I finally started writing this with about three minutes to go in Game 6 which was the first time I truly felt that the feeling that this Carolina Hurricanes team was going to finally finish the climb to sixteen wins and claim the Stanley Cup as they did in 2006.
9,393 days of frustration, and on the 9,394th day of NHL existence, the Carolina Hurricanes—the Whaler organization ’til ’97—have won the Stanley Cup!
Chuck Kaiton after Carolina wins the Stanley Cup in 2006
I’ll never forget that year as long as I live and Carolina claiming their first Stanley Cup in franchise history was easily the second best thing that happened to me that year.
As happy as I was for that team to finally climb the mountain that they’d first tried to ascend in 2002, I have to say that my daughter arriving about six weeks afterward has to be the best thing that happened for me in 2006. And not only because I’m sure Katie would be awfully cross with me if I said otherwise… 🙂
Having been a fan of this team for nearly 30 years and knowing that if there is a hard way for them to accomplish anything, they’ll often find a way to choose it to the detriment of my blood pressure…it’s truly scary to think that they’re this close to finally closing out the series and send the Vegas Golden Knights packing.
But truth be told, I’d been convinced that a happy ending was coming their way when I saw how they played in Game 4 in Las Vegas when Rod Brind’Amour turned to Brandon Bussi in relief of Frederik Andersen and it’s clear the team got on the Bus and had no intentions of looking back!
Game 5 at Lenovo Centre convinced me of it but I dared not speak of the hope.
With Nikolaj Ehlers just potting the third goal into an empty net with 68 seconds to go which is *EERILY* similar to Justin Williams potting the insurance marker against Edmonton in Game 7 in 2006…the Carolina Hurricanes are going to bring the Stanley Cup home to North Carolina for the first time in 20 years!
Puck bunted down–Hurricanes steal! Staal gets it up the middle to Williams. He’s walking in on an open net, AND HE WON THE STANLEY CUP! Justin Williams has won the Stanley Cup for the Carolina Hurricanes, in all likelihood with an empty-netter at 18:59 on a clearing pass out of the zone! You won’t have to see the clocks go to 0:00 now!
Chuck Kaiton in the final moments of Game 7 in 2006
And…that’s the final horn and Brandon Bussi pitches a 3-nil shutout to win the series 4-2 and almost certainly Jordan Staal is going to claim the Conn Smythe Trophy for most valuable player in the playoffs after breaking the record held by his brother Eric with the longest time between goals scored in a Stanley Cup Final and then he scored in each of the first five of the six games!
Even though he wasn’t on the scoresheet tonight, his prowess in the faceoff circle prevented Vegas from generating any consistent offence and the rest of the team climbed onto his back and rode the Bus to the Stanley Cup.
I’m sure that someone will be more than happy to ship John Torterella’s clothes back to Vegas that he famously left in the hotel in Raleigh after guaranteeing a game 7 that is not happening now. Whether they’re actually laundered is another matter entirely… 😉
It was nice for Freddie Andersen to get to hoist the Cup right after Jordan Staal even knowing that Game 3 was likely his last game in a Carolina uniform having gotten the team to the point where Bussi came in to win his first three starts in a row. That’d be the first playoff starts in his career and he won them all with a shutout to finish it off which sets a new NHL record!
There will be all sorts of amazing stories that come from this magical run and I’m sure there will be time to tell them but for now, I’m just happy and relieved that these guys have finally shown the rest of the NHL that didn’t believe in them and was utterly convinced that they’d be bounced out in the Eastern Conference Final that these so-called “experts” have no bloody clue what has been built here in Raleigh.
For all of those pundits who were absolutely convinced that this series between Carolina and the Vegas Golden Knights was going to be such a boring affair and that Carolina really had no chance after Vegas swept the Avalanche in the Western Conference Final with all of the high-powered superstar talent Vegas put on the ice…I am so glad you were absolutely wrong on pretty much every level.
Both teams absolutely gave their all to what is easily one of the most thrilling Stanley Cup Finals in living memory.
The Vegas Golden Knights have done their fans proud and have no reason to do anything but hold their heads high and the future is quite bright for them. I’ve no doubt they’ll be terrorising the teams out West for a while to come after proving themselves a most worthy opponent who fell only to the 2026 Stanley Cup Champions.
But tonight belongs to the Carolina Hurricanes and that’s going to be one seriously rocking Boeing 757 going on a transcontinental red-eye journey bringing a couple of extra passengers with them in the form of the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Stanley Cup.
Hopefully it won’t be another 20 years before Carolina adds another one to the trophy case!
With the way this team is built with a bunch of critical young players on very team-friendly long-term contracts, there’s no reason to believe that they won’t win another Cup or two if they play the game the way they have this season.
Congratulations and enjoy finally ascending to the summit of the NHL mountain!
The defence of the Cup starts tomorrow… 🙂
