After so many deep playoff runs that just fell short, and after so many postseason disappointments, the Carolina Hurricanes are once again Stanley Cup champions.
Thanks to their 3-0 win over the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday night, the Hurricanes have won the second Stanley Cup in franchise history and their first since the 2005-06 season.
This particular era of Hurricanes hockey was defined by strong regular seasons that always seemed to fizzle out in the second or third round.
Now it is defined by a championship, and one of the most impressive Stanley Cup runs in recent history.
Carolina ended up going 16-3 in the playoffs, and steamrolling over every team that stood in front of them.
Game 6 winners
Brandon Bussi, goalie, Carolina Hurricanes. When the 2025-26 season began, Bussi was a 27-year-old goalie who had never played a game in the NHL and was claimed by the Hurricanes off waivers. He never figured to be a key player this season.
He not only turned out to be a key player during the regular season, but he also helped turn the tide in the Stanley Cup Final and won three consecutive starts to help secure the Cup.
He capped that run off with a 22-save shutout in the Stanley Cup-clinching game.
Goaltending has always been one of the question marks for this Hurricanes team, and it was a player that nobody ever expected that ended up lifting the Cup for them.
Taylor Hall, forward, Carolina Hurricanes. Hall has been a No. 1 overall pick, an NHL MVP and a first-line player for multiple franchises. But team success has always escaped him, and it started to become a criticism of him as a player.
Was he a player you could win with?
Did he have the juice in big games and crunch time?
He answered those questions emphatically this postseason. His goal to open the scoring on Sunday goes in the books as the game-winning goal and gives him seven goals and 19 total points in 19 playoff games.
His name is now on the Stanley Cup. He is officially a winner.
Eric Tulsky, general manager, Carolina Hurricanes. He was not a finalist for the general manager of the year. But he ended up getting the one trophy every general manager ultimately wants.
Tulsky pushed all of the right buttons over the past year.
He acquired Hall as part of the Mikko Rantanen trade. He traded Rantanen for Logan Stankoven and two first-round draft picks. He traded one of those picks for K’Andre Miller. He signed Nikolaj Ehlers. He has the core of this team locked in on team-friendly, cap-friendly contracts.
He has built a monster of a team. It still has more years at the top ahead of it.
Rod Brind’Amour, head coach, Carolina Hurricanes. He is simply the face of Carolina hockey. The first time the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup, Brind’Amour was their captain as a player. Now he brought it back 20 years later as the team’s head coach.
Game 6 losers
Vegas Golden Knights overall performance. Maybe they just ran out of steam. Maybe a well-rested Carolina team was too much. Maybe Carolina was just too much in general. But this was a shocking performance in an elimination game with the Stanley Cup on the line.
At one point, the Golden Knights went nearly 20 minutes of game time without a shot on goal.
They finished the game with only 22 shots on goal, with most of them coming in a desperation attempt late in the game. It was just not anything close to a winning performance.
Mitch Marner, forward, Vegas Golden Knights. Marner had an outstanding playoff and did a lot to change the narrative around his career. But he really struggled late in this series, and there is one other thing that needs to be pointed out here.
He had a chance to be traded to Carolina at the 2025 NHL trade deadline for Rantanen.
He rejected it.
Now he has to watch Carolina lift the Stanley Cup on his new team’s home ice.