They've played 54 games with No. 55 on tap Friday night in Los Angeles, but for all intents and purposes, the Carolina Hurricanes' season is over.

	CHIRPIN'
	"When you're not scoring, I think your confidence is getting lower and lower, game after game. It's always behind your mind. You try to not think about it but obviously it's behind your mind. You're squeezing the stick a little harder. It's like a snowball effect. Even though you don't want to think about it, it's just there." -- Bruins' right wing Martin Lapointe after scoring just his second goal of the season on Thursday night
	THE NUMBER
	64 Career shutouts for Toronto goalie Ed Belfour, his latest coming in a 6-0 thrashing of the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night.
	WHO'S HOT
	Buffalo goaltender Martin Biron has a goals-against average of 1.16 in his last five starts.
	WHO'S NOT
	Carolina forward Bates Battaglia has one goal in his last 23 games.

Gone is any hope of them repeating their run to the Stanley Cup finals. Gone is any chance of them even making the playoffs. On Thursday, coach Paul Maurice put seven players through the ultimate bag skate -- prompting an angry response from forward Jeff O'Neill -- in the hopes of getting their attention. But in short order someone else is going to have a bigger impact on their futures -- general manager Jim Rutherford.

In a candid interview, Rutherford said he held a meeting with his staff during the All-Star break and promised that changes are coming. He's disappointed with the season his club has had and believes the best way to remedy it is to change the mix and look to the future.

Less than one day after the declaration, Rutherford pulled the trigger on the first of wha tcould be a multitude of changes by shipping Sami Kapanen to Philadelphia for Pavel Brendl and defenseman Bruno St. Jacques.

"We're at a point now where we're starting to plan for next year and even beyond that, positioning ourselves going into a new system," said Rutherford. "That's really where we're headed. That is a tough decision especially because we went to the finals with a team I thought would be very good again this year."

Injuries to key personnel have hurt them, the short summer affected some players and more than a few got a little too full of themselves. Those three factors combined were too much for the club to overcome.

"You go to the finals and people view things differently and approach things differently, and I think that's what happened to our team with some of our players. And then it became a chemistry thing in the room," said Rutherford. "More people were smarter about certain things, which they didn't need to be because of going to the finals, and I think we have to change the chemistry in the room and that's what I'm going to do."

When asked about the ego factor, Rutherford was cautious in his assessment. But after pondering the subject, he decided that saying some players were too full of themselves really wasn't offbase.

"It's more of maybe being overconfident and not preparing the same way," he said.

The March 11 trade deadline is looming and some clubs, looking to bolster their rosters going into the stretch run and playoffs, may come calling. Rutherford said he'll definitely be listening. Dealing away veterans for prospects is in the offing.

"I think we'll start doing that now," he said.

When asked about the specifics of what went wrong, Rutherford attributed it to 1) inconsistent goaltending, 2) burnout and 3) injuries.

"Coming out of last year, the short summer was something that most of our players weren't used to," he said. "I think there was a burnout for some of them in a sense for some of them mentally and physically, having to get right back into it and perform at the level we need to. And we had some key injuries. Defensemen Bret Hedican and David Tanabe were out at the same time. Now for the second half of the season, Erik Cole and Rod Brind'Amour are going to be out for the season. We're not a team with a lot of depth that when you lose players like that, you can get by. We were successful last year with our discipline, tight-checking, low-scoring games and good goaltending. Our goaltending has not been at the level it was last year."

	“	I think we have to change the chemistry in the room and that's what I'm going to do. ”
		— Jim Rutherford, Hurricanes general manager

Kevin Weekes, who was so strong in the playoffs last spring, started well but never really got back on track after suffering a concussion. Arturs Irbe's performance has been all over the place.

"Certainly in Kevin's case, he has such a great start and then had the injury and he has not been at the level he was at prior to that," said Rutherford. "That being said, he still played pretty well and the team has not been able to score for him. In Archie's case, he just hasn't seemed to be able to get it on track on a consistent basis. He'll have a couple of good games and then he'll struggle. So for some reason, his focus and consistency has not been what it was."

Kapanen has had a very disappointing year. In 43 games, he had 18 points and was a brutal minus-17.

"I think he's one of those guys that I talked about with dealing with the short offseason," said Rutherford. "He had a groin pull for about four or five weeks, which slowed him down and even kept him out of some games. A couple of weeks after he came back, he wasn't as good but then he started to play better. He's actually in the last month probably played pretty hard and played pretty well but just hasn't been able to produce like he did."

His 69 points last year gave the club hope he was on the brink of lifting his game to the next level.

"Or even if doesn't take the next step, just come back and repeat what he did," said the GM. "It would be much better than what we had. He's a very intense guy. It's hockey, hockey, hockey. He's worked himself so hard that his confidence level is not there and maybe he's put too much pressure on himself."

Maurice has been consulting with Rutherford about what to do, given that the team has dropped 12 of 13 and 22 of 27. The bag skate was the latest attempt to shake up things.

"He's trying all these different things," said Rutherford. "It's difficult on any coach when you lose the kind of players that we've lost at key times. And not having the same level of goaltending. When you consider those factors, it doesn't matter how you coach. He said, 'I don't know what to try next.' It's just one of those years. We came off a year where the second half, we played very well and everything went right. This year, we haven't played as well and everything has gone wrong."

Depth chart

	Hackett