If extra hockey was what you wanted in the first game back from the All-star game, then you got your wish in this one. It took the extra 5-minute three-on-three frame to split the two teams, and the Canes, in the end, were edged out. This was a short-handed Canes team, traveling without one of the vaunted SAT line. Players also left the game with injuries and returned, not to mention those on the COVID-19 protocol list.
For a team that was down three of its best 12 forwards at points in this game, Carolina played very well.