What a series this has been.
Tonight is another chapter of this epic Stanley Cup Finals battle, with the Carolina Hurricanes hosting the Vegas Golden Knights at the Lenovo Center tonight at 8 PM. Carolina is looking to take its first series lead and come within one game of winning the Stanley Cup.
On Tuesday, the Canes were able to tie the series 2-2, in part thanks to captain Jordan Staal, who scored two of Carolina’s five goals on the night. The Canes 5-3 win over the Knights was capped off with
a Nikolaj Ehlers empty net goal that took a crazy bounce off the boards.
Staal has now scored in all four Stanley Cup Final games so far, becoming the first player since Mike Bossy in 1982 to accomplish the feat.
After going down 2-1 in Game 3 and seeing their legendary comeback attempt fall just short in double overtime, the Canes did something in Game 4 that they hadn’t done all postseason — start Brandon Bussi.
Bussi was the primary starter for the Hurricanes up until the Olympic break this year, and for much of the year he didn’t disappoint, finishing the season with a 31-6-2 record. But Frederik Andersen took over much of the work late in the season and had started every playoff game prior to Tuesday. After Bussi replaced Andersen in Game 3, which helped jump start a comeback attempt, the Canes have decided to move forward with The Bus as their goaltender.
Rod Brind’Amour’s decision to roll with Bussi — which many fans didn’t think he would do — ended up being the right one. Bussi stopped 18 of the 21 shots he faced on Tuesday, helping the Canes tie the series.
It looks like Bussi will earn his second consecutive start tonight, a good sign for the Canes.
In the past couple games, the offense has come alive for the Hurricanes, led by the second line of Hall-Stankoven-Blake. In Game 4, Stankoven scored his 11th goal of the playoffs and Blake followed suit with his sixth goal of the postseason. Carolina has scored four goals or more in each of the four Stanley Cup games so far.
The one area of concern for the Canes, surprisingly, has been on the defensive end.
Multiple times throughout the series, including in their Game 4 win, there have been uncharacteristic defensive breakdowns. Vegas’ Mark Stone was able to spring loose on a breakaway for the Knights’ first goal of the game after Jaccob Slavin let him get behind Carolina’s defense.
Slavin — who has been one of the best defensive defenseman in the NHL for the better part of the last decade — has not looked like himself this series. Whether it’s an injury or something else, the Canes need to get a little more out of their star defenseman on the defensive end.
But Slavin isn’t the only one, Carolina’s team defense needs to step up and limit a lot of the high danger chances that the Knights have been able to get this series. The offense has come around, which has put the Canes right back in the driver’s seat for the Stanley Cup. It’s now time their defense does the same thing.
With Bussi in net again and Staal playing like his prime self, look for another inspired performance out of the Canes tonight in front of the home crowd, with a chance to come within one game of winning the Stanley Cup.
Here’s how to catch tonight’s action:
Time: 8 PM Eastern
TV/Streaming: ABC, SN, CBC, TVAS
Radio: 99.9 The Fan
