The Carolina Hurricanes just cannot find a way to win a game in the Eastern Conference Final. After dominating the New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals in the first two rounds of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the script has been flipped at the hands of the Florida Panthers after a 5-0 Game 2 beatdown on Thursday night.

The Canes have now lost both games at home to the Cats in the series, being outscored 10-2 in the process. And dating back to 2009, Carolina has now somehow lost 14 consecutive games over four East Final appearances.

Insult was added to injury after a Panthers fan threw a rat on the ice at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh.

This Hurricanes team is built to win in the playoffs, and they showed that in tidy five-game victories over the Devils and Capitals. But the Panthers are a different beast altogether. Not only have the Canes not been able to get over the hump in the final four, they've completely imploded once again.

Florida swept Carolina in the 2023 East Final two years ago, and this series is on a very similar trajectory after back-to-back dominant performances by the defending Stanley Cup champions.

The game seemed to be over in the first period after the Panthers scored three goals on just five shots on Frederik Andersen in the opening frame.

“I don’t know what I was watching in the first period. That didn’t go well,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said afterwards, per NHL.com's Kurt Dusterberg. “The margin here is tight, you’re not going to beat this team when we’re not on the same page. I think the intentions were good, everyone was trying … but it’s not how we do it and it just backfired.”

Hurricanes look like they're going to go quietly

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Even without star forward Sam Reinhart, who was injured on a Sebastian Aho hit, the Panthers just looked like the better team from start to finish. And there isn't a ton of belief this squad — which hasn't won an East Final game since capturing the 2006 Stanley Cup — can recover.

“We didn’t play up to our capability in the first two games,” forward Taylor Hall admitted, per Dusterberg. “Obviously, the start of the games is what put us in holes. They do a lot of things well all around the ice, so it’s going to be difficult for us, but we can’t really evaluate much until we can say we’ve played close to our best.”

Florida deserves a ton of credit; the defending champs look absolutely potent after beating the Toronto Maple Leafs in a thrilling Game 7 earlier this week.

It's going to take a herculean effort for Carolina to get back in the series, and not just because they look like the inferior team in all facets. Andersen, who had been the best goalie in the playoffs coming in, was pulled in favor of Pyotr Kochetkov in the third period.

And the Hurricanes now have to go into a hostile Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise and win at least one game to extend the series. If they don't win both, it will probably be another disappointing finish in 2025.

Puck drops on Game 3 just past 8:00 p.m. on Saturday night.