The Carolina Hurricanes were shut out for the first time this season, losing 3-0 to the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center on Tuesday night.
After a scoreless first period, the Hurricanes had an early opportunity with a power play in the second period but failed to capitalize. Instead, St. Louis’ Nick Bjugstad scored shorthanded to give the Blues the lead. The home team added two more goals within just over three minutes, establishing a commanding advantage before the final period.
Carolina was unable to mount a comeback in the third period, unlike their previous game where they overcame a deficit in Detroit. Blues goaltender Joel Hofer recorded 33 saves for his sixth career shutout. Hurricanes goaltender Brandon Bussi made 28 saves but suffered only his third regulation loss of the season.
This defeat marks Carolina’s first scoreless game of the season; only five NHL teams have yet to be shut out during the 2025-26 campaign.
Defenseman Jaccob Slavin did not play due to injury, and Mike Reilly replaced him in the lineup, skating nearly 14 minutes and contributing one shot, one block, and one hit.
Head coach Rod Brind’Amour commented after the game: “It was obvious, right from the start, we had no life. You could just see how we were turning pucks over. It’s not how we play. They capitalized. They played a good team game. Structured, how they’re supposed to. We were trying to do other things, and that never works.”
Team captain Jordan Staal said: “I think we were just hoping for an easy one, really. It just seemed like we were kind of hoping for a ‘We’ll outscore them, we’re going to get our few chances, we’ll give them a couple and we’ll see what happens’ kind of game. We weren’t really ready to play that forechecking game or that stress game that we’ve been talking about. There wasn’t a whole lot of spark from anyone throughout the lineup. It wasn’t pretty.”
Staal continued: “You can’t put yourself in that hole consistently. We’ve got to do a better job with our starts and investing in how we do things, how we play the game, to tilt it in our favor. It’s all fun and games when you’re down and you’re trying to make plays – maybe you get some chances. But for the most part, we didn’t play good enough to win that game.”
Brind’Amour addressed whether playing on back-to-back nights contributed to his team’s performance: “This is part of being a pro. We’ve gone through this with other games too this year, where we’ve had these stretches of three (games) in four (days), and travel, and we have the same result. This is where you have to buckle down and not look the other way…”
Staal also spoke about special teams: “Power play was no good. The penalty kill, we had a chance going one way, and gave up one on the other. The power play didn’t really generate a ton. There was a lot of one-and-dones. We’d get one shot, and they’d send it down. We had a tough time getting it back in their end as well. There wasn’t good enough steady pressure and good shots and retrievals… Everything was just a little off.”
The Hurricanes will return home following this road trip for practice on Thursday before hosting the Florida Panthers at Lenovo Center on Friday.
