Kevin Bieksa pins 3-0 series deficit on Hurricanes' disunited squad as opposed to coherent Panthers

Kevin Bieksa blamed the Carolina Hurricanes’ poor team unity for their 3-0 series deficit against the Florida Panthers. The Hurricanes have lost three consecutive games after Saturday's 6-2 loss in the Eastern Conference finals, similar to their performance in the 2023 playoffs.

During the Sportsnet broadcast, Bieksa talked about the Carolina Hurricanes' predicament.

"This series has been a beat down, and I don't think we expected it," Bieksa said. "I think we expected to be a little bit closer. It's 3-0. So for me, the difference is one team is willing to go through a wall between the whistles and after and another team's not. That's the difference."

Bieksa talked about Sam Reinhart, who did not play but was in the locker room helping his team. He called out the lineup and encouraged the players.

Bieksa then proceeded to mention that Florida looks like a strong team, while Carolina doesn’t show the same connection on the ice. He talked about Matthew Tkachuk's going after Sebastian Aho because of a hit from the last game, despite already having won the game.

Bieksa pointed out how all the Panthers on the ice supported Tkachuk, and at the same time, no Hurricanes players tried to engage.

"Now, what's concerning is you don't see any white jerseys in there," Bieksa said. "You see a whole bunch of red. You see all red. They're a team. They got each other's back. There's no tough guys on Florida, on the ice right there. There's no fighters.

"There's five guys that are going to do whatever it takes, and they remember and they're going to stick up for their buddy. And the white team [doesn't stick up for their buddy] doesn't do that."

The incident happened in the third period when Panthers were up 5-1. Tkachuk received a roughing penalty and a game misconduct. Whereas, Sam Bennett and Jackson Blake also received a roughing penalty.

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Florida Panthers continue to dominate the Carolina Hurricanes

The Panthers beat Carolina 6-2 in Game 3. They scored five goals in the first 10 minutes of the third period. Aleksander Barkov had two goals and an assist. Niko Mikkola scored twice. Jesper Boqvist had one goal and two assists. Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves.

Logan Stankoven and Seth Jarvis scored for Carolina. Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 22 shots in his first start of the series.

The Panthers are now leading the series 3-0, and they can sweep it with a Game 4 win on Monday. Carolina has now lost 15 straight games in the Eastern Conference final.

Game 4 is do-or-die for the Hurricanes.