Vegas is in its ninth year of existence and is playing in its 3rd Cup Finals. They lost to Washington in five games in 2019 and won in 2023, beating the Panthers in five games. Vegas got to this year's finals by beating Utah in six games, Anaheim in six games and Colorado in four.
Carolina has been in the NHL since 1997 and are also in the finals for the third time in their history. The lost to Detroit in five games in 2002 and beat Edmonton in seven games in 2006. In order to reach the finals this year, Carolina swept Ottawa, swept Philadelphia and beat Montreal in five games.
You have to give credit where its due to the Vegas Golden Knights. After going through tough six games series in the opening two rounds, they pulled off a major upset in the conference finals by sweeping the heavily favored Avalanche right out of the playoffs. It's a big surprise Vegas is here because once the playoffs got started, whoever was going to come out of the Pacific side of the bracket in the West was going to be the underdog by comparison to the Central winner. But Vegas has plenty of playoff experience in its lineup. There are fourteen guys in the Vegas lineup who have played in at least one Cup Finals, 11 of whom where on that cup winning team three years ago. So, the experience is there. And they've had their guys producing most of the playoffs. The two leading scorers in this year's playoffs, Mitch Marner and Jack Eichel, play in Vegas. So, they have the scoring touch to get the job done. And lets not forget about the play of Carter AHart in net, who's got a goals against of 2.22. He's been standing on his head on some nights to help propelled Vegas to where they are right now.
But then there's the team they are squaring off against in these finals. The Carolina Hurricanes have one loss all playoffs. That loss was the first game against Montreal in the conference finals, and that can be attributed to the long layoff Carolina had before the series started. Sure, Carolina isn't going to run teams out of the building with their scoring efforts. The biggest margin of victory for the Hurricanes in the playoffs has been three goals. What's Carolina secret? Its two-fold. Its balanced scoring for one. The top three scorers, Taylor Hall, Jackson BVlake and Logan Stankoven, are the only guys on this team that have double digits point totals in this years playoffs. The next closest one is Nikolaj Ehlers who has 9. So its been a balanced attack. The other thing that's propelled the Hurricanes into the finals is the goaltending. Frederik Andersen has a 1.41 goals against, a .931 save percentage and has played every minute in this years post season. Carolina also plays an airtight defense around him, hlping out with those numbers.
This series is going to be a tight checking series. Sure, Vegas has more experience in playing in the finals, but right now Carolina is the better overall team. Vegas is going to make it a tougher series but this seems like its the Hurricanes year.
Pick: Hurricanes in 6!
