The Hurricanes had problems staying consistent tonite. They were lucky that the Hitmen only scored one goal in the 1st, while the Hitmen were lucky to get the goal they did score... lucky that Seabrook was on the ice that is. I don't think Seabrook will be playing for Lethbridge next year, I can smell a controversy. They seemed to pressure the Hitmen only when Seabrook was on the bench, otherwise Seabrook was making horrible mistakes left, right and center. It almost seemed like he wanted to lose, a player of his calibre shouldn't have been making such bone headed mistakes. Lucas' goal shouldn't have been, Seabrook coughed up the puck to Lucas, dropped his head in shame and half-hazardly skated back after Lucas.
I think there were a few injuries for the Hurricanes whether mental or actually physical we may never know. Yellowhorn who is usually strong on the puck and very physical was playing like he would've been killed if he so much as brushed up against a hitmen player. Either the Hitmen's size advantage got into the heads of the Canes or there was injuries. Even though the Hurricanes are a smaller team, they never played like they were until this series. It could be inexperience, the majority of the roster had never been in the playoffs next year.
The Hitmen didn't play like a solid playoff team, they just played more consistant than the Hurricanes. Ladd took a very undisciplined penalty by bumping into a Cane from behind as the Cane was leaving the ice after a whistle. The ref wasn't a very good ref though, I find that Zalaski calls way too many penalties for piddly-ass stuff and lets some very blatant fouls go unnoticed. The hightlight of the game could very well have been when the ref took the puck off the side of the helmet when a Hitmen defenseman tried to clear the puck off the glass, mere moments later the ref nearly took the puck in the head again when the Hitmen finally got the puck out of their zone.
Whether they were physically or mentally unprepared, the Hurricanes were not prepared for the playoffs and the Hitmen deserved to win this series. Look out next year though, if Stocker gets lucky and pulls off some good trades and brings some size to the Hurricanes lineup, the Canes will be a better force. If it weren't for Ladd and Getzlaf stepping up for the playoffs this series would still be going on. Pogge was very solid too.
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