Hurricanes 6, Devils 1: On the ropes

The Devils fell apart following a strong start and now find themselves on the brink of elimination.

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A few notes following a disappointing Game 4 effort from the Devils:

Self-inflicted wounds

It’s no secret how the Hurricanes attack you. It’s never any sort of guessing game. They play the same way every single game.

They are a relentless team that tries to suck the life out of opposing offenses with a never-ending wave of pressure. They are always on top of you and always forcing you to fight through contact, or move the puck quickly and accurately, to gain any sort of traction up ice.

To generate offense against them with any sort of regularity, you have to be tactical and patient. I thought the Devils were early.

They were passing into pressure on breakouts, drawing a Hurricane or two to the puck out wide before deferring it to a teammate closely attacking open ice with speed. This led to plenty of clean exits and allowed the Devils to get into their transition game and threaten the other way.

As the opening period progressed, the Devils got completely away from that. They were disconnected on the breakouts and tried to take the Hurricanes on with individual efforts.

Michael McLeod attacked traffic in the middle of the ice, turned it over, and just like that the Hurricanes tied the game. Luke Hughes – via pass or skating himself – was hellbent on pushing the puck into traffic in the middle of the ice. There were others, too.

I thought the Devils got away from what was working and started forcing the issue individually. The more trouble they had, the more frustrated they became. That led to doing it even more frequently and relying on hero hockey, which never works against Carolina.

The Hurricanes deserve credit for frustrating the Devils but, man, did they feed into it.

Luke Hughes struggled mightily