South Raleigh News

The Carolina Hurricanes suffered a 4-2 defeat against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday, continuing a trend of early setbacks since American Thanksgiving. The game commenced with Ryan McLeod scoring against Dustin Tokarski within the first minute. Despite gaining some momentum later in the period, the Hurricanes could not capitalize on their power play opportunities.

In the second period, Buffalo extended their lead with two more goals. Although Jaccob Slavin and Martin Necas scored for Carolina in the third period, it was insufficient to overturn the deficit. An empty-net goal by Tage Thompson sealed the victory for Buffalo.

Carolina's performance since late November has seen them fall behind early in most games, scoring first in only seven out of 24 matches. Their power play struggles continued as they went 0-for-3 against Buffalo, contributing to a poor conversion rate of 9.3% since Christmas.

Jaccob Slavin surpassed Mark Howe and Glen Wesley with his 52nd career goal as a defenseman but acknowledged areas for improvement: "We could have just played good hockey...It's not good enough...making better puck decisions."

Rod Brind'Amour echoed this sentiment regarding "ugly hockey" from his team: "We essentially just gave goals away again...poor decisions tonight." He emphasized that consistency is crucial: "The urgency needs to be more dialed in from the start of the game."

The Hurricanes will practice in Raleigh before facing Vegas at Lenovo Center on Friday.