'Canes Insider: Hurricanes lacking punch

The Hurricanes are trying to put a bad three-day stretch behind them. They lost twice at home, and there was no positive spin coming after Sunday's 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars. "We gave up 10 goals at home in the last two games," coach Paul Maurice said. "That's just not enough fight." It's a month into the season, and the Hurricanes are already sounding concerned. They've failed to impose their style of play on opponents, and without enough converting around the net on offense it's not a good mixture. Sometimes they've played more efficiently on the road. So that means Tuesday night's game at New Jersey might be the right tonic if the Hurricanes put forth the effort to make it turn out that way. "It wouldn't matter who we play next," Maurice said. "The fight is going to have to be there or we're not going to beat anybody right now playing like that." Maurice sometimes likes to put a positive twist on how the team has played. He didn't go anywhere near that after the past weekend. NOTES, QUOTES The Hurricanes made their first in-game goalie change of the season when G Cam Ward was replaced by G Brian Boucher during the second period of Sunday's loss. Defensemen largely took responsibility for letting Ward down. "There's nothing worse (than seeing that happen)," D Tim Gleason said of a goalie skating off during a substitution. On the flip side, it became the home debut for Boucher, who has started three games on the road. At least the Hurricanes figured out some of their power-play woes. Now they have just about everything else to address. The misery on the power play dimmed as both of their goals came on power-play tallies in the 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars on Sunday. Yet it wasn't all good because the Hurricanes also surrendered a goal during one of their power plays. QUOTE TO NOTE "Just soft on pucks all over the ice. We lost every battle. ... They came down the ice and beat us. I don't have an explanation for it." -- Coach Paul Maurice, pointing out that Sunday was the first time this season that the team came out without signs of a spark at the start.