Whenever a team gets a decent amount of time off there’s always a question of too much rest will generate rust. For the second straight series, the Canes were coming off a long off period after wrapping up their series in five games—but this time their opponent was coming off a game just two nights prior.
In this case, rust was absolutely what the Canes showed.
The Florida Panthers took Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals 5-2 based off a first period where they were able to get into the Hurricanes’ heads, a second period that Carolina started too late, and a third period where chasing the game cost them and they chose to try and make a mark physically against Florida and it bit them.