Even if the Vegas Golden Knights and Carolina Hurricanes did not stand out as the cream of the crop in the NHL during the regular season, they have clearly been the best during the playoffs.
Now the hottest teams in hockey will meet for the Stanley Cup.
Vegas swept Presidents' Trophy-winning Colorado in the Western Conference Final and has won 19 of 24 games since John Tortorella took over as coach in late March. Carolina has won 12 of 13 the playoffs,
including four in a row to put away Montreal to reach the Cup final.
“I probably would give an edge to Vegas, but I don’t feel that secure in that,” former player-turned-NHL Network analyst Mike Rupp said. "Both teams are just playing this demonstrative way right now that it feels like it’s the right matchup here in the finals.”
The Hurricanes actually go into the series as a slight favorite, perhaps because they have home-ice advantage and have looked especially dominant. Game 1 is Tuesday night in Raleigh.
Carolina was 8-0 through two rounds with sweeps of Ottawa and Philadelphia. A wakeup call of a loss to the Canadiens could easily be attributed to rust after an 11-day layoff, and the Hurricanes have not lost since.
Vegas had some bumps getting through Utah and Anaheim, then had no trouble with the banged-up and battered Avalanche. The Golden Knights will have a full week off between rounds.
“I worry about, just you lose your edge just a little bit, that’s a big disadvantage,” Tortorella said Friday. “That’s the key for us. As a coach, you’re always worried about that. I think our players, the group is good, and I think they understand that because they’ve been in this before, most of them.”
While Carolina is in the final for the first time since 2006, when coach Rod Brind'Amour was captain, this is nothing new for the Golden Knights. They've reached the final for a third time in less than a decade of existence and a second time in the past four years, having won the Stanley Cup in 2023.
Vegas has 12 players back from that title run.
“That feeling, you want that feeling back,” said defenseman Shea Theodore, who has been with the team since the inaugural season in 2017-18. “It feels different, but I think the feeling in the locker room with the guys and how we are with one another, it feels very similar to that — that group in ’23 — how close we are, and it’s just exciting to be back.”
Mostly, a low-scoring affair. The Golden Knights and Hurricanes have allowed some of the fewest goals of all the teams in the playoffs.
“Both these teams defend at a high level,” former goalie and now NHL Network analyst Cory Schneider said. "They work at a high level. They don’t give you much room and space and time. I don’t want to say it’s going to be a boring final, but it’s definitely going to be a bit of a grind and whoever comes out on top is going to be the team that can sort of survive that grind.”
Brind'Amour's hard-working style has finally paid off in his eighth season in charge. Carolina won at least a round in each of the previous seven but had consistently failed to get over the hump.
The Hurricanes have gotten to this point despite not being an offensive powerhouse.
“So far, it’s worked, but this where they run into trouble,” Schneider said. “This is why in years past they haven’t quite broken through to the finals is because they play such a high-intensity style that it emphasizes shot quantity over quality, so that doesn’t always lead to goals. They’ll possess the puck and throw a million pucks on net, but they don’t always get great looks and high-end scoring chances and they don’t have a ton of elite finishers.”
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AP Sports Writers Mark Anderson in Las Vegas and Aaron Beard in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
