With Game 1 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final set to go Tuesday night, it has been a long journey for the Carolina Hurricanes to get to this spot. The last time the Hurricanes played for the Stanley Cup was 2006. That was the last time Carolina won the Stanley Cup. The common denominator in all of this is head coach Rod Brind’Amour.
Brind’Amour captained the Hurricanes to their only Stanley Cup Championship in franchise history back then. Now 20 years later, he gets the opportunity to hoist the Stanley Cup again, but this time as a coach. Thanks to the management group that believed in him eight years ago and stuck with him throughout the tough times of not getting past the Conference Final round, it has been worth.
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During his tenure in Carolina as head coach, prior to reaching the Cup Final in 2026, the Hurricanes reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 2019, 2023, and 2025, winning just one game. If you go back to 2009, the Hurricanes had a record of 1-17 in their previous 18 games in the Eastern Conference Final after their Game 1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
That was before they rattled off four straight wins to get back to the Stanley Cup Final. While the record isn’t the best in the Eastern Conference Final, going through these hard times made him happy to have gotten past that round. But he understands the job is not finished yet.
“Yeah, it was weird after the game,” Brind’Amour said on Media Day. “You wanted to be happy and excited for the guys, and yet it was kind of.. I don’t know, it was just not quite all that exciting. And I mean that in this fact that it was like this where we thought we should be for a long time. And it’s just been a long road, and I just thrilled for the guys to have this opportunity now, and that’s like I said, that feels like for eight years we’ve been talking about getting this chance. So we’re finally here, and obviously we want to make the most of it.”
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Rod Brind’Amour has that championship mindset that he has passed down to players. There is an understanding that while the hurdle of the Eastern Conference Final is over, the Hurricanes haven’t really accomplished anything. Nobody remembers who finished second. If you are gonna lose, why not in the first round?
“I don’t think we have broken through, you know what I mean?” Rod Brind’Amour added. “Like, you got to win. So I know everyone makes a lot about getting this far, but nobody’s gonna remember who comes in second. If you’re gonna lose, you might as well lose in the first round. Like, it doesn’t really make a difference to me. It’s all about winning. So we haven’t done that yet. So, it’s a tough question to ask. Like I said, I’m really appreciative that we have the opportunity to go ahead and win now. And so, that’s huge. Ask me in a couple more weeks.”
This is a winner’s mindset, like the one Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan had. It is all well and good that the Hurricanes got past Round 3, but only one team wins the Stanley Cup, as Brian Burke famously said. The Hurricanes have a tough opponent in the Vegas Golden Knights, who, from the beginning, have had a mindset that winning matters.
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Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon famously said, “I’m in the winning business, not the hockey business.” He is right. The Golden Knights have been told by their owner, Bill Foley, to win. They had goals, and they want to meet them. Carolina had those same goals, but this is their first opportunity in the Brind’Amour era to play for the ultimate prize in hockey.
Knowing that the job is not finished will keep Brind’Amour players hungry and focused on the challenge at hand. While it is great to get to the Stanley Cup Final and be appreciative of the opporunity to play for the big prize, there is more work to be done for the Carolina Hurricanes.
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