HC Rod Brind'Amour publicly calls out Hurricanes' star players for no-show in Game 3's 6-2 beatdown by Panthers

The Carolina Hurricanes were handed a 6-2 beatdown by the Florida Panthers in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night. The Hurricanes now trail the series 3-0, just one game away from elimination.

After the disappointing performance, Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour called out some of his star players for not showing up. Specifically, he criticized the team's best players.

"As I said just bad decision making. And you know, the four rookies in the lineup can't be some of your better players, like that can't happen. So there's a couple guys in there that I don't think came to play the way they needed to in this time of year. Brind'Amour said.

“It can't be Jordan Staal and Martinook being our best players like that. That can't always be that way. And there they are every night. So we needed, we needed more out of some guys."

Aleksander Barkov and Niko Mikkola each scored two goals for Florida. Jesper Boqvist, and Brad Marchand also netted.

Logan Stankoven and Seth Jarvis provided the only offense for Carolina, as Florida has dominated the series with a 16-4 scoring advantage over the first three games. Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 24 shots, while Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov gave up six goals on 26 attempts.

The loss extends the Hurricanes’ Eastern Conference final losing streak to 15 straight games. They have been swept in each of their last three trips, with Florida responsible for nearly half of those defeats, including all four games in the 2023 series.

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Recap of Carolina Hurricanes' 6-2 loss against Florida Panthers

Florida took the lead in the first when Niko Mikkola’s pass deflected off Dmitry Orlov’s skate and in. Carolina tied it late in the second on a power-play rebound goal by Logan Stankoven.

Adam Boqvist restored the Panthers' lead early in the third with a breakaway backhander, and Mikkola added his second minutes later.

Aleksander Barkov scored twice in quick succession. First, Barkov converted a pass from Matthew Tkachuk following a Carolina giveaway, then added another when his shot deflected off Shayne Gostisbehere’s stick and found the net.

Then, Brad Marchand scored on a 2-on-1 with Anton Lundell's assist. Seth Jarvis netted a late power-play goal for the Hurricanes to make it 6-2.

Game 4 is on Monday at Amerant Bank Arena in Florida.