Last season’s Eastern Conference champs left PNC Arena with two points Sunday, with Tampa Bay topping Carolina 4-3 in the old Southeast Division foes’ first meeting of the season.
Three Observations
1. Cam Ward wasn't at his best Sunday, but the fact remains the Hurricanes continue to struggle scoring five-on-five goals. Carolina struck first on Eric Staal’s power play tally, but couldn't again dent shaky Andrei Vasilevskiy until the game’s final minutes when Kris Versteeg converted a breakaway and Jordan Staal scored with Ward pulled with 0.