- Jordan Staal can win his first Stanley Cup since 2009 if Carolina closes out Vegas in Game 6
- The Hurricanes captain leads the Final with six goals and sits squarely in the Conn Smythe race
- Read below for how a 17-year wait put Staal one win from NHL history
Jordan Staal has waited 17 years to get back here.
The last time he lifted the Stanley Cup, he was 20 and skating for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He is 37 now, in his 20th NHL season, and one win away from doing it all over again.
Carolina can close out the Golden Knights in Game 6 on Sunday night in Las Vegas. Their captain has scored in every game of the series and leads the Final with six goals. Finish the job, and he owns a loud case for the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Even the league cannot stop talking about his run:
That goal streak belongs in the record books. Staal has found the net in five straight Cup Final games, the longest run of its kind since 1973.
Watch the latest one knot up Game 5:
Getting here took the better part of two decades. Pittsburgh traded Staal to Carolina in 2012, dropping him into a room that already had his older brother Eric, the captain who won the 2006 Cup with the Canes.
Then came the lean years. Carolina missed the playoffs in each of Jordan’s first six seasons there. The team shipped Eric to the Rangers in 2016. Jordan stayed and kept grinding.
He took the captaincy in 2019 and has worn the “C” every season since. Nobody has suited up for the franchise more often since the Whalers moved south in 1997.
Justin Williams, who won a Cup in Carolina and skated alongside Staal for three years, knows what is fueling him. “What’s driving him is just that opportunity to do something that he hasn’t done since he was 20 years old,” Williams told NHL.com. “These opportunities don’t come along very often, and this is his best chance or could potentially be his best chance.”
Win Sunday, and Staal sets the NHL record for the longest gap between Cup titles. Sixty minutes stand between him and the end of the wait.
