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For the first time in 20 years, the Carolina Hurricanes are Stanley Cup champions. With a 3-0 win in Game 6, the Hurricanes eliminated the Vegas Golden Knights and secured their place in hockey history.
With the Stanley Cup on the line, Carolina's best line of the playoffs came through one more time. Taylor Hall kicked off the scoring just 3:47 into the game when he beat Carter Hart on a breakaway attempt for his seventh goal of the playoffs.
Assisting on that goal was Jackson Blake, who matched Hall with his seventh tally of the playoffs in the second period. Logan Stankoven logged his fifth assist of the playoffs on that play, and that trio finished the postseason with a combined 54 points.
As good as Carolina's second line was, goaltender Brandon Bussi was the story of this game. In his fourth playoff appearance -- and just his third start -- Bussi became the third first-year goalie in NHL history to post a shutout in a Cup-clinching game. That last netminder to do that was Earl Robertson of the Detroit Red Wings way back in 1937.
Bussi stopped all 22 shots that Vegas threw at him, and a handful of them were show-stoppers. In his 43rd NHL appearance, Bussi cemented his place in history.
In the wake of becoming a hockey folk hero, Bussi credited fellow goaltender Frederik Andersen, who backstopped Carolina to the Final before getting pulled in Game 3.
"I love him," Bussi told ESPN's Emily Kaplan. "He's the reason why we're here. He's a workhorse. I only got three-and-a-half games. He honestly deserves more of the credit. I'm pumped for him. He deserves this. He's worked for this and grinded for a long time."
Another unlikely hero in this series, Jordan Staal, made some history as the oldest player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy at the age of 37 years and 277 days. Staal recorded a goal in each of the first five Final games, and he finished the series with six total. On top of that, Staal was a pest defensively and won 69.0% of his face-offs.
Seventeen years after winning his first Stanley Cup as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Staal finally got his hands on that iconic trophy for the second time.
After a back-and-forth madness earlier in the series, the Hurricanes were in full control for much of the final two games. That was especially the case in Game 6. Between the second and third periods, the Golden Knights went nearly 19 straight minutes without a shot on goal as Jaccob Slavin and the Carolina defense frustrated Jack Eichel, Micth Marner and every other offensive weapon on the Vegas roster.
This win also marks some history for Rod Brind'Amour, who becomes the fourth coach in NHL history to win a Stanley Cup as a coach after winning it with that same team as a captain.
Hurricanes get over the hump
This was the Hurricanes' eighth consecutive playoff appearance. In the previous seven attempts, they lost in the conference finals three times, lost in the second round three times and lost in the first round once.
The team's playoff record in that span was 47-42. Carolina was always very good, but never great. When the Canes encountered the cream of the crop in later rounds, the offense dried up or the goaltending faltered, and they fell short of the ultimate goal.
The offensive scheme took its share of criticism. The team's lack of true superstars was also fodder for doubters like myself. It became easy to wonder how -- not if -- the Hurricanes would stumble before lifting the Stanley Cup.
Through all the postseason disappointments, coach Rod Brind'Amour never wavered. He knew the Hurricanes were on the right track. They just had to weather some adversity.
"Sticking with it," Brind'Amour said of previous playoff runs. "We knew what he had here -- I did for sure. The guys believed in it."
This year, they flipped the script. Carolina's combination of depth and aggressiveness at both ends of the ice helped the team mow through the Eastern Conference in 13 games. In the Stanley Cup Final, the lack of truly elite star power was an issue at times, but the Hurricanes finally wore down the Golden Knights by the end of the series.
Now that the Canes have gotten the 35-pound monkey off their back, the only question about them in the playoffs should be, "Who can stop them?"
Rod Brind'Amour IS the Hurricanes franchise
When you close your eyes and think about the Hurricanes, one name should come to mind, and it's the man who has now led this franchise to a pair of Stanley Cup victories.
In 2006, Brind'Amour was the team captain when Carolina eliminated the Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history. In that playoff run, Brind'Amour tallied 12 goals, including the game-winner in Game 1 of the Final.
Twenty years later, Brind'Amour lifted the Cup as a member of the Hurricanes again, except this time he did it wearing a suit and tie. Brind'Amour admitted the second one felt a little different than the first.
"I don't even know what to say right now," Brind'Amour told ESPN. "I'm so happy for these guys. I wanted it as a player. I really wanted it. But I wanted it for these guys as a coach because it just means so much. To see how happy they are, I'm an old guy now, but I had my one. I'm happy we got another one, but it's for these guys."
This second Cup is just a reminder that Brind'Amour is at the core of Hurricanes hockey. Since the team relocated to Raleigh in 1997-98, Brind'Amour has been a player or coach for 102 of Carolina's 104 playoff wins.
Keep in mind, those are not series wins. Those are individual playoff victories, and the Hurricanes have two of them without Brind'Amour involved in some capacity.
When Brind'Amour became the head coach in 2018, the Hurricanes had just extended their postseason drought to nine seasons. The Stanley Cup seemed like a long way off. They haven't missed the playoffs since, and they're Cup champions once again.
A cast-off, an old man and an underdog
Can you win the Stanley Cup without true superstars in the modern NHL? That's been an ongoing debate for several years now, and the Hurricanes may have just settled it.
Carolina took a collection of very good to great players -- perhaps a tier or two below the NHL's very best -- and went 16-3 in the playoffs. That's the second-best record in league history since the postseason expanded to four rounds of seven-game series.
More importantly, it wasn't even the biggest stars on the team getting the job done. Taylor Hall, a former No. 1 pick and MVP, wasn't even getting a full workload on the miserable Chicago Blackhawks when Carolina acquired him via trade in 2025. Even then, Hall was a thrown-in as part of the three-way deal that sent Mikko Rantanen from the Avalanche to the Hurricanes.
After arriving in Raleigh, Hall revived his career and just totaled 19 points in this run to the Cup.
Jordan Staal, a 37-year-old who hasn't eclipsed 40 points since 2017-18, just scored six goals in the Stanley Cup Final while playing suffocating defense and winning nearly every face-off he took. Oh, and he is now the oldest player ever to win the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Days before opening night of the 2025-26 season, Brandon Bussi was on his way to Charlotte to play for the Florida Panthers' AHL team when he got the call that the Hurricanes had claimed him off waivers. Eight months later, he shut out the Golden Knights to win the Stanley Cup.
Three of the most unlikely playoff heroes will now have their names etched on the Stanley Cup forever. Star power is great, but the underdogs had their moment in the Sun this series.
