Barely three months had passed since the Carolina Hurricanes finally punched through a playoff roadblock to win another Stanley Cup when it was time to turn their attention forward to another season.
The confidence and experience gained from that run? Invaluable.
Dwelling on it beyond that at the start of preseason camp? Not so much.
“You have to keep building, we understand that,” Carolina top-line center Sebastian Aho said Thursday. "Three months ago
we were playing some amazing hockey and we were able to accomplish something we dreamed of for a long time.
“But at the same time, it doesn’t really help us today.”
Monday marked three months since the Hurricanes shut out the Vegas Golden Knights in a road Game 6 to win the Cup for the second time in franchise history. In the time since, they've celebrated with a parade that brought a six-figure crowd to downtown Raleigh and gotten their individual days to spend with hockey's cherished trophy.
The team that has returned from that long celebration is largely the same as the one that ended last season with three straight victories under face-of-the-franchise coach Rod Brind'Amour.
Top goaltender Frederik Andersen is gone after signing a one-year deal with Edmonton. And rising defenseman Alexander Nikishin isn't in camp as a restricted free agent still awaiting a deal after working in Carolina's third pairing; general manager Eric Tulsky issued a statement Wednesday saying the team wouldn't comment on Nikishin's status.
The Hurricanes are also waiting on the recovery of top-line forward Seth Jarvis from shoulder surgery, taking place in June with a potential recovery time of 4-6 months. Jarvis is back to skating, but Thursday was a little different having more people on the ice and having to “be careful bumping into people."
But everything else is in place to contend again, including the team reaching a one-year extension on Tuesday with captain and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jordan Staal through the 2027-28 season.
“I wanted to keep playing with these guys,” Staal said. “I have too much fun with this group and everything we've built here.”
For years, the Hurricanes had been the Eastern Conference contender that couldn’t get past the conference final, notably being swept by Florida in 2023 and then losing to the Panthers again in a five-game series in 2025. That marked the third time in a seven-season playoff run that the Hurricanes had hit the same ceiling.
But the Hurricanes swept Ottawa and Philadelphia in the first two rounds last spring, then recovered from a Game 1 loss to Montreal to win the Eastern Conference Final in five games on the way to a dominant 16-3 postseason run.
“The good part is they’ve done it, so they understand what it takes,” Brind'Amour said. "The passion and the grit and everything that you have to bring to win in this league, that doesn’t disappear now that you won. It actually probably magnifies and you have to figure out how to find that little more of an edge.
“Not that we ever got easy nights, I think every team prepared for us, but I think we’re that much more of a target.”
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