Can we point to where things went wrong for the Carolina Hurricanes in this series?

So, I thought we would set aside a little bit of time to not just talk about the series, but maybe where it all went wrong this year. Because I think you can trace it back to maybe not a day or a game or an injury, because I don't think, again, I keep saying this, the injuries to Andrei Svechterkov and Max Pacioretty, are they factors?

Yeah. But we watched these four games, and it was still there for Carolina to win. Honestly, the criticism that I keep seeing I think is misplaced. Carolina needs, Carolina's system creates a team that can win.

It just does. And that's why they will continue to play it. They're not going to change what they do. But at some point during the year, Carolina kind of forgot all the good that they did in the summer. So let's go back further from where Carolina, from the time of the injury and all of that. The injury to Svechterkov or the injury to Pacioretty.

So let's go back. At the end of last year, everybody realized that, man, they just can't get that big goal. If they could just get somebody to get that big goal, it would be a different story.

And we hear that again. As a matter of fact, Craig Button from TSN, who is a former front office executive and all of that, Craig Button was on their version of SportsCenter. It's also called SportsCenter, but spelled R-E. And he was asked, what is Carolina missing? They were a little bit smallish and they needed more scoring. So what did Don Waddell do last summer? He went out and he got Brent Burns, a massive help on the blue line, and he traded for Max Pacioretty, another scorer. So we can look at where they were maybe falling short in previous years, but Don Waddell went and addressed it. What was unfortunate for the Carolina Hurricanes this year is that Max Pacioretty tore his Achilles, came back, tore it again, and then they lose Svechterkov.

These are two premier offensive players. When you score six goals in four games of a conference final, I don't think you have to look any further than the lack of scoring. But I don't think it's not recognizing what they needed.

I think they did recognize it. I think Don Waddell made some great moves, but you can't control injuries. And the loss of Svechterkov and the loss of Pacioretty put them into a tough spot. If they were healthy, I think this series might be a little bit different.

The outcome, certainly. And I don't think it would be a sweep, certainly. Well, it shouldn't have been a sweep anyway. Carolina had an opportunity to win every single game of the series. It just happened to be a sweep.

All right. They recognized that they needed more offense. I'm not sure the Burns part of that is as accurate because they were a good offensive club last year, thanks to their contributions of Tony D'Angelo.

And the years before then, they were a good offensive team because of the contributions of Dougie Hamilton. Do I think Burns is a better version of those two players? Absolutely. He's not very physical, though, and that's an issue that we have to address. He was getting physical last night, though. Yeah, no.

And I respect it because in that sense, you have to. Well, I mean, he will be physical. But Burns is first and foremost, a skater, right? Where just to compare him to Dougie Hamilton.

Sure. Dougie is not interested in being a physical player. Burns will do it. Burns will definitely do it. They rely more on their skill. But I know Burns, I think intimidates with his size more than his beard and his beard. More than running people into the boards in the corner. There are certain players like Jacob Truba isn't as good as Brent Burns, but everybody knows where Jacob Truba is.

You better because if you don't, he's coming for you. Not saying that Brent Burns needs to be that player, but I wouldn't when I close my eyes and think about Brent Burns. It's not physicality. It's the skill. He has next level skill. He's that good. And he can be physical, but I wouldn't call him a physical player.

Same with Max Pacharetti. He's got a big body and he'll use it. But for the most part, he's not drilling you. Okay, I just want to move away from that element, which I think Carolina needs. All of Carolina's defense, they're great defenseman. It's not a very physical defense. It's a positional defense. It's a good skating defense. It's a smart defense, but it's not necessarily a physical defense. I think Jalen Chatfield could end up being their most physical defenseman, right?

I think Chatfield can play that way. But they went out and they acquired Max Pacharetti for a reason. And what was the reason they went out and acquired Max Pacharetti? Because they needed somebody who was a perennial 30 goal scorer when healthy, albeit Max had had trouble staying healthy the last couple years.

But when he was in the lineup, he was a goal producer. They went out and they got that. And then when Pacharetti got hurt the second time, they didn't replace it.

So you recognized you had the need because you went out, you proved it by going out and getting Max. And then with, by the way, Svechnikov still in your lineup, Pacharetti gets hurt again. You know he's done for the year. You have $10 million in available cap space. And they did not replace that which they acquired in the off season that they felt they needed. That to me is the miss on this year.

And I will use it this way. Even when Max had not come back the first time, having watched Carolina play October, November, December, knowing that Pacharetti was coming back, my brain was telling me I still think they're one forward short. Then am I an expert?

Obviously not, right? My brain, I think they're one forward short. Then Max goes down. Then Andre goes down. They didn't replace either. Now they couldn't replace Andre because Andre, that happened after the trade deadline.

What ended up happening, this is no offense to anybody. What ended up happening in the playoffs is that players who, yeah, they're good now, but when we get to the next stage of the season probably can't be on the ice for us if we want to win. I mean, I love Derek Stepan and he didn't play the last couple of games. Stepan is a guy that gets you through the regular season and then when you get to the playoffs, I'm not saying you can't use him, but you probably need to have other options.

You need a caliber player, a top guy, a Patrice Bergeron. You don't need a top guy for Derek Stepan. Actually, Mackenzie McEachern was a better option in the playoffs than Derek Stepan. Maybe not every night, but when you needed some speed and you needed some physicality, he was a better option. I agreed with him slotting in over Derek Stepan, but better than Mackenzie McEachern would have been somebody better than Mackenzie McEachern and that's what Carolina didn't have. That's what they didn't acquire.

Yesit Pulyarvi was sorry. It was a joke the time they made the trade and it's a bigger joke now that he was a healthy extra for the last series. He did nothing for them. Now granted, he cost nothing, but he did nothing. You got exactly what you paid for and that was a waste of time. Forget about the cap hit. That was a waste of time. I understand what they were doing with that. They were thinking, well, you know, maybe he'll become something.

Whatever. He hadn't become anything yet other than, you know, at best a third line winger. So anyway, he's did he have a point at one point for Carolina? Maybe he had two assists. Yeah, he had a wide open goal once wide open and managed to hit a post from like right in front of the net. There's like no way I would have scored the goal if I could skate, but he didn't. He did nothing.

Shane Gostis bear was a smart ad, but they needed to find something else that could help them. And they decided at that point. Yes, Perry kotkaniemi was going through his good stretch and they decided that they didn't need another score because kokaniemi had become he was going through a stretch where he's probably scored about three quarters of a point a game for about a month and they're like, ah, that's our guy.

Now. That's the guy we that we signed as a restricted free agent from Montreal and as it turned out, he wasn't. He was he couldn't sustain that play and it wasn't a good postseason for kokaniemi either by and large and Carolina went into the postseason. With nature's playing poorly kokaniemi playing poorly Tara vine and not playing meaning wasn't available after from game three through six of the islander series wasn't available for the Devils. Maybe came back too soon. He wasn't good in the first couple of games of the series against Florida and frankly didn't start looking like tavo Tara vine and until yesterday.

Yeah, so they really didn't get much out of three players who had to breathe had to be offensive producers for them and to a hose point. He just got beat up. He got abused against the Panthers.

I think I had a very good playoff. He just that was the one player that they mess with the most and it showed because that was everybody knew that that's the guy that's the guy you're gonna rely on so in a big game and and he could not elevate above that for obvious reasons. He's not a big guy. Size Matters Carolina has needed to add size for years. They won't do it.

I know I shouldn't say won't do it. They haven't done it. I think they missed the boat in this playoff or in this year because they told you that they needed a score went out and got it and then when they realized he wasn't going to be available they decided then that well, I guess we don't need the score. Of course you did. Of course you did you just decided for whatever reason and we can speculate all day long they decided they didn't need the scoring but they did but they did.