- The Hurricanes are back in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since their 2006 championship
- Jaccob Slavin had been part of three previous East Final exits with Carolina before Friday’s clincher
- Read below for Slavin’s full reaction after the Canes wrapped the Habs in five
Jaccob Slavin has waited a long time for this one.
The Carolina Hurricanes finally punched their ticket back to the Stanley Cup Final on Friday night, closing out the Montreal Canadiens 6-1 in Game 5 at Lenovo Center. It’s the franchise’s first trip to the Final since the 2006 championship run, and for the longest-tenured Hurricane on the roster, the moment carried some weight.
Asked what it meant to finally clear that bar with the same core, Slavin didn’t dress it up.
“Excited. It’s been a long road with this group. We’ve been close, we’ve been close, we’ve been close. This was just that last step that we needed to take, but we have a lot of work ahead of us. Pure excited right now.”
Check out the rest of the Hurricanes room react in the official NHL post-game availability, where Rod Brind’Amour and Sebastian Aho also break down the Game 5 win:
Some of that road has been brutal. Boston swept Carolina in 2019, Florida did the same in 2023, and the Panthers bounced the Canes in five last spring.
Heading into the 2026 East Final, this group had won exactly one game in 17 prior cracks at the round.
This run looked different from the jump. Carolina pushed past the Senators, swept the Flyers, and dropped just one game to Montreal in the East Final after losing Game 1 at home. That Game 1 stumble is the one where Slavin took the blame publicly, calling himself out for handing the Habs the game.
He hasn’t been on the wrong side of much since.
Carolina opens the Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday in Raleigh against the Vegas Golden Knights, who took down the Avalanche in a four-game sweep on their end of the bracket. For an 11th-year defenseman who has carried the back end through every one of those East Final exits, this one finally gets him the matchup he was drafted to chase.
