RALEIGH, N.C. — While everyone’s wondering about where Tony DeAngelo is mentally — and he was cheerfully defiant Monday after his contretemps with Brad Marchand on Sunday — it’s not like he’s the only one.
As the series shifts back home for Game 5 reset to even at two games apiece, the Carolina Hurricanes’ early advantage lost in a spectacular road implosion, it’s clear now this is going to be won or lost not between the blue lines, but between the ears, and the Hurricanes have gone from decisively winning that battle to comprehensively losing it.
That includes DeAngelo’s composure, the team’s (sudden lack of) discipline, a stalled power play, Frederik Andersen’s continuing absence and the fact that the Hurricanes worked so assiduously to evict the Boston Bruins from their heads in the regular season and at the start of this series, only to let them stroll right back in.
