While the scoreline may not be as terrible, considering the Carolina Hurricanes‘ final goal came on a Sebastian Aho empty-netter, the game was stale from Florida. The first period seemed to dig the team into too much of a hole to climb out of, even with Evgenii Dadonov‘s first of the season making the game interesting late on.
The Florida Panthers actually seemed to start well inside the first 6:30 of the first period. They were playing up-tempo, keeping up with Carolina’s speed, not turning the puck over, and limiting Rod Brind’Amour‘s men to just one shot on goal.