The Carolina Hurricanes continue to have no answers in the Eastern Conference Final.
The Hurricanes pulled into a second-place tie with the St. Louis Blues for most consecutive losses in a single Stanley Cup playoff round when they dropped their 13th straight Eastern Conference Final game, 5-1, to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
Carolina’s conference-final losing streak is by far the longest active streak in a single round, and it has owned the longest conference-final losing streak ever.
The Hurricanes haven’t won a conference-final game since Game 7 of the 2006 ECF against the Buffalo Sabres when 2025 playoff-leading scorer Seth Jarvis was just four years old. Rod Brind’Amour, who has coached the Hurricanes since 2018-19, scored the game-winning goal in their most recent conference-final win.
Only the Blues, who also lost 13 straight games in the Stanley Cup Final from 1968-2019, and Chicago Blackhawks, who dropped 18 straight NHL quarterfinal-round games from 1975-82, have longer single-round droughts.
Uncharacteristically Consistent
Tuesday night’s loss in Game 1 must have looked awfully familiar to Hurricanes fans — right down to the opponent, Florida, who swept Carolina two years ago.
The Hurricanes dominated the shot (33-20) and shot-attempt counts (56-38) yet could not solve Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 31 saves. Bobrovsky gave up just six goals on 174 shots in the sweep two seasons ago.
Meanwhile, goalie Frederik Andersen came up small, especially in the first period when he allowed the game’s first two goals, including Carter Verhaeghe’s ice-breaking marker.
Likewise, Carolina’s special teams came up small again, despite Jackson Blake’s third-period power-play goal. Carolina’s NHL-best penalty kill, which entered the conference final with just two goals against in 30 PKs, gave up two goals on three attempts Tuesday night.
“They got the two power-play goals. I think that was the difference in the game,” Brind’Amour said. “It was kind of two bad penalties that we don’t need to take that they end up scoring on.”
Two years ago, three of Florida’s four game-winning goals came on the power play, including Matthew Tkachuk’s memorable series-clincher with less than five seconds left.
Still, despite the loss, which extended his own coaching conference-final losing streak to nine, Brind’Amour wasn’t upset with how his team played.
“I didn’t hate our game tonight,” he said. “It’s gonna be hard. It’s gonna go back and forth. I think we had our opportunities and didn’t capitalize and then it went in a different direction.”
But Hurricanes fans could cling to the fact they lost four one-goal games against the Hurricanes two years ago — and both games at Lenovo Center were decided in overtime. Florida’s comfortable win Tuesday must be unnerving to those fans who were hoping this year would be different.
History Repeating
It’s hard to imagine a modern NHL team can lose that many consecutive playoff games, especially when advancing to the third round.
Yet, in a vacuum, the first eight losses were explainable since they came a decade apart.
In both 2009 and 2019, the upstart Hurricanes rode timely goal scoring and hot goaltending to the Eastern Conference Final where they were swiftly handled by superior teams, the Penguins and Bruins.
The 2009 Penguins went on to win the Stanley Cup in seven games. The 2019 Bruins lost to the Blues in seven games in the Cup Final.
Hurricanes make dubious history with Game 1 loss to Panthers