Florida Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola (77) celebrates with his teammates after scoring against Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov (52) in the first period of Game 3 during the Eastern Conference final of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. Photo by Matias J. Ocner [email protected]
Sunrise, Fla.
They finally won a period, just a single 20-minute period, for the first time in this series. A platform to build upon? No, just fool’s gold, setting the stage for even more humiliation.
The Carolina Hurricanes aren’t just staring a sweep in the face after collapsing to a 6-2 loss in Game 3 on Saturday. They’re well on the way to the most embarrassing, listless, dismal playoff series in their 28 years in North Carolina.
It’s that bad. Beyond bad.
After Logan Stankoven scored late in the second period to tie the score 1-1, the Panthers scored the next five goals in less than 11 minutes of the third period, one after another after another, starting with an incredibly bad turnover by Taylor Hall in the neutral zone that led to an immediate goal and destroyed whatever momentum the Hurricanes had so painstakingly built. By the time Stankoven set up Seth Jarvis for another power-play goal, matters had long been settled.
“To turn pucks over, it’s not what we do,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said “No one does that. Pretty surprised. You know what I mean? You can’t do that. You can’t do it anytime. Preseason game, it’s going to cost you. But against that team? You turn it over for an odd-man rush, forget it. And we know that. That was demoralizing. Because we know the margin’s tight.”
Or, as Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said: “Turnover city. And they’re going to make you pay.”
Florida Panthers defenseman Niko Mikkola (77) celebrates with teammates Aleksander Barkov (16), Jesper Boqvist (70), and Seth Jones (3) after scoring a first-period goal against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final during the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. David Santiago [email protected]
The Hurricanes have one five-on-five goal in the series, their first of Game 1, and that off Sebastian Aho’s skate. They have been outscored 16-4 in the three games. They have tried two goalies, with Pyotr Kochetkov getting his turn Saturday. They have lost 15 straight conference-finals games.
They have made the kind of turnovers that lose preseason games against ECHL scrubs, and been repeatedly punished. They have watched their teammates run into the boards or thrown to the ice, and turned their backs and skated away. Their so-called stars have been anonymous, at best.
And they have been utterly unable to overcome injuries to defensemen Jalen Chatfield, who has yet to play in this series, and Sean Walker, who missed Game 3. Who knew Chatfield was the cotter pin holding the entire Ferris wheel together?
After dispatching the New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals with relative ease and looking every bit the part of a worthy contender, the Panthers have exposed them, taking away everything the Hurricanes do well and almost mocking them with the ease they have punished them for every mistake. And have they ever made mistakes. Mistakes on top of mistakes.
“It’s crazy how it goes,” Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho said. “Two periods kind of nothing going on either way, a couple errors there and they take over.”
It’s one thing for this to happen to a team that gets hot and sneaks into the playoffs, as the Hurricanes so often did in the past, or a team at the beginning of a run as a contending team, as the Hurricanes were not too long ago. But this is a seasoned postseason team falling apart at the seams.
The Hurricanes have one more game against these Panthers to avoid making the worst kind of history, and even that might not do it, because they have a long way to go.
Florida Panthers centers Anton Lundell (15) and Brad Marchand (63) talk as they play against the Carolina Hurricanes in the first period of Game 3 during the Eastern Conference final of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. Photo by Matias J. Ocner [email protected]
They were beaten and beaten up by the New Jersey Devils in 2001, but showed enough fight in Game 4 and Game 5 that people forget how badly they were outclassed in the first three games. That rally helped build the foundation of what the Hurricanes are today, so at least some good came out of it.
Against the Boston Bruins in 1999, 2019 and 2020 and the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, the Hurricanes never really had a chance, going up against superior opponents with superior firepower. Their goaltending wasn’t good enough to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2021 or the New York Rangers in 2022.
And while the Hurricanes were swept by the Panthers in 2023, those were four one-goal games, three of them decided on the final play. This has been the opposite.
“Way different,” Brind’Amour acknowledged.
Even in last year’s second-round series against the Rangers, when the Hurricanes went down 3-0 before forcing a Game 6 that they led by two goals with 14 minutes to go only to lose by two, wasn’t as bad. That might have been the worst single playoff loss in the team’s time in North Carolina, but it didn’t cap a sweep, and two of the opening three losses were in overtime.
The Hurricanes haven’t even been that close yet in this series. They were, briefly, Saturday night, before it all fell apart again.
Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (72) stops a shot by Carolina Hurricanes center Logan Stankoven (22) during the second period of Game 3 in the Eastern Conference Final of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday, May 24, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. David Santiago [email protected]
Hockey can be a funny game, and a team fighting to keep its season alive is at its most dangerous, but there has been very little in these first three games to suggest the Hurricanes have it in them to win Game 4, let alone turn this series around.
“The four rookies in your lineup can’t be your better players,” Brind’Amour said. “There’s a couple guys in there I don’t think came to play the way they needed to this time of year.’
They’re staring the wrong kind of history in the face, and that’s not the only thing they’ll see when they look in the mirror.
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This story was originally published May 24, 2025 at 11:11 PM.
