RELENTLESS
FOREWORD
‘It was our time’: Hurricanes answer every challenge in Stanley Cup win
BY CHIP ALEXANDER
Seconds after the puck dropped to start the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs, Jordan Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes dropped his gloves. He had been challenged to fight by Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators, captain versus captain, and Staal didn’t back down.
When it was over, Staal was the one on top, the winner.
And that’s the way it was for the next two months. The Hurricanes answered every challenge, ultimately winning the Stanley Cup in Las Vegas.
There were tussles in each playoff series, some physicality and punches thrown, a test of wills and strength and some riveting hockey — and the Canes came out on top, the winners.
Rod Brind’Amour once likened winning a Stanley Cup to climbing Mount Everest, with danger lurking all the way to the summit. He led the Hurricanes to the top in 2006, as
the team captain, but badly wanted to do it again, as their coach.
When the Canes won in 2006, Brind’Amour all but snatched the Cup away from commissioner Gary Bettman and lifted it high, his face a mixture of ecstasy and relief. For 20 years, he never touched the Cup again, nor watched other teams celebrate with it.
As head coach, he made the Hurricanes into perennial playoff contenders, waiting for the winning moment to come again and firmly believing it would.
And then it did, finally, convincingly.
After Ottawa came the Philadelphia Flyers, then the Montreal Canadiens. If the Eastern Conference Final had been a playoff hurdle — and it was — the Canes stormed through it. Only the Vegas Golden Knights stood in the way, a worthy opponent, but one facing a Hurricanes team with a singleness of purpose, one that would not be denied.
Brind’Amour touched the Cup again. First
OPPOSITE: Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour adjusts the Cup before raising it after the Hurricanes’ 3-0 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights to win the Stanley Cup at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, June 14, 2026. ETHAN HYMAN / THE NEWS & OBSERVER
RIGHT: Brind’Amour hoists the Stanley Cup. ROBERT WILLETT / THE NEWS & OBSERVER
Carolina Hurricanes rookie achieves franchise first in NHL playoff-clinching win
BY CHIP ALEXANDER
Back to the playoffs. Again.
In what has become a yearly event for the Carolina Hurricanes with Rod Brind’Amour as the coach, the Canes qualified for an eighth straight trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 5-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Lenovo Center on Thursday, April 2.
Logan Stankoven scored twice, Alexander Nikishin had an historic shorthanded goal, and Jordan Martinook answered a Columbus goal with a quickie of his own. Add in a power-play goal by Andrei Svechnikov and it added up to a decisive win by the Metropolitan Division leaders in clinching the playoff spot.
“It’s a huge accomplishment,” Brind’Amour said. “It gets watered down because from the start of training camp everyone is talking about the playoffs. I know how hard it is to accomplish that. You have to be good for six
months. You can’t not be, otherwise you see what’s going on in this conference. It takes 100 points to make the playoffs.
‘It’s not our goal. We all know that. It’s nobody’s goal. But you can’t get to that next phase if you don’t play well for six months, which is harder than playing for two months. It’s not as important. Those two months are the most important, but you have to get there.”
With a 48-21-6 record and 102 points, the Canes built a 10-point lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Metro. Both Buffalo and Tampa Bay have 100 points in leading the Atlantic Division.
The Blue Jackets (38-26-12), after a second loss to the Canes in a week, remain stuck on 88 points and must continue to battle for a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference in the final stretch of the regular season.
Nikishin’s goal, at 12:50 of the first period,
was the first shorthanded score by a rookie defenseman in franchise history, and his 11th goal of a season that has seen him rapidly improve. It also was the Canes’ 11th shorty this season, tied for the NHL high.
It also was a milestone game for Canes captain Jordan Staal, who played his 1,400th game, and Sebastian Aho, whose two assists gave him 400 for his career.
Canes goaltender Frederik Andersen didn’t get a lot of work — the 10 shots by Columbus matched the lowest allowed in the Canes’ franchise history — but made some quality saves in ending a personal two-game losing streak, both against Montreal.
Hurricanes start on time
The first period had the Canes at their best. They were quick to pucks, won all the board battles, controlled the pace and gave the Blue Jackets nothing: two shots in 20 minutes.
“Really good start,” Aho said. “That was pretty much the game. We never let them come back.”
Stankoven, who at 5-foot-8 doesn’t mind setting up near the net, picked up his first goal on the redirection of a point shot by defenseman K’Andre Miller. His second came off the rebound of a Taylor Hall shot, Stankoven collecting the loose puck for a tap-in.
It was the first multi-goal period of Stankoven’s still-young career and his first multi-goal game since being traded to the Canes last season. His teammates and coaches have said the center has been snakebitten this season, but he made the most of his two scoring chances in the first.
“Not being afraid to get in there, and it is hard at times with the bigger guys and a lot of D-men who are trained to box out well, I just try to get underneath and get good
OPPOSITE: Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Alexander Nikishin removes his skates in the locker room following practice on May 15, 2026, at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C.
ROBERT WILLETT / THE NEWS & OBSERVER APR. 2, 2026
CHAPTER 3
STANLEY CUP FINAL
How a ‘blast from the past’ is driving the Hurricanes’ most successful line
BY SHELBY SWANSON
When Taylor Hall made his NHL debut in 2010, Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake were 7.
Asked what he was doing when Hall entered the league, Blake, now 22, laughed. “I was probably annoying my parents, annoying my mom,” Blake said. “I don’t know what I was doing, but yeah, it’s crazy to think of stuff like that.”
Stankoven admits he doesn’t remember much about Hall’s rookie season with the Edmonton Oilers, either. But he remembers the hype: Hall was the can’t miss prospect, the No. 1 overall pick destined to become one of hockey’s next great stars.
The crescendo of Hall’s career perfectly coincided with the growing hockey consciousness of Blake and Stankoven as young boys. Blake remembers watching Hall’s “special” 2017-18 MVP season with the New Jersey Devils.
Stankoven mostly remembers Hall’s speed. It’s the same speed the 23-year-old
center still witnesses from the veteran and current teammate at age 34.
“It’s like a blast from the past, the way he’s been playing lately,” Stankoven said, “He’s so skilled out there. He sees the ice really well.”
Back then, Hall was a superstar Stankoven and Blake watched on television. Today, he’s simply “Hallsy.” He’s their linemate.
And together, the trio of Hall, Stankoven and Blake has become one of the biggest reasons the Hurricanes are in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 20 years.
The timing could hardly be more fitting for Hall.
Sixteen years after Hall entered the league, the veteran forward is playing some of the best hockey of his career. Hall leads the Hurricanes with 16 playoff points, and his linemates are right behind him. Blake is second with 15 and Stankoven is third with 12 while leading the Canes with nine goals.
With Hall’s line leading the way, the Hurricanes reached the Stanley Cup Final
in just 13 games — becoming the first team to get there in 13 games or fewer since the NHL adopted its current four-round, best-of-seven playoff format in 1986-87.
With a Stanley Cup win, Hall would make history by tying the longest gap between being selected No. 1 overall and winning a first Cup. Alex Ovechkin’s 16-year wait from the 2004 draft to Washington’s 2018 championship set the record. Erik Johnson, drafted first overall by St. Louis in 2006, waited 16 years before winning his first Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2022.
Hall would be the third. And for many of the Canes, that adds an extra layer of motivation to the Cup Final.
“Obviously, we want to win it in general, for everyone,” said defender Shayne Gostisbehere, who turned 33 in April. “But especially Hallsy and the older guys like myself, it’s our first time here out of our whole careers. We just want to win it all.”
‘They’ve given me a lot of energy’
Not long ago, Hall’s career appeared to be headed in a different direction.
Carolina acquired Hall from the Chicago Blackhawks in January 2025 as part of the blockbuster deal that brought Mikko Rantanen to Raleigh. Rantanen was the star. Hall joined the Canes as the far lessheralded player.
Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky said he believed Hall’s combination of speed, skill and physicality would fit Carolina’s system. Hall believed there was more hockey left in him than many outsiders realized, but understood the Canes were taking a swing.
The Canes’ bet has paid off.
“We talked about injuries. We talked with people who had played with him on other teams, people who had coached him on other teams,” Tulsky said. “What was he like as a person? How would he adapt if we bring him in? Because you never know until they get here.
“But on that one it worked out. He’s been
OPPOSITE: Carolina’s Jackson Blake (53) celebrates with Taylor Hall (71) after Hall scored during the first period of the Hurricanes’ game against the Canadiens in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final at the Lenovo Center on May 29, 2026. ETHAN HYMAN / THE NEWS & OBSERVER
RIGHT: Carolina Hurricanes left wing Taylor Hall (71) reacts after scoring the game-winning goal to secure a 3-2 overtime victory over Philadelphia, in Game 2 on May 4, 2026, during the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C.
ROBERT
WILLETT / THE NEWS & OBSERVER
incredible, absolutely incredible.”
Hall arrived from a difficult situation in Chicago and initially spent time lower in Carolina’s lineup while learning coach Rod Brind’Amour’s demanding puck-possession system.
Soon, everything clicked. Hall was so comfortable that he signed a three-year extension less than four months after arriving.
Raleigh felt like home.
“The way we play is conducive to how I play hockey and how I think about hockey,” Hall said. “Once I got the system down and the details of where I need to be, that allowed me
to not have to think a lot out there.”
The result has been a late-career renaissance. Hall has leaned into his physicality. His teammates attest to his warmth off the ice, but Hall’s a bully in the rink, and his line with Stankoven and Blake has been the best in the league all postseason.
The trio combined for 16 points in Carolina’s first-round sweep of Ottawa, led by seven from Hall on two goals and five assists. Hall led the way again in a second-round sweep of Philadelphia, accounting for seven of the trio’s 15 points in the series.
Hall and Co. started more slowly against
Montreal, but the line still produced 12 points in five games, with Hall, Stankoven and Blake each recording four.
Hall doesn’t look like a player hanging on. He looks like the player Stankoven and Blake remembered watching years ago.
“They’ve given me a lot of energy,” Hall said of Stankoven and Blake. “They’re great players. They’re very unique players — their size and how they go to the hard areas of the ice.”
“They seem young,” Hall continued, “but they’re very mature in the way that they play — and mature in a way that I wasn’t at that age.”
‘I love playing with those two’ Blake (22) and Stankoven (23) have known each other since youth hockey. They’ve been roommates on the road since Stankoven arrived in Carolina last year.
Now, one of their childhood idols has become the veteran presence in the middle of their friendship.
“We talk a lot,” Hall said. “We talk about soccer. They’re great kids. They have a lot of fun playing here.
“It’s been really good for me personally,” Hall added, “just playing with them and getting to know them.”
Blake sees the relationship the same way.
“I love playing with those two,” he said. “Hopefully we can play together for a long time.”
That may be true for Blake and Stankoven. But Hall likely won’t be hanging around for long.
The veteran has played nearly 1,000 NHL games since hearing his name called first overall in 2010. He won a Hart Trophy. He made five All-Star teams. He has played for seven franchises and experienced the highs and lows of professional hockey.
What he has never done is lift the Stanley Cup. More than anything, that is what continues to drive Hall at age 34.
Stankoven and Blake understand the significance.
They grew up watching him become a star. Now, they want to help him write the storybook ending.
“The other day, I told him how well he is in the interviews, and how well-spoken he is,” Stankoven said. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ve had a microphone in my face since I was 18.’
He knows how to handle things, and he’s a veteran guy.”
“That’s what you play in these big games for,” Stankoven added. “You want to try and win the Cup for guys like that.”
LEFT: Carolina Hurricanes left wing Taylor Hall (71) embraces teammates Sean Walker (26) and Nikolaj Ehlers (27) after scoring the game-winning goal to secure a 3-2 overtime victory over Philadelphia in Game 2.
ROBERT WILLETT / THE NEWS & OBSERVER
RIGHT: Thousands of fans surge into Fayetteville Street to follow the parade to a rally at One City Plaza.
KAITLIN MCKEOWN / THE NEWS & OBSERVER
OPPOSITE: Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes from left, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Nikolaj Ehlers, Frederik Andersen, Jalen Chatfield and K’Andre Miller celebrate during their ride down Fayetteville Street in Raleigh. ROBERT WILLETT / THE NEWS & OBSERVER
me away. This is why we do this. It meant so much to so many people.
“And this group of players. I’m so happy for them. They’re world champs. … This is going to be motivation to do it again, for sure. The carrot was always there. We hadn’t done it, hadn’t done it, and now that we have done
it I’m sure the guys will be motivated to do it again.”
In 2006, after beating the Edmonton Oilers in the Cup Final, the Canes paraded around the arena in convertibles, then mounted a stage for a few words from coach Peter Laviolette and then Brind’Amour.
“At the start of the year we wanted to make you proud of this team and I think we did that,” Brind’Amour said in the 2006 celebration. “I want to say we go and try and do it again.” Reminded Saturday of that “do it again” comment in 2006, Brind’Amour grinned. “It took too long,” he quipped.
OPPOSITE: Rod Brind’Amour has his shirt ripped off by the players as he prepares to lift the Stanley Cup during the rally. BEN PENNINGTON / THE NEWS & OBSERVER
NEXT PAGE: Rod Brind’Amour struts toward the podium as he prepares to lift the Stanley Cup during a rally on June 20, 2026, in downtown Raleigh. BEN PENNINGTON / THE NEWS & OBSERVER
ABOVE: Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov prepares to lift the Stanley Cup during the rally in front of fans in downtown Raleigh. BEN PENNINGTON / THE NEWS & OBSERVER
