with three points in eight games.

Those aren’t jump-up-and-down numbers, but they at least show there are players who have been on this team for at least half of the ECF appearances who can produce. One could also argue that those three were Carolina’s best players in Game 2.

The problem is that no one from the current roster shows up in the top 10. Jalen Chatfield has two points in four conference final games, but he’s missed both games with an injury and wouldn’t be at 100 percent even if he suited up for Game 3.

Andrei Svechnikov, the offensive hero of the first two rounds? He has two assists in six career conference final games. There’s a chorus of one-point players: Shayne Gostisbehere (six games), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (five), Brent Burns (one) and Jordan Staal (10).

Slavin is a masterful defensive presence, but he’s never registered a point at this stage of the playoffs in 10 games. Svechnikov has just six shots on goal in six career ECF games.

I’d expect Aho, Jarvis and Martinook to try and drag Carolina into the fight in Game 3, but they can’t be pulling the rope by themselves if the Hurricanes have any chance to win.

Twice opening scoring against Panthers

The Hurricanes have scored first just twice in the six Eastern Conference final games against the Panthers, and both games went to overtime.

In Game 1 in 2023, Jarvis opened the scoring on the power play in the waning moments of the first period to give Carolina a lead. In the following game, Chatfield scored just 1:43 in to get the Hurricanes off on the right foot.

Obviously, Carolina lost both those games, but they were by razor-thin margins — a quadruple-overtime defeat followed by an early OT loss on a Matthew Tkachuk power-play tally.

The best recipe for the Hurricanes is to score first and get the opportunity to establish their game. Allow the first goal again, and I fear the rolling ball of uncertainty will grow larger and spin faster.

(Top photo: James Guillory / Imagn Images)