{"id":599065,"date":"2026-06-15T05:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/599065\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T05:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:24:14","slug":"once-a-journeyman-brandon-bussi-backstops-the-hurricanes-to-the-stanley-cup-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/599065\/","title":{"rendered":"Once a journeyman, Brandon Bussi backstops the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2013 Hours before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final<\/a>, Rod Brind’Amour praised Brandon Bussi while also expressing some measure of relief that the Carolina Hurricanes did not need to turn to their backup goaltender during this playoff run.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaven\u2019t had to use him, (and) to be honest, I hope we don\u2019t because something\u2019s gone wrong,\u201d Brind’Amour said.<\/p>\n

Turns out the late-blooming goaltender came out of the bullpen after all and backstopped the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought they were really good tonight, Vegas,” Hurricanes wing Jackson Blake said. \u201cIf it wasn’t for Bus, there’s no way we’re winning that game.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Frederik Andersen was in net for every minute of the first three rounds and the start of the final, Bussi came in during Game 3 and finished out the series. He stopped 81 of the 87 shots he faced against Vegas as Andersen\u2019s status was shrouded in mystery; the veteran from Denmark did not dress from Game 4 on because of a knee injury that was only revealed after the final was over.<\/p>\n

\u201cFreddie battled,” Brind’Amour said. \u201cHe got a little nicked up, wasn\u2019t 100%. I felt for him, but he got us here and then Bus took over. This is a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bussi and Andersen embraced after Game 6 ended Sunday night. Andersen, at 36 the second-oldest player on the team, was the first player captain and playoff MVP Jordan Staal<\/a> handed the Cup to after getting it from Commissioner Gary Bettman. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disbelief, really,” Andersen said. “I did not expect that. It really beat every emotion I could think of or what I\u2019ve been feeling.”<\/p>\n

Bussi, a 27-year-old from Long Island, was not an unknown quantity for the Hurricanes because he played in nearly half their games this season, winning 31 of his 39 starts to help Carolina earn the top seed in the Eastern Conference. He got a three-year extension<\/a> at a bargain-basement $5.7 million price in February.<\/p>\n

Before the past several months, he was on track for the career of a journeyman.<\/p>\n

Going undrafted, he spend several years in the Boston Bruins’ farm system with the Maine Mariners of the ECHL and Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League. Liking what they saw, the astute back-to-back champion Florida Panthers signed him last summer to be their third goalie behind Sergei Bobrovsky and Daniil Tarasov.<\/p>\n

Trying to get him to the AHL in Charlotte, the Panthers lost Bussi when Carolina claimed him off waivers. He and fianc\u00e9e Mary Raclawski were 10 hours into a drive from from South Florida to North Carolina when his agent called to tell him the Hurricanes had claimed him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next thing you know, the following day I\u2019m in Raleigh and I\u2019m on the opening night roster,\u201d Bussi said. “It\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Injuries to Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov thrust him into an important role for a top contender.<\/p>\n

Bussi was even more needed in the final. He entered at the second intermission in Game 3 with the Hurricanes down 4-0. He stopped all 18 shots to allow a stirring comeback, and the only goal he allowed was the Golden Knights’ winner in double overtime when the puck took a bad bounce off the end boards behind him and Bussi inadvertently kicked it in.<\/p>\n

In the Game 6 clincher, Bussi denied playoff-leading goal-scorer Brett Howden, who got in all alone in the first period. He stopped Tomas Hertl on a 2-on-1 rush in the second, much to the joy of family members watching from the stands. Then Bussi robbed Hertl and Mark Stone on quality scoring chances in the final few minutes of regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir goalie gives them a really good opportunity in the second part of the series to give them the opportunity to win the Stanley Cup,” Golden Knights coach John Tortorella said.<\/p>\n

Hurricanes fans in Las Vegas chanted \u201cBuss-i! Buss-i!\u201d on the way to his third career shutout. A journeyman no more, Bussi is now a Stanley Cup champion. So is Andersen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something everyone dreams of,” Andersen said. “You don\u2019t really know what it feels like until you try it, and now we\u2019re here.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Whyno contributed from New York.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2013 Hours before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, Rod Brind’Amour praised Brandon Bussi while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[19349,1741,8020,62,57,5141,1239,295,5,1284,1040,66530,4,63,1267,1535,11,43,1261],"class_list":["post-599065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida-panthers","tag-brandon-bussi","tag-brett-howden","tag-daniil-tarasov","tag-florida","tag-florida-panthers","tag-floridapanthers","tag-frederik-andersen","tag-gary-bettman","tag-hockey","tag-jordan-staal","tag-mark-stone","tag-mary-raclawski","tag-nhl","tag-panthers","tag-pyotr-kochetkov","tag-rod-brindamour","tag-sergei-bobrovsky","tag-sports","tag-tomas-hertl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116752460198255794","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}