The Columbus Blue Jackets were last in the Central Division, had lost nine of their last 10 games, have a host of injuries and decided to fly in Saturday, play the Carolina Hurricanes and then fly home.
In other words, it was a dangerous team. At least, that's the way Canes coach Rod Brind'Amour saw it.
"It's a worry, for sure," Brind'Amour said Saturday after the morning skate. "We know we're getting close to the finish line but we're not there yet as far as the regular season. You've just got to guard against that mentality because the other team's going to play hard."
The Blue Jackets did play hard. The game went to overtime before Canes defenseman Dougie Hamilton won it 2-1, beating goalie Elvis Merzlikins with a backhander with 52 seconds left.
The Canes (34-10-7), who maintained their precarious lead in the Central Division, had earlier chances to win in the overtime but Merzlikins stopped Sebastian Aho and Jaccob Slavin.
But Canes goalie Alex Nedeljkovic did his best to build on his growing reputation, firing a breakaway pass off the boards to send Hamilton in alone on a breakaway, where he finished off his ninth goal of the season to push the Canes to victory.
The Blue Jackets (6-25-11) took a 1-0 lead three minutes into the game as Max Domi banged a rebound past Alex Nedeljkovic.
The Canes tied it late in the first on Teuvo Teravainen's blast from the top of the slot. It was his second goal in as many games and pumped up the home fans, some of whom enjoyed tailgating before the game for the first time this season.
Nedeljkovic and Merzlikins stopped everything else in regulation as both teams had 30 shots.
The Blue Jackets had 1:43 of a 5-on-3 power-play advantage in the third period but the Canes, led by defenseman Jaccob Slavin, killed off both penalties to keep it a 1-1 game.
Slavin also had a timely save in the first. With Nedeljkovic out of position and the side of the net open, Slavin went down to block a shot by Emil Bernstrom.
The Canes put in some long, forechecking shifts in the second period but were unable to score and it's still 1-1 after 40 minutes,
Jordan Staal's line continued to spend a lot of time in the Columbus zone, controlling the puck and Warren Foegele had the Canes' best scoring chance in the period. But the Canes were content to let their defensemen unleash shots from the outside and had just five shots on goal in the period.
The Canes began the period on the power play but the Blue Jackets killed off the penalty without allowing a shot.
Former Canes forward Nathan Gerbe of the Blue Jackets had the period's best move, a spin-o-rama in the Canes zone and then a backhander.
