‘Flat’ play and a goal that wasn’t: Inside the Hurricanes’ loss to the Minnesota Wild

You have to appreciate the candor of Rod Brind’Amour, a coach who sugarcoats nothing.

Midway through Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Wild, the Carolina Hurricanes coach was asked about his team’s play in a bench interview during the telecast.

“We’re so flat, we have no chance the way we’re going right now,” Brind’Amour said. “Zero.”

The Canes trailed by two goals at the time. And on a night when little went right for the Hurricanes, the Wild emerged with a 4-0 victory at the Lenovo Center behind goalie Filip Gustavsson, who notched his third shutout of the season with 20 saves and earned his 18th win.

“It never got better,” Brind’Amour said after the game. “It was a tough game..”

After an emotionally charged, complete-game road victory at Florida, with goalie Pyotr Kochetkov poised and at his best against last year’s Stanley Cup champs, the Canes returned home for a back-to-back set. Kochetkov was again in net Saturday. Another sellout crowd settled in.

“We just didn’t respond,” Brind’Amour said.

There was not a lot for the home fan to cheer. Kochetkov made a few nice saves. There were some promising offensive chances. The Canes had a four-minute power play early in the game after Seth Jarvis was high-sticked and bloodied.

But this was a game where, as Brind’Amour said, the Canes (23-14-2) came up flat. They were slow to pucks, lost board battles, had shots blocked and got a big lift from no one.

“We were kind of just hoping something good was going to happen, and hoping maybe somebody else was going to do it,” Canes captain Jordan Staal said. “We lost the special teams battle, which always hurts. Our five on five play was pretty ugly. There really wasn’t a push at all. .

“It’s 82 games and we had an emotional game the other night (at Florida) and played great. I think it’s just our mindset. I think we were kind of just moseying on into the game. It’s the NHL. You can’t just kind of show up and see what happens. When you do that, it looks like that.”

That four-minute power play? The Canes had one shot against a team ranked 30th in the NHL on the penalty kill. Carolina was 0-4 on the power play in the game.

“The power play sucked the life out of us at the start,” Brind’Amour said.

In the second period, the Canes appeared to get a fortunate bounce when a Jalen Chatfield shot from the point glanced off the skate of Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm and past Gustavsson.

But the goal was challenged by Wild coach John Hynes. After review, it was ruled that the Canes’ Jackson Blake was offside — Blake trying to leave the ice on a change — and the goal wiped out. Still 2-0, WIld.

Minnesota (25-11-4), playing its fifth game without leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov, got two goals and an assist from Mats Zuccarello, who had tormented the Canes in the past. Marco Rossi had a career-high four assists, and Matt Boldy a goal and two assists as the Wild’s top line dominated.

The Wild scored the game’s first goal in the first period. After Boldy knocked Canes defenseman Ty Smith off the puck in the Carolina zone, Rossi set up Zuccarello for a shot the forward buried.

Zuccarello then earned the primary assist on a second-period power-play goal by the Wild. His outside shot was deflected by Joel Eriksson Ek and past Kochetkov for a 2-0 lead. That came after Kochetkov was called for tripping Marcus Foligno as Foligno swept past the net.

Zuccarello has 10 goals and 36 points in 40 career games against Carolina.

There would be no comeback in the third period for the Canes, who had center Jack Drury return to the lineup after missing 10 games with an injury. Boldy finished off a strong overall game by scoring his 14th of the season on a breakaway midway through the third for a 3-0 lead.

Gustavsson, who was third in the NHL in save percentage, took it from there, closing out his ninth career shutout

There was one telling moment for Carolina early in the game. Canes forward Andrei Svechnikov, who has one five-on-five goal this season, had a nice opening in the Wild zone and got off a good shot from the slot.

But Svechnikov again was denied. He put his head down on the side of the cage for a second, a sign of both disappointment and likely frustration.

“The execution level, the battle level, the 50-50’s, the special teams, just the mindset ... everything was wrong.,” Staal said. “And that’s what it looks like. And I feel bad for our fans tonight.”