Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> on Sunday night, the Hurricanes have won the second Stanley Cup in franchise history and their first since the 2005-06 season.<\/p>\nThis particular era of Hurricanes hockey was defined by strong regular seasons that always seemed to fizzle out in the second or third round.<\/p>\n
Now it is defined by a championship, and one of the most impressive Stanley Cup runs in recent history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Carolina ended up going 16-3 in the playoffs, and steamrolling over every team that stood in front of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Game 6 winners<\/h2>\n
Brandon Bussi, goalie, Carolina Hurricanes.\u00a0<\/strong>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.\u00a0<\/p>\nHe 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.<\/p>\n
He capped that run off with a 22-save shutout in the Stanley Cup-clinching game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Taylor Hall, forward, Carolina Hurricanes.<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\nWas he a player you could win with?<\/p>\n
Did he have the juice in big games and crunch time?<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His name is now on the Stanley Cup. He is officially a winner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Eric Tulsky, general manager, Carolina Hurricanes.\u00a0<\/strong>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.<\/p>\nTulsky pushed all of the right buttons over the past year.<\/p>\n
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<\/em> picks for K’Andre Miller. He signed Nikolaj Ehlers. He has the core of this team locked in on team-friendly, cap-friendly contracts.\u00a0<\/p>\nHe has built a monster of a team. It still has more years at the top ahead of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rod Brind’Amour, head coach, Carolina Hurricanes.\u00a0<\/strong>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.\u00a0<\/p>\nGame 6 losers<\/h2>\n
Vegas Golden Knights overall performance.\u00a0<\/strong>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.\u00a0<\/p>\nAt one point, the Golden Knights went nearly 20 minutes of game time without a shot on goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mitch Marner, forward, Vegas Golden Knights.\u00a0<\/strong>Marner had an outstanding playoff\u00a0and 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.<\/p>\nHe had a chance to be traded to Carolina at the 2025 NHL trade deadline for Rantanen.<\/p>\n
He rejected it.<\/p>\n
Now he has to watch Carolina lift the Stanley Cup on his new team’s home ice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n