I'm Tired. Tired of losing to Carolina Hurricanes Tired from a draining season on my couch. Tired from a 2nd 2OT game. All we needed to do was get back home, but alas we could not get over these inbreds.
Add it to the list of heartbreak against them:
2009 Game 7
2009 Game 4
2006 Game 2
*2025 Game 5
To be honest, that game was microcosm of this entire season. Started so promisingly. Fell apart quickly in the middle. Held on late in ugly fashion to break even. Finally couldn't last at the end.
We went in with low expectations, but our boys were shot out of a cannon last night. I'm pretty certain everyone in the natural world was shocked at us being up 3-0. They were throwing things at the net, testing Kotchekov and getting rewarded. It started with a Mercer tip and, even after watching the reply, I'm still not sure of the path that puck took in. but bounces are good, we take those. The second one was a gorgeous play. Good step up by Brett, who had great awareness to see Timo streaking in who buried a snipe from the slot. Ok, we are cooking here. WHAT'S THIS another goal??!! A little re-a-rrangement on the power play and Nemec and Dougie on PP2 with some good movement up top, Nemec walked the blueline, got a shot through and Noesen gets a bouncy ball tip. 3-0?! what is happening? Surely this will last!
HAHAHHahahahahahahahhahaahahhaah
Goddammit man.
1:46, 3-1.
4:01, 3-2.
5:40, 3-3.
A 3-goal lead evaporated in a span in less than 4 minutes. A lot of blame to go around for these, and I won't get too deep into it. Marky probably should get the 2nd and 3rd goals. The first, a cross crease pass, he got across well but a bad bounce off his pad and it snuck through his 5-hole. The 2nd was a clusterfuck in the corner and Blake snuck out in front. Bratt turned away reading a point pass, but Blake spun and caught Marky off his post as he was reading cross crease pass. the 3rd, a downhill wrister from the high slot. Not sure if there was traffic in front, or if it just beat him and he was off his line - TNT didn't have the best angles on the replay. Sigh.
We got one back on a GORGEOUS pass from Cotter on a good forecheck, finding Nico barrelling in who sniped one over Kotchekov. But we gave it back on a dumbass penalty from Haula. I saw some people calling this a dive, and maybe Aho sold it a bit, but he was on his right outside edge, and any whiff of a push on the back of your knee will take down a redwood. It's the truth, sorry everyone. He just CANNOT do that and it gave them a 5 on 3. Maybe he was thinking the unwritten "no 5 on 3 rule in the playoffs" was in effect, but that goal was coming. Not much Marky could do about it.
So we enter period 3 tied, and they looked gassed. They were in "hang on for dear life" mode and really not much happened except for Markstrom making up for a bad 2nd and willing us to OT. We got out attempted 21-7, outchanced 7-3 and had zero HD chances to their 3. Marky made 3 outrageous saves on one sequence, and 3 enormous glove saves on other series. This game could have easily been over, just as easily as he let them back in. The first OT was even worse, legit skating in mud, out attempted 29-5, outchanced 12-2, and Marky made several massive saves. No idea how he locked back in, but when we needed him he came through at the end, even though his mistakes contributed to the lead evaporating.
Mercer takes a penalty, and I'm not going to kill him for it. Something that happens 100 times a game - yeah yeah, control your stick etc - but it was a fluke. and it drew blood. We were good for the first half, but 4 minutes and one mistake - letting a seam pass get below the top 2 PKers and we are done here. Disappointing game, but not totally unexpected.
You can cry about the refs, about Markstrom, about Mercer's penalty, about a variety of things. But the one thing that absolutely let us down was special teams. This was supposed to be the one major edge we had going in, and went 0-16 on the PP and our PK got absolutely worked. Guess what? we outscored the Canes 10-9 at 5v5.
The Canes aren't very good, and I take solace in the fact that we gave them a good few games and they are gonna get DUMMIED in the next round (please). We had no business taking them to 2OT in 2 games, and the only game that we weren't in was game 1.
I won't get into players because we will find out soon who was hurting, broken bones, etc. I may write up some player grades and a season post-mortem, but for now that's it a hollow feeling. But I'm gonna go outside, enjoy the weather and book a tee time and hit into Valiquette's group, who has a few week head start on his game. Fuck you, dickhead.
LGD Forever