{"id":668513,"date":"2026-09-22T09:24:36","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T09:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/668513\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T09:24:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T09:24:36","slug":"hurricanes-are-a-unique-stanley-cup-champion-with-a-style-that-is-hard-for-rivals-to-replicate-sports-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/668513\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurricanes are a unique Stanley Cup champion with a style that is hard for rivals to replicate | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brady Tkachuk marvels at how the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> \u201cgive you no time and space.\u201d He and the Ottawa Senators were swept<\/a> by them last spring.<\/p>\n

Jamie Drysdale called the ‘Canes relentless, and teammate Trevor Zegras remembers wave after wave that \u201cover a series, it wears you down.\u201d The Philadelphia Flyers also got swept<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By the Eastern Conference Final, Cole Caufield figured, \u201cThey finally got to a point where they were kind of unbeatable.\u201d He and the Montreal Canadiens won the series opener, then lost the next four<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mitch Marner calls their style a \u201cfull-court press\u201d where an opponent needs three good plays to get one good look at the goal. He and the Vegas Golden Knights led the Stanley Cup Final two games to one before losing three in a row and the series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carolina is the envy of the NHL after winning it all, but that does not mean other contenders can follow that blueprint. The NHL is a copycat league, but the Hurricanes play such a demanding brand of hockey under coach Rod Brind’Amour that it is nearly impossible to replicate without years of perfecting it and getting the mix of players just right.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes time to get to that level,\u201d said Tkachuk, who’s now in place to challenge them with Cup-favorite Florida. \u201cThey play such a hard way and a tough way. … You try different ways to beat them. But they\u2019re just so good at what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes play with pressure<\/p>\n

Brind’Amour was a grind-it-out center during his two-decade playing career in the NHL, so it’s no surprise a guy nicknamed \u201cRod the Bod\u201d with a reputation for an intense workout regimen expects a lot from everyone he coaches. Predictability is at the center of Carolina making the playoffs in all eight of his seasons in charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really haven’t changed much: little tweaks here and there,” top defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a pretty game. It\u2019s just pucks out of your zone into their zone, and it\u2019s just high stress and high compete level.\u201d<\/p>\n

It works. Since Brind’Amour took over in 2018, no team has won more games than the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just they have the right guys there,\u201d said Tampa Bay’s Jake Guentzel, who played 28 games with them after getting traded to Carolina at the deadline in 2024. \u201cRod sets the standard at a high level, and you\u2019ve got to buy into the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means being aggressive and pursuing the puck all over the ice. The idea is to force mistakes and capitalize on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about the pressure,\u201d said Pavel Dorofeyev, who\u2019s now with the New York Rangers after losing to Carolina in the final with Vegas. \u201cYou\u2019re always under the pressure, no matter where you are at in the D-zone, neutral zone, O-zone.”<\/p>\n

Why the Hurricanes’ style is difficult<\/p>\n

Guentzel said he enjoyed playing for the Hurricanes, but it’s not for everyone. Martin Necas got traded to Colorado<\/a> in January 2025 despite producing at over a point-a-game clip, and the centerpiece of their return, Mikko Rantanen, was dealt to Dallas<\/a> five weeks later when it was clear he did not want to sign long term.<\/p>\n

Marner and others compare the Hurricanes\u2019 style to that of the Panthers, who beat them in the East final in 2023 and \u201925. In \u201924, Carolina outshot the Rangers 223-156 in the second round but its goaltenders faltered and Igor Shesterkin shined.<\/p>\n

One reason it’s not easy to copy? Washington’s Tom Wilson pointed out, \u201cA lot of times it\u2019s hard for Carolina to play that style.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe against Florida the years prior, they play a team that may be a little bit healthier \u2014 (the Panthers) didn\u2019t need to play quite that hard,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cYou kind of live and die by the sword.\u201d<\/p>\n

The title run last spring showed what happens when everything from the net out comes together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did it the right way,\u201d Caufield said. \u201cObviously, nobody really plays like them, and I think anybody in the league will say that. But the way they do it, it\u2019s detailed. It\u2019s a certain way, and if they don\u2019t do that the right way I don\u2019t think it goes their way.\u201d<\/p>\n

With most of the core back, Carolina looks to be the class of the Metropolitan Division and right there with Florida and Tampa Bay at the top of the East. But the Hurricanes, replicating their own success is a challenge in itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir toughness is their pressure, their skating,\u201d Wilson said. “But, like, will they be able to repeat it all year again and go into the playoffs and go on another run? Good for them if they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full NHL coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n

This story has been updated to correct the game sequence in last year’s Cup Final.<\/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":"Brady Tkachuk marvels at how the Carolina Hurricanes \u201cgive you no time and space.\u201d He and the Ottawa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5107],"tags":[194,29,5176,5,195,4,72291,292,43,300],"class_list":["post-668513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-carolina-hurricanes","tag-carolina","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-carolinahurricanes","tag-hockey","tag-hurricanes","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-carolina-hurricanes","tag-nhl-hockey","tag-sports","tag-stanley-cup-finals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117313972723740129","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668513","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=668513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}