The NHL Stanley Cup Finals – The Finals You Didn’t Ask For
Written by: Brad Blakemore
Last Update: Mon Jun 01, 2026, 5:07 pm ET
Read Time: 8 minutes
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This year's Stanley Cup Finals is the equivalent of picking a favorite between your two least favorite children. It's like trying to select between the red headed booger eating son who habitually crosses every line. Or the dorky kid who is doing well in school, but you just know will never be able to land a joke in front of their friends. It's a grim, dark place for NHL fans who were hoping for a perfect Stanley Cup Final rematch between the high flying Colorado Avalanche vs the battle tested Tampa Bay Lightning. Or hell, even a surprise like the star studded Dallas Stars (see what I did there) going up against a young up and coming team like the Montreal Canadiens would have been epic.
But nope, here we are. We get the modern equivalent to the dead puck era, Carolina Hurricanes vs the Vegas Golden Knights who manage to break every unspoken rule in the NHL and get away with it, season after season. Here at the Betting News we are going to try to soften the blow of this Stanley Cup Finals matchup. As a result, we will make the puck shaped pill a little easier to swallow. Or at least we will help you decided which horrible option to root for. Let's take a look at both teams and try our damndest to make a case to root for them.
Vegas Golden Knights — The Franchise That Cheats The Universe. +130 to win the Cup on Lucky Rebel:
Vegas Golden Knights forward Tomas Hertl jumps into the boards after his goal vs the Avalanche in Game 3.
The Vegas Golden Knights are a franchise that entered the league in 2017 and was handed, via an expansion draft rules quirk that other NHL GMs are still furious about, a roster full of players other teams had reluctantly protected from. They turned those players into a Stanley Cup Final appearance in their very first season. The rest of the NHL watched this happen like a man who carefully built a sandcastle only to watch your annoying toddler walk right over it as soon as you stepped away to put on more sunscreen.
Now in 2026, they've hired John Tortorella — on March 29th, by the way — and are somehow in the Cup Final. That timeline should be illegal. Tortorella was brought in mid-season, had roughly ten minutes to install a system, and the result is a team that swept the Avalanche and looks like they've been playing together for three years. The audacity is frankly stunning.
The Bully who gets away with it:
The roster reads like a fever dream assembled by an AI trained on "how to win at hockey and make everyone else mad." Mitch Marner — who came to Vegas after a long, dramatic Toronto saga — leads all playoff scorers with 21 points (7 goals, 14 assists) in 15 games. Jack Eichel (and his curly, frizzy hair) has 18 points and leads all skaters in assists with 16. Half their blueline have come from the Calgary Flames, who may just be Vegas's bullpin at this point. And only TWO players are still on this roster from the original expansion not even 10 years ago. Even the most ADHD riddled minds would struggle to blow up their roster and coaching staff this much in EA Sports NHL "GM Mode".
Let's not even begin to discuss that this team WAS NOT VERY GOOD in the regular season. Vegas was 39-26-17, good for 95 points — and some how still managed to get the No. 1 seed from the Pacific, but over 18 points behind Carolina's regular season mark. In fact there were FIVE teams with more points than them in the East who MISSED THE PLAYOFFS. And yet here they are. Because of course they are. Just like your brat kid who is throwing up on your brand new pool deck because they cannon balled into the pool immediately after eating three hot dogs (you told them they can only have one).
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Carolina Hurricanes — The Honor Student Who Finally Made The Dance: -150 to win the Cup on Lucky Rebel:
Carolina Hurricanes players celebrate after scoring a goal.
The Hurricanes have been building toward this moment with the patience of a chess grandmaster who refuses to celebrate until checkmate. Under Rod Brind'Amour — who, in a fun piece of franchise lore, was the captain of the last Carolina team to win the Cup in 2006 — the Hurricanes have turned themselves into a system-driven, analytics-forward, playoff-caliber machine that just somehow kept finding increasingly clever ways to exit the playoffs early.
Not this year. This year, Carolina went 12-1 through three rounds on their road to the Stanley Cup Finals. They became the first team since the 1983 Edmonton Oilers to reach the Cup Final with one loss or fewer. The '83 Oilers, for what it's worth, were then swept in the Final by the Islanders. We'll just leave that there.
The Stat Nerds' Team:
What makes Carolina genuinely terrifying — in the most spreadsheet-approved way — is how boring they are. Their penalty kill sits at 95.5%, the best in the playoffs, and you know, the special team that every fan loves to watch… Given that Vegas runs the most dangerous power play remaining in the tournament, the upcoming matchup between Carolina's PK and Vegas's man advantage is essentially the series within the series. If Carolina can hold that number anywhere near its current pace, they suffocate Vegas's best offensive weapon before it ever gets going. And that's exactly why this Stanley Cup Finals could be a 7-game series that has a total of 20 goals. Joy…
Now, the Canes have actually been able to find the twine an entertaining amount this post season. Taylor Hall has 16 points. Jackson Blake has 15. Logan Stankoven leads the team with 9 goals and has put himself squarely in the Conn Smythe conversation. But in their last two games against Montreal, the Hurricanes scored 9 times, and only allowed one goal against. Sigh. Perhaps that's because Frederik Andersen in goal has been absurdly good: 1.44 GAA, .928 save percentage. But it also is because loves to out hustle, out grind and out think you to win. Shot suppression by blocking shots and clogging up lanes is their forte. Run and gun games is the Hurricanes equivalent of having your dorky kid swim without floaties on , it's not something they are willing to do.
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How to bet on the Stanley Cup Finals – Lucky Rebel:
As of puck drop, Carolina sits as the -155 series favorite with Vegas at +130. The series spread has Carolina -1.5 at +134 (meaning they need to win in six or fewer games), while Vegas +1.5 at -172 cashes if the Knights win the series or push it to a Game 7. Sportsbooks expect a long one — the over 5.5 games is juiced to -196 at FanDuel.
The Carolina case is straightforward: this team has been the best in the Eastern Conference for months, and their playoff run has been a stress-free, methodical demolition. They go four lines deep, their goalie is playing like a man possessed, and their penalty kill is so good it borders on unfair. However, the one thing that might slow Carolina down is Vegas's ability to generate high-danger chances in transition. Brind'Amour's rigid system has historically struggled to adapt against this when outmatched athletically up front.
The Vegas case is messier but genuinely compelling. They beat the best team in hockey in four straight games. They have two of the best postseason performers in the league in Marner and Eichel. In addition, their power play can change the complexion of any game in 90 seconds. And they have a head coach who, somehow, despite being hired in late March, has this team playing their best hockey of the year. Ultimately, Vegas's path to the Cup runs directly through special teams — if they can draw penalties, convert at their current rate, and Carter Hart plays the way he has all postseason, this series gets very interesting very fast.
Conn Smythe cases I think are the best angles for series betting. Mitch Marner at +170 and Freddy Andersen at +220 are both VERY solid bets and allow you to make money if you bet both of the favorites. But things can change this series. If Marner goes cold or Andersen begins to get leaky, I want to back these bets with some reaches. Also, I think Jack Eichel at +1600 is hard to beat. I cannot see the league giving the award to Carter Hart for Vegas, for reasons you can look up and make your own opinion about. In addition, I don't think Dorofeyev leading the team in goals makes him more worthy than Eichel dominating in both point and two-way play in the Stanley Cup Finals. Meanwhile for the Hurricanes, a strong showing by any of Taylor Hall (+600) or Logan Stankoven (+850) will keep them as the teams leading point producer and/or goal scorer. This could jettison them to the MVP trophy if Andersen struggles but Carolina is able to push past Vegas.
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Brad Blakemore, better known as Betzky, is a desert rat who was born and raised in Tempe Arizona. Shockingly this didn't stop Betzky from becoming a hockey fanatic. He specializes in NHL capping, and is (unfortunately) a diehard Coyotes fan, through all the highs and (mostly) lows. When not consuming NHL action Betzky collects records of all genres, attends tons of concerts and spends time with the Mrs, their cat Brain and doggo Ned. Follow Betzky on Twitter/X @gretzkybetzkys or on the Parlay Science discord.
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