The Stanley Cup Final is, to use the industry term, drunk off its ass. Not one game, not one occurrence has seemed to follow logically from what came before it. Goals are plentiful. Goalkeeping is optional. Leads are temporary, and possibly even cursed: Each of the four games has seen multi-goal leads evaporate. (Empirically, the only sure thing is to go up four; that lead will disappear too, but you'll get it back in overtime.) Is it good hockey? It's hockey, that's for sure. Is it fun hockey? "Not really," said Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour. "It's pretty stressful."
Brind'Amour's Canes beat the Golden Knights 5-3 in yet another thriller Tuesday to even things up at two games apiece, and there are vanishingly few narrative constants in this series to cling to outside of inconstancy itself. One has been that Carter Hart has been playing like Carter Shart, becoming the first goalie in history to give up at least four goals in each of the first four games of a Final. Another has been Jordan Staal turning back the clock and playing like it's 2008. Those are teasers for the rest of this blog.
Game 4's drama started even before puck drop, with the news that Frederik Andersen, who has started every game in net for Carolina, wouldn't even dress. Brandon Bussi, who played in relief in Game 3, got the start, with Pyotr Kochetkov backing him up. There's speculation that Andersen is hurt, but that wouldn't have to be disclosed since he was a scratch, so who knows; he also did give up four goals in one period. Brind'Amour insisted Andersen just needed a break. It would become a moot point if Bussi, the 27-year-old rookie, could claim the crease with a statement game. That's not quite what happened. Bussi would allow a trio of Vegas goals, largely against the run of play, but then he would tighten up as the Golden Knights brought the house in the third. Mixed results. Brind'Amour wouldn't tip his hand for Game 5's starter.
Meanwhile Carolina was flying. Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake each scored within the first 3:30, giving the Canes some long-awaited pop from their top 6 and the dreaded two-goal lead.
After Mark Stone cut the lead on a breakaway, Staal wrested it back by fighting his way to put home a rebound on the power play. "He's killing us in front of the net," bemoaned Vegas coach John Tortorella. Staal, at age 37, has been an uncommon threat this series: it was the fourth goal in four games for the Hurricanes' captain. The Cup Final is a place where youth is not necessarily an advantage; where skill only matters if you can sort out the mental stuff; where ice in veins never melts. Staal's been here before, with the Penguins in 2008 and 2009, and either he got any nerves out way back then, or he never had nerves to begin with.
"The pressure is there," said teammate Taylor Hall. "Everyone can feel it and see it. And he doesn't feel it, you know? He doesn't get nervous."
Pressure? "That’s not something that I feel," Staal said, in what is quietly one of the hardest athlete quotes I've ever heard.
This game still had plenty to go, though. The Golden Knights clawed back a tie in the second period with goals from William Karlsson and Brett Howden, who is having himself a Claude Lemieux–like postseason. At that point, 3-3, Vegas had to feel pretty good. They've been better later in games, their relentless checking wearing down their opponents. Finishing checks isn't entirely about punishment; it's about deterrence, too. It's a lot less appealing to battle for a puck when your body's already sore from a couple periods of being made to pay for it. And Vegas did have a strong third period, possession-wise. It just never turned into any truly serious threats.
But Carolina would still need a goal, any goal, to avoid going to overtime again. There, of course, was Jordan Staal. Seth Jarvis forced a bad turnover, worked the puck to Nik Ehlers, who wrongfooted the lurking Staal with a change-up of a pass. Staal did what he could with it: His body was closer to horizontal when the puck left his stick, and prone on his belly by the time it barely clipped Hart's glove on its way to being the game-winner.
With the brace, Staal is now the third-oldest player to have a multi-goal game in a Cup Final, after Mark Recchi and Igor Larionov. With one more goal, he'd tie Brad Marchand's 2025 for most goals in a Final by a player 37 or older.
More facts! With 33 combined goals through the first four games, this is the third-highest scoring Cup Final in league history, and if you want a sense of how aberrational that is in the year 2026, the two above it 1) took place at the height of the silly '80s scoring boom, or 2) featured teams named the Millionaires and the Arenas.
The series is now a best-of-three, and heads back to Carolina on Thursday. I'm not foolish enough to try to guess what happens next. Possibly a 1-0 game, because it's the one hockey biome we haven't yet visited. Anything's on offer. "It's a wild ride, isn't it?" Staal said. Not so wild that he's going to lose sleep over it, I imagine.
