from Luke DeCock of the News & Observer,

So here, just short of a quarter of the way through the season, is a turning point. After doing all the right things and failing to be rewarded for most of the past several weeks, the Carolina Hurricanes did none of the right things Saturday night and were duly punished. Duly embarrassed. Duly booed by those fans still willing to put in the effort.

A team that has been able to take pride in its hustle, if not its goal-scoring or goaltending, couldn’t even claim that Saturday. After four days off, the Hurricanes took a fifth unscheduled, snoozing their way through a 4-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets in their worst performance of the year and worst under Rod Brind’Amour, whose dogged stoicism finally shattered with a tongue-lashing of the entire bench during a second-period timeout....

This team has a decision to make now: Get back to playing the way it played to start the season, even in the absence of any positive reinforcement, or throw in the towel. By Sunday night, the answer will be clear.

“That’s the first game where I have not been happy with everything,” Brind’Amour said. “Do you give it a pass? Do you shuffle the deck? I don’t know. We’ll think about it. We’ll look through it again and make an assessment for tomorrow.”

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