He’s killing us in front of the net, Staal. — John Tortorella
LAS VEGAS — The most impactful player of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final is also its oldest.
Therefore, by all rights, he should be among the series' least limber.
And yet there was six-foot-four, 220-pound Jordan Staal spinning and twisting, falling to the ice and away from the Vegas Golden Knights' net when he backhanded a puck in the slot past Carter Hart.
“If there’s a guy to do it,” Jackson Blake smiled, “it’s going to be him.”
Set-up man Nikolaj Ehlers would say the sequence unfolded “in slow motion.” The play saved the Carolina Hurricanes’ season, swiped back home ice in this Counterpuncher’s Classic, and jolted a 37-year-old Staal up the Conn Smythe power rankings.
Laying on his back and soaking in the sweet silence of a home save unmade, ol’ Staal shook his meaty fists the way a lumberjack with a beard like his might rattle a great sequoia.
“For a second, I wasn’t sure exactly if it went in,” Staal relived, following Tuesday’s 5-3 Game 4 thriller. “I heard everyone go quiet. I heard some guys yelling. I was in my own world, and it was an incredible moment.
“Just let a big yell go, then celebrated with the guys.”
Ehlers couldn’t help but laugh. With relief. With joy. With the unlikely, lovely sight of it all.
But Staal? His mind switched from his big goal to not letting Vegas get the next big one in a series overflowing with momentum-turners.
“Two more wins,” the captain repeated. "Then we celebrate and reflect and widen the lens."
Taylor Hall has served under more captains than a flaky deckhand, none as unflappable as Staal.
“We kind of joke around about him. Like, nothing really seems to faze him,” Hall says. “I’ve never seen him really get anxious or nervous about things, and that’s a great leader to have in these situations. I mean, the pressure is there. Everyone can feel it and see it. And he doesn't feel it, you know? He doesn't get nervous.”
Hall spoke to Staal about being the calm in the eye of Carolina’s surging storm.
“That’s not something that I feel,” Staal told his teammate, frankly.
“He’s a beast out there, right?” Hall continues. “And he’s scored in all the games. He doesn’t take penalties. He doesn't get rattled. He's never yelling at guys on the ice or the referees. He's just like, ‘All right, next shift,’ and it's pretty cool to see.”
Staal admits he does get anxious, only for the puck to drop.
“But once the game starts, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” Staal says. “Once that game gets going, it’s just exciting, and it's fun, and it's engaging, and it's everything that I've dreamed of.”
The throwback is turning back the clock.
Staal has scored in each of this Cup Final’s four games — all while killing penalties and taking the lion’s share of his shifts against Jack Eichel’s top unit, which has yet to break through.
Staal leads all Hurricanes in goals (five), points (six), shots (14), and faceoff percentage (67.9) this series.
Even against fast, stiff, young matchups, the burly Staal has helped tilt the ice to 59.8 per cent Corsi and a 4-2 scoring advantage over his even-strength shifts.
“He’s obviously been leading us all playoffs — just watch how he’s playing. That’s all you have to see. He has an advantage: He’s a big man; this is a big man’s game. But he’s dragging us into this for sure,” raves coach Rod Brind’Amour, who redirects a reporter’s question about his own leadership abilities to that of his captain.
“The leader of our group is Jordan Staal, and it trickles down from there. I’m very fortunate to have that. You’re in big trouble if you don’t have the leadership in the room.”
Staal’s consistency and composure have been hard-earned. The 37-year-old is up to 1,582 games played, including his 14 playoff runs.
He set the record for most elapsed time between Cup Final goals (6,202 days), wiping big brother Eric (6,198 days) off the leaderboard.
Jordan says the similarity between today’s group and the one with whom he captured the 2009 Cup in Pittsburgh is family.
“We were very close, and we’re close here,” Staal says. “The care factor, and wanting it for each other, and doing everything we can to get it done for each other has been big.
“Just the cohesiveness in how we’re playing and the style and what we want to do has been there as well. The buy-in factor. So, all those things have been very similar.”
Brind’Amour says he is “spoiled” to have a captain that improves both special teams, prioritizes defence, embraces physicality, and is able to chip in offence. He’s happy the world is seeing this week what he sees daily.
“He takes every shift like it’s his last, and takes a lot of pride in that, and takes pride in being a leader of this team and does it by example,” Brind’Amour says. “For whatever reason, now goals are going in. But he’s always played like this.”
Perhaps.
But it’s never been so valuable that Staal is playing like this.
After arguably his greatest individual performance, Staal allows a second of personal appreciation:
“It’s a good time to get hot,” he says.
Fox’s Fast Five
• Following Game 3’s dramatic loss, Carolina goaltending coach Paul Schonfelder approached Brind’Amour: “Freddy needs a little break.”
Frederik Andersen has stayed off the ice since getting pulled after the infamous Mitch Marner Period. Brind’Amour gave Andersson a complete night off Tuesday, handing third-stringer Pyotr Kochetkov the ballcap instead. Andersson wasn’t even in the building.
Brind’Amour has not yet decided on Game 5’s starter.
• Brandon Bussi became the first undrafted goalie in history to make his first career playoff start in the Stanley Cup Final.
“Personally, I feel like I will be able to appreciate this more after the season’s over,” a straight-faced Bussi said.
• The Golden Knights have outscored the Hurricanes 9-1 in second periods this series, feasting on the long change and rush opportunities.
“That’s where we’ve been getting killed, making some poor changes,” said Brind’Amour, who has been trying to find a solution in team meetings. “We have to take a much better look at that, and we talked about it. I mean, that’s a killer, giving up freebies. Those are the freebies we can’t give up, so that's part of it. But that’s an area we’re gonna definitely shore up.”
It didn’t happen Tuesday. Vegas won Period 2 by a score of 2-0 and erased Carolina’s fine work early.
• Brayden McNabb had a near buzzer-beater wiped off the scoreboard because the first period expired a half-second before the puck dented the net.
That makes four potential goals Vegas has not registered in this series, following video review. All of those calls were correct.
• Top prospect Caleb Malhotra was in the building for this one. He says Uncle Steve (Nash) has given him a ton of advice as he heads to the draft and a pro career.
“We’re pretty close. He texts me to ask how it’s going, texts me during the season about different things. I mean, we can talk about pretty much anything,” the 18-year-old says.
“He’ll ask me about hockey. I’ll ask him about what's going on in the basketball world. And he gives me advice from his experiences. Similar to my dad (Canucks coach Manny). I lean on both of them going through this experience: Be myself. Not be nervous. Just enjoy this.”
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