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Good morning, hockey folks. So, the Stanley Cup could be handed out this weekend in Vegas … or perhaps we get a Game 7 on Wednesday? We can only hope.
🏆 One Win AwayHurricanes 4, Golden Knights 2
After four bonkers outings to start the series, Game 5 was a little more predictable and playoff-like last night — on both sides — and it was the Carolina Hurricanes’ second-period surge that proved the difference.
After Pavel Dorofeyev put Vegas on the board 6:52 into the game by plinking the netcam on the power play, Carolina scored the game’s next four goals unanswered. The Canes really didn’t look back after Andrei Svechnikov’s first of two power-play markers made it 2-1 with eight minutes left in the second.
The Golden Knights had a decent push late, but they weren’t going to make up three goals on the Canes, who seemed to be on a mission these past two games.
Now they head to Vegas full of confidence for Game 6 on Sunday, with the home team’s season on the line and Carolina looking to win the franchise’s second Stanley Cup.
Fun fact: Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour could become the first person to win a Cup as a player and a coach with the same franchise since Toe Blake with the Canadiens way back in the 1960s.
Let’s get contextualizing. Here’s what our on-the-ground army of writers saw in Game 5:
Hurricanes center Jordan Staal became the first player in 70 years to open the Stanley Cup Final by scoring a goal in five consecutive games. Another huge goal from the captain.
With his offensive explosion, Staal is making the playoff MVP conversation interesting. The 37-year-old would become the oldest winner in NHL history, too, surpassing Tim Thomas.
A serious William Karlsson injury, Brandon Bussi winning the goaltending battle and more: Here are our key Game 5 takeaways.
Are the Golden Knights in big trouble with the way the Hurricanes are playing? It sure looks like it.
Svechnikov has had a fairly quiet postseason — until now. Mike Russo has a nice feature on the 26-year-old forward, the first high pick of this era of Hurricanes (No. 2 in 2018), finally breaking through in the biggest game of his career.
It might be Adin Hill time. Golden Knights netminder Carter Hart has struggled enough — with an .856 save percentage in this series — that Hill could be Vegas’ best hope to win the Cup.
In the other net, the undrafted and claimed-off-waivers Bussi has become an amazing story for Carolina, which somehow now has four goalies (?!) on the roster. “He obviously played a great game for us,” Brind’Amour said. (Park The Bus, indeed.)
Will 37-year-old Jordan Staal win the Conn Smythe Trophy? (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
💡 MirTrivia Question
Staal scoring six goals in five games in this series is incredible in several ways, but how about this stat? He has now tied the NHL record for most goals in a Stanley Cup Final for a player 37 or older.
The player who set that record did it just last year. Who was it?
Bonus: Only three other players 37 or older have ever had six-plus goals in any playoff series, and they did it with the Leafs, Ducks and Stars in the past 25 years. Can you name them?
Answers at the bottom.
Darnell Nurse wants out. (Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
📰💥 Newsplosion
If your team isn’t playing, that’s OK: We are exactly two weeks away from the NHL Draft and 19 days from the opening of free agency on July 1. The news cycle right now reflects just how much is going on behind the scenes for the 30 teams not playing games.
Some highlights and lightning-round thoughts from happenings over just the past couple of days:
💥 Oilers’ Darnell Nurse requests a trade
Is any team going to be more interesting than the Oilers this offseason? There’s the coach drama — with the Mike Babcock and Bruce Cassidy twin fiascos playing out during the Final — plus Connor McDavid entering year one of his two-year “show-me-the-contention” deal.
What are they going to do in goal after Tristan Jarry’s massive struggles there? Can they get anything of note in return for Nurse, who has four years left on a contract with a problematic $9.25 million AAV? How do they fix the blue line without him?
And will it all be enough for the Oilers to rejoin the contender ranks with so many up-and-coming young teams on the rise?
🤔Dylan Larkin’s trade list is expanding
When speculation first leaked that Larkin, Detroit’s captain, was willing to go only to Florida, Minnesota and Vegas, the backlash was tangible. Now, it appears that list was premature. (Or they walked it back.)
So, which teams need Larkin the most? And what could they offer? Max Bultman and Shayna Goldman break it down.
Color me intrigued by the idea of Anaheim or Philadelphia, two of those young teams taking big steps forward, getting involved in these talks. Adding another significant piece down the middle could help get them into the contender conversation sooner than expected.
Two more can’t-miss stories: Chris Johnston’s latest trade board, which lists Larkin at No. 1. Plus, Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman might seem like he’s backed into a corner, but he’s gotten out of jams like this before.
📛 Have these pending UFAs hurt their value?
With free agency so close, playoff performances from players heading to market will be fresh in general managers’ minds come July.
Shayna and Harman Dayal identify 10 players whose value has shifted the most. A couple of players in particular caught my eye:
Buffalo’s Alex Tuch and Vegas’ Rasmus Andersson have long been in the spotlight as two of the biggest names in this 2026 UFA class, but could an underwhelming postseason limit how much they end up getting? Or is this free-agent class so thin that everyone will get paid regardless? A lot of teams are flush with cash and eyeing big holes on their roster.
Again, here’s that 10-player list. I’m guessing we’ll see a lot of contractual mistakes this summer due to the double whammy of a rising cap and a barren list of players on the market. That could be good news for Tuch and Andersson, regardless of their recent play.
Coast to Coast
🏆 Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov won his second Hart Trophy on Thursday, narrowly beating out McDavid in one of the closest MVP votes in NHL history. (My ballot had McDavid at No. 1 and Kucherov at No. 4, which shows just how tight the top of the race was.)
🕵️ What exactly is the NHL investigating as it determines whether Babcock should be allowed to coach in the league again? Aaron Portzline explains the history of his brief, troubled time in Columbus.
⛏️ Prospector Corey Pronman has defenseman Chase Reid — not Gavin McKenna — ranked No. 1 in his latest draft rankings. Here’s why. Also, don’t miss Pronman and fellow Athletic prospect expert Scott Wheeler duking it out about the draft.
💩 A surprising number of legendary hockey games have ended with a goal that was … iffy, questionable or downright terrible. What was the best game to be decided by the worst goal in hockey history? A Sean McIndoe investigation.
📰 Canucks GM Ryan Johnson sits down with The Athletic one-on-one to explain how he’s approaching their scorched-earth rebuild: “The landscape has certainly changed. It’s not the way it used to be.”
✅ Sergei Murashov sure feels like a name to watch in goaltending circles after his impressive .931 run in the AHL playoffs. Josh Yohe has more on the Penguins’ likely ‘tender of the future.
🎤 In the latest “The Athletic Hockey Show,” Hailey Salvian and Max Bultman break down all the action from Game 5 of the Cup Final in podcast form. Watch or listen here.
➕ The PWHL is in Phase 3 of its six-phase expansion team roster-building process, and Hailey is keeping a running list of the signings. This whole system has been fascinating.
Brad Marchand. (Leila Devlin / Getty Images)
MirTrivia Answer
The graybeard player who had six goals at age 37-plus in last year’s Cup Final? It was the Florida Panthers’ Brad Marchand, who, like Staal, was 37 when he did it.
And the bonus question of old guys who have had six-plus goals in a playoff series in any round: Steve “Stumpy” Thomas in 2001 with Toronto, Teemu Selanne in 2011 with Anaheim and Joe Pavelski in 2023 with Dallas.
A free round on DGB for anyone who nailed all four of those.
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