The Carolina Hurricanes have begun their Stanley Cup defense. Unfortunately, it has not been a great start to life in 2026-27 for the defending champions. Rod Brind'Amour was not pleased with his team's latest performance against the Washington Capitals.

Alex Tuch scored twice in his team debut for Washington. The Capitals cruised to a 5-2 win over Carolina on Friday night. After the game, Brind'Amour expressed his displeasure with his team and their performance on Friday.

“We have a couple guys who need to get their game up. When we’ve got 20 guys rolling, we’re a good team. When we don’t, it’s too hard,” the Hurricanes coach said, via NHL.com. “The start was not good. You get behind the 8-ball with kind of a freebie. You can’t give good teams free goals. I thought we gave two of those up tonight.”

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Goaltender Brandon Bussi had a bit of an unfortunate performance himself in this contest. Bussi had some costly misplays on the puck that led directly to Washington goals. The Hurricanes could not overcome those misplays and have fallen once again as a result.

Carolina also lost its opening contest against the Florida Panthers. That was a close affair between two excellent teams. However, Gustav Forsling ended the game in overtime to give the Panthers the win in that contest.

Carolina has some things to work on early in the season. There is still a ton of hockey to be played, though. The Hurricanes are back in action on Saturday when they take on the Philadelphia Flyers on the road.