After so many deep playoff runs that simply fell brief, and after so many postseason disappointments, the Carolina Hurricanes are as soon as once more Stanley Cup champions.
Due to their 3-0 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday night time, the Hurricanes have received the second Stanley Cup in franchise historical past and their first because the 2005-06 season.
This explicit period of Hurricanes hockey was outlined by robust common seasons that all the time appeared to fizzle out within the second or third spherical.
Now it’s outlined by a championship, and one of the crucial spectacular Stanley Cup runs in latest historical past.
Carolina ended up going 16-3 within the playoffs, and steamrolling over each crew that stood in entrance of them.
Recreation 6 winners
Brandon Bussi, goalie, Carolina Hurricanes. When the 2025-26 season started, Bussi was a 27-year-old goalie who had by no means performed a recreation within the NHL and was claimed by the Hurricanes off waivers. He by no means figured to be a key participant this season.
He not solely turned out to be a key participant throughout the common season, however he additionally helped flip the tide within the Stanley Cup Ultimate and received three consecutive begins to assist safe the Cup.
He capped that run off with a 22-save shutout within the Stanley Cup-clinching recreation.
Goaltending has all the time been one of many query marks for this Hurricanes crew, and it was a participant that no person ever anticipated that ended up lifting the Cup for them.
Taylor Corridor, ahead, Carolina Hurricanes. Corridor has been a No. 1 general decide, an NHL MVP and a first-line participant for a number of franchises. However crew success has all the time escaped him, and it began to turn into a criticism of him as a participant.
Was he a participant you would win with?
Did he have the juice in huge video games and crunch time?
He answered these questions emphatically this postseason. His objective to open the scoring on Sunday goes within the books because the game-winning objective and offers him seven targets and 19 whole factors in 19 playoff video games.
His identify is now on the Stanley Cup. He’s formally a winner.
Eric Tulsky, normal supervisor, Carolina Hurricanes. He was not a finalist for the final supervisor of the yr. However he ended up getting the one trophy each normal supervisor in the end needs.
Tulsky pushed all the proper buttons over the previous yr.
He acquired Corridor as a part of the Mikko Rantanen commerce. He traded Rantanen for Logan Stankoven and two first-round draft picks. He traded one in every of these picks for Ok’Andre Miller. He signed Nikolaj Ehlers. He has the core of this crew locked in on team-friendly, cap-friendly contracts.
He has constructed a monster of a crew. It nonetheless has extra years on the prime forward of it.
Rod Brind’Amour, head coach, Carolina Hurricanes. He’s merely the face of Carolina hockey. The primary time the Hurricanes received the Stanley Cup, Brind’Amour was their captain as a participant. Now he introduced it again 20 years later because the crew’s head coach.
Recreation 6 losers
Vegas Golden Knights general efficiency. Perhaps they only ran out of steam. Perhaps a well-rested Carolina crew was an excessive amount of. Perhaps Carolina was simply an excessive amount of normally. However this was a surprising efficiency in an elimination recreation with the Stanley Cup on the road.
At one level, the Golden Knights went almost 20 minutes of recreation time with out a shot on objective.
They completed the sport with solely 22 pictures on objective, with most of them coming in a desperation try late within the recreation. It was simply not something near a successful efficiency.
Mitch Marner, ahead, Vegas Golden Knights. Marner had an excellent playoff and did loads to vary the narrative round his profession. However he actually struggled late on this sequence, and there may be one different factor that must be identified right here.
He had an opportunity to be traded to Carolina on the 2025 NHL commerce deadline for Rantanen.
He rejected it.
Now he has to look at Carolina elevate the Stanley Cup on his new crew’s residence ice.
