The Carolina Hurricanes have exceeded preseason expectations, advancing to the Stanley Cup Final after two series sweeps and a single loss that prevented a sweep of the Montreal Canadiens. Their postseason run has included decisive wins and a streak of late-game success.
Carolina appears to have solved a long-running playoff shortcoming. Teams coached by Rod Brind’Amour were previously defensively strong but offensively limited, and the Hurricanes ranked eighth in playoff scoring (minimum 50 games) since Brind’Amour took over in 2018-19 with 2.89 goals per game, well below their 3.22 regular-season average in that span. In 13 prior conference-final games, Carolina averaged just 1.61 goals per game against the Boston Bruins (2019) and Florida Panthers (2023, 2025), but in five games versus Montreal they averaged 3.60 goals.
The Hurricanes are 5-0 in overtime this postseason, including back-to-back OT winners after a Game 1 loss to Montreal, with Nikolaj Ehlers scoring in Game 2 and Andrei Svechnikov in Game 3. Four of Carolina’s top six playoff scorers were acquired by general manager Eric Tulsky over the past two seasons, and three of those additions trace to the club’s involvement in the Mikko Rantanen sequence: leading scorer Taylor Hall has 16 points and was acquired from Chicago, Logan Stankoven has nine goals after arriving from Dallas, and defenseman K’andre Miller has eight points after being acquired from the Rangers using trade capital tied to the Rantanen deal.
Carolina’s forward lines have produced balanced scoring. Sebastian Aho, Svechnikov and Seth Jarvis remain the top line but have, at times, been outproduced by the Hall–Stankoven–Jackson Blake line, which is averaging 4.87 goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5. The checking line of Jordan Staal and Jordan Martinook, bolstered by Ehlers, holds an expected-goals share of 70.3% at 5-on-5. Even the fourth line of Eric Robinson, Mark Jankowski and William Carrier has contributed, scoring in two of the Hurricanes’ four conference-final wins. “They’ve laid the foundation for everything that’s gone on here, and we’ve kind of added to it,” Hall said after Game 5.
Regular-season numbers signaled this offensive uptick: Carolina averaged 3.55 goals per game, second only to Colorado (3.63), and finished fourth in the NHL on the power play at 24.9 percent. The playoff power play has operated at 12.5 percent, but the team is stronger at 5-on-5 in the postseason, with goals per 60 minutes of 2.83 versus 2.57 and expected goals per 60 of 3.51 versus 2.67.
