They were losing games with Kochetkov in the net also.
Their biggest issue every year is scoring. You win in the playoffs with star players and they don’t have them. It’s no more complicated than that.
Freddy Andersen is just a distraction topic.
NYR outscored CAR 20-19 in the 6-game series (or 19-18 discounting ENs). The 1st 4 games were decided by a 1-goal margin (2 in OT). Games 5 and 6 were (discounting the 2 ENs, 1 in each) a 2-goal margin and 1-goal margin.
Goals x games NYR: 1G x 1, 3G x 2, 4G x 2, 5G x 1 (20)
Goals x games CAR: 2G x 1, 3G x 3, 4G x 2 (19)
Number of games scoring 3+ non-EN goals: NYR - 5/6 CAR - 5/6
Non-EN GPG Avg: NYR - 3.17 CAR - 3.0
(Note that there were no blowout games in this series to radically skew the average. They generally reflect the closeness is scoring).
Until 6:43 of the 3rd period of Game 6, and up 3-1 when their epic meltdown began, in the Series CAR had outscored the NYR 19-16.
While Canes' lack of PP scoring (which indeed is a recurring problem) could have been a difference-maker in games 1-3, to say a lack of scoring (even at 3 GPG) is the reason they failed in this Series isn't credible unless that generalization is applied to 15/16 playoff teams who also don't win the SC.
The only real scoring problem with CAR was allowing 2 x ES and 1 PP goal within 9 minutes in the 3rd of Game 6. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more glaring example of how easily games are lost without a good Defence.