Hurricanes HC Rod Brind'Amour makes his thoughts extremely clear after 3-1 loss to Capitals in Round 2 Game 2 

Carolina Hurricanes faced defeat in Game 2, with a score of 3-1 against Washington Capitals in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs on Thursday night. After winning Game 1 with a third-period comeback, the Canes were hoping to take a 2-0 series lead. But, they will have to head home with the series tied 1-1.

Postgame, Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour didn’t sugarcoat his thoughts.

“We weren’t great, that’s for sure," Brind'Amour said via NHL.com. "You’ve got to give Washington credit, they played a much better game. Their first goal was a weird one, it goes off our defenseman for a breakaway, you don’t see that too often. There were other plays that they could have scored on too that could’ve made the game what it was.

"We have to be better, that’s for sure. We knew it was going to be hard. Having said that, we were still right in the game," he added.

Carolina started well in the first period, again outshooting and outskating Washington. But the second period saw the game shift. A bad bounce in the neutral zone gave Capitals forward Connor McMichael a breakaway. He made no mistake, giving Washington a 1-0 lead.

Canes fell behind 2-0 early in the third after a power-play goal by John Carlson. Shayne Gostisbehere cut the lead in half with a power-play goal midway through the period. Carolina pushed hard in the final minutes, but a late empty-net goal by Tom Wilson sealed the win for Washington.

Rod Brind’Amour sees an opportunity for Hurricanes to get better

The Capitals defeated the Hurricanes in Game 2 in yet another close game. Carolina outshot Washington 28-21 but couldn't score enough. Both teams won 50% of faceoffs and went 1-for-3 on the power play.

Carolina had a strong 17-shot third period but didn’t finish their chances.

“We knew it was going to be hard," Brind'Amour added. "We didn’t expect it to be anything (other) than this. Can we be better? Yeah, that’s the good news. We know we have to be better if we want to win. They said the same thing the other night. This is not surprising. It’s tight, tight, tight, and we just have to regroup.”

The Hurricanes will now focus on the positives from their strong effort in the loss. Game 3 will be played in Raleigh on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. ET.