2006 Hurricanes like current team's Stanley Cup chances entering Eastern Final

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Erik Cole sees the excitement around this city, especially when the former Carolina Hurricanes forward has gone to a Stanley Cup Playoff game at Lenovo Center.

“The atmosphere in the building and how loud the crowd gets, it brings back a lot of memories,” said Cole, who played for the Hurricanes for nine seasons over two stints from 2001-11, won the Stanley Cup with them in 2006 and still lives in the area.

“I think it’s just the best time of year around here because all the colleges (in the area), all of that’s winding down. Whether you cheer for UNC (the University of North Carolina), North Carolina State or Duke, you’re all Hurricanes fans.”

That excitement is there as the Hurricanes, who won the only Stanley Cup championship in their history 20 years ago, are primed to add another. They’ll resume that attempt when they face the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final here on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

The Hurricanes swept the Ottawa Senators in four games in the first round and then did the same to the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round. They last played on May 9. There will be more excitement if the Hurricanes can get past the conference final, which has been their Achilles’ heel.

Dating to 2018-19, the Hurricanes have been eliminated in this round three times, including last season, when they were ousted by the eventual Cup champion Florida Panthers in five games.

But you know the saying: What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.

“There aren’t many teams that can go through and not have disappointment on the way to championships,” said Justin Williams, a former forward who won the Cup with the Hurricanes and is a special adviser to general manager Eric Tulsky. “You look at Florida. They made it to Cup Final, they lost (in 2023) and then they won two in a row (in 2024 and 2025). There’s usually a lot of disappointment behind winners’ faces. We have a lot of that in Carolina. We have winning playoff rounds and going home before we want to be.

“There are three other excellent teams that have earned the way to get here (the Canadiens, Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights), but I have to say, obviously I’m speaking very biased, I really do think this is the year for these guys. They’ve had a lot of time together and I expect this is the year.”

For longtime Hurricanes TV analyst Tripp Tracy, this group has been physically tougher to play against but it also has gotten tougher mentally.

“I know they’ve had two sweeps, but the four games they’ve won on the road, they’ve had to kill off a 5-on-3 in every one of those road games,” he said. “The fourth game against Ottawa, a very good Ottawa team in my opinion, when things got dicey, I think previous teams may have gone quietly into the afternoon and regrouped for Game 5. Not this team. That’s a combination of good physical and mental toughness.”

It’s a combination the 2005-06 team had as well. Mark Recchi, a forward who was acquired by Carolina in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 9, 2006, and had 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in 25 playoff games to help the Hurricanes win the Cup that season, sees other similarities.

“On the D-core you could probably say, (Jaccob) Slavin’s a great shutdown defenseman but there’s no superstar. We were similar in ’06,” Recchi said of a group that included Bret Hedican, Aaron Ward, Frantisek Kaberle and Mike Commodore. “If you looked at our D-core, we didn’t have a superstar. We had just a bunch of great defensemen, really, really solid defensemen who understood what their roles were. It was easy to buy into it and they just did a terrific job.

“We just didn’t have a superstar like most teams have nowadays, a superstar in front, a superstar on D. Everybody just did their job, did it very well and pulled it together and we win.”

Former forward Matt Cullen, who played for the Hurricanes in 2005-06 and again from 2007-10, sees the two teams differently. This one has more players who have come up through the ranks to lead Carolina to several playoff runs, including forwards Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov as well as Jaccob Slavin, who were drafted and developed by the organization.

Cullen also credits this Carolina team’s identity, which has been built by coach and former forward Rod Brind’Amour, who was named captain of the Hurricanes prior to 2005-06.

“The way Rod coaches them, the way they play, you see a team take on the persona of their coach, and I don’t think I’ve never seen a team more like that,” he said. “The hunger they play with, the relentless attitude they play with; it points to Rod and that’s the sign of a good leader and a good coach. It’s such a hard style of hockey, it’s just relentless, in your face, and they have a lot of skill to go along with it. They’re one of my more favorite teams to watch.”

So now, these Hurricanes face the youthful Canadiens, with an average age of 25.8 years. They’re coming off a riveting seven-game, second-round series against the Buffalo Sabres, whom they eliminated with a 3-2 overtime win on Monday. They’re the youngest team to advance to a conference final since 1993, when the Canadiens won the Cup with the same average age.

Nevertheless, they have experience. Eric Staal, who played for Carolina from 2003-16, also went to the Cup Final with Montreal in 2020-21 with current Canadiens, including forwards Nick Suzuki, Josh Anderson, Phillip Danault and Cole Caufield.

“They’ve got experience, they’ve got guys who understand what it takes to make it to the Final, so (the Hurricanes) are going to have to be smart with how they play and level-headed with emotions, which I know both teams will do,” said Staal, a former forward who is the older brother of current Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal.

“It’s just going to be a competitive series. Carolina needs to play its style, be on the attack, be aggressive, be in their face, make life really, really difficult on the skill of Montreal and give themselves the best chance.”