Good morning from 38,000 feet above the ground.

I waited to blog until now for two reasons: 1) I was the last one out of the arena last night, and I didn't want to make the press-room security guard working a Sunday have to wait on me any longer; 2) I was late for my friend's beer-league game in Wake Forest. It was riveting. Some good players on his team though, including Canes assistant GM Jason Karmanos. The Wild has the day off today. As I guaranteed to Canes play-by-play guy John Forslund, a couple reporters, a janitor and anybody in ear shot of me prior to yesterday's game, the Canes' 14-game winless streak was going to end. All the stars were aligned for the Canes: 1) I know the Wild by now. It was obvious in Washington they'd come out on fire and then lose their legs in the second and third after arriving at their hotel at 3 a.m. that day. A few weeks ago, it was obvious they'd lay an egg to Vancouver after four off-days following back-to-back wins against the Rangers and Penguins. And after scrapping practice Saturday and not having a morning skate Sunday, I figured they'd come out flat in the first period yesterday. That's just the type of team they are; 2) Wild was 0-3 lifetime at Carolina; 3) I was covering the game. It's been so long since I've seen a road win, Dan Fritsche was still in the league (you'd think I'd make the Wild at ease with my smiling face); 4. Carolina would be motivated not to break a 30-year franchise-record winless streak; 5) Even though I don't think he was up for the winless streak part, Todd Richards was on that '91-92 Hartford team that set the Whalers/Canes record. I just felt that was a weird coincidence. When Richards said after the game that the Wild wasn't committed in the first period to doing the things necessary to win, he couldn't have been more dead-on accurate. The Wild not only didn't win a battle, they didn't try to. They were completely disinterested in this final game of a four-game trip. Every single time they went into a battle situation, the Hurricanes skated out with the puck. They took lazy penalties. Their power play was a disaster. And their penalty kill, which is normally good, struggled, including Niklas Backstrom. The officiating was also pretty lousy, too. Penalties ignored all game, and my favorite was referee Francois St. Laurent somehow sending only Cal Clutterbuck to the box for a second-period rough when Clutterbuck was in a Chad Larose headlock for about five seconds from behind. Ten seconds later, Brandon Sutter gave Carolina a 4-1 lead. But with the Wild drowning, Robbie Earl and John Scott were the ones to stunningly awake the suppressed team with their first NHL goals 20 seconds apart. The Wild, taking advantage of some huge losses to Carolina like minuteman defenseman Joni Pitkanen, was all over the Canes and could have tied the score at 4-4 by the end of the second. Michael Leighton robbed Mikko Koivu with a desperation blocker save. Earl missed an open net. Sutter slid through the crease to block another Earl chance. Leighton stopped Kyle Brodziak from point-blank. But in the third, the Wild tied it on Earl's second of the game. I really think the Wild could have won it in regulation had the Wild's typical momentum-killing power play not been allowed to climb the boards one further time. The Wild had momentum at 5-on-5, the Hurricanes had lost three players and then the standing-still power play killed things. Suddenly, Richards wasn't using Earl as much and flow was lost. The Wild spent the last five minutes of the third scrambling around its own zone. But Backstrom came up big there, and in overtime before Jussi Jokinen won it in the shootout. Certain guys just didn't show up. Martin Havlat -- no shots, lost continual battles. Since Oct. 8, Havlat's got one goal and two assists. Eric Belanger looked exhausted. He doesn't have a point in six games. Kim Johnsson was a plus-trois. Greg Zanon is fifth in the league in blocked shots now and has been a minus player ONCE in the past 13 games. Brent Burns was a plus-4 one game after his turnover led to the game-losing goal. Burns refused to talk to the media. Benoit Pouliot tried to give it a go in warmups, but it looked like he couldn't hold his stick. He's got a hand injury, so defenseman John Scott was a last-second fill-in at forward. The Wild just lacks depth right now without Bouchard, Sykora, Kobasew and now Pouliot. I think Carolina was missed a few bigger names though, like its No. 1 center and goalie. But I digress. Like I said, Wild's taking the day off, and for what I think is the first time since I've been the Wild beat writer, we'll be going dark in tomorrow's paper unless there's news. With no real access the last two or three days because of the lack of morning skates and practices, the well's dry. Rachel Blount covering practice Tuesday. I'll be back Wednesday to take you through the next week.