Slavin shoulders blame after Hurricanes' defensive meltdown - ESPN

RALEIGH, N.C. — Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals was an uncharacteristic defensive disaster for the Carolina Hurricanes, and star defenseman Jaccob Slavin felt responsible for it.

«Personally, I think I handed them the game,» Slavin said after the Montreal Canadiens took a 1-0 series lead with a 6-2 rout in Raleigh on Thursday. «I've got to be better.»

Considered by many to be the best «defensive defenseman» in the NHL, Slavin was on the ice for three of the Canadiens' four first-period goals and another in the third period. His minus-4 rating was the worst in his 95 career playoff games and only the second time in his entire NHL career that he was worse than a minus-3 in a game.

«I've never seen that [in] eight years,» said Rod Brind'Amour, who has coached Slavin since 2018. «It happens. They have the ability where if you give them a little room, then it's over. That's what happened tonight. So he'll bounce back.»

Game 1 was a battle between a home team that swept its first two playoff series and a road team that needed seven games to win both of its previous series. It marked the first game action for the Hurricanes since sweeping the Philadelphia Flyers on May 9. The 11-day layoff between playoff rounds was the NHL's longest in 107 years, since Montreal spent 12 idle days in 1919.

«We clearly were not ready for that pace. I'm not going to give the layoff as an excuse, but we weren't ready to play playoff hockey, and that caught us,» Brind'Amour said of the first period.

His players weren't willing to use the layoff as an excuse for their calamitous first 20 minutes either.

«No. I don't think that had anything to do with it. It was just a lack of awareness and just us not being ready to go right from puck drop,»