Carolina dies by their own power play

On Tuesday night, the Hurricanes had tons of power play opportunities against the visiting Islanders. Unfortunately, this actually was their demise in the game. They gave up three shorthanded goals in the game, including TWO ON THE SAME POWER PLAY!

If you give up a shorthanded goal, you deserve to lose the game. If you give up three, well, I just don't know.

There's no excuse at all for that kind of thing.

Carolina managed to register forty-some odd shots on goal. Whoopty doo. Three of them found the back of the net.

Despite stinking up their own barn, Carolina managed to fight and claw their way back into it, and were down by just one goal with about five minutes to play. A power play opportunity came up, and they were unable to cash in. Later, the Isles got an insurance marker, then later again they got an empty-net goal.

The final tally was 6-3, but Carolina had a couple of excellent chances to tie the game at four late in the third. They didn't deserve it, though.

Carolina won't play again until after the All-Star break, which means that Washington will use up some of its four games in hand. They presently sit four points behind Carolina in the Southeast division.

I imagine they will be working the power play units very hard in practice. Maybe they'll abandon the five-forward power play system.

Eric Staal will be in Atlanta playing in the ASG and participating in the skills competition. Last year, he crushed the accuracy contest.

The rest of the boys need to go somewhere and do something that has nothing to do with hockey. Something fun. After that, they need to have some very hard practices before resuming play on the 29th against the Rangers.