NHL fans were still debating singer Adam Lee Decker's national anthem performance when Carolina Hurricanes forward Nikolaj Ehlers scored just 25 seconds into the Stanley Cup Final opener in Raleigh on Tuesday night.
Anthem Performance Sparks Debate
'The National anthem by the Carolina Hurricanes for the Stanley Cup was one of the worst I ever heard,' one critic wrote on X as countless other fans argued over the performance. Some were happy to see the Canadian national anthem omitted due to the absence of any team from the Great White North. As one fan wrote: 'Love watching the Stanley Cup finals and only hearing our National Anthem.'
Many others were supportive of Decker, who has been performing before Hurricanes games for more than a decade. 'Don't like either team but If yall win yall gotta put Adam Lee Decker name on the cup,' one fan suggested.
Ehlers Makes History
But while hockey fans found themselves bickering over Decker's performance, Ehlers took a pass from Jaccob Slavin and snapped it by Golden Knights netminder Carter Hart for the eighth-fastest goal of any Stanley Cup Final game ever played. What's more, Ehlers' first goal was the third-fastest to open any Stanley Cup Final series.
And he wasn't done. Ehlers scored on a backhand to give Carolina a 2-1 lead 12 minutes later before Vegas' Shea Theodore cut the lead in half with a slap shot moments later. 'Ehlers waited his whole career for a Stanley Cup Final and decided to turn into prime Wayne Gretzky in the first period,' one fan wrote on X.
Road to the Final
The Hurricanes rolled through the Eastern Conference playoffs, while the Golden Knights picked up speed with each round before pulling off a shocking sweep of the first-seeded Colorado Avalanche. That has brought them to the Final, with the Golden Knights chasing a second championship in four seasons while the Hurricanes are playing for the Cup for the first time since coach Rod Brind'Amour captained them to the 2006 title.
The Hurricanes went 12-1 through three rounds to get here, sweeping through Ottawa and Philadelphia before taking the last four games of a five-game win against Montreal in the Eastern Conference Final. That made the Hurricanes the first team since 1983 to reach the Stanley Cup Final with one loss, and the first since the NHL went to best-of-seven series in all four rounds in 1987.
The Golden Knights — who surged after a late-season coaching change by firing Bruce Cassidy to hire John Tortorella — pushed past Utah and Anaheim in a pair of six-game series, and have won six straight games entering Tuesday's Game 1 against Carolina after beating the Avs.
Defense Dominates
Defense has been the standout feature for both teams. Carolina has allowed two or fewer goals in 12 of 13 playoff games, including a shutout win in all three Eastern playoff rounds. Vegas allowed just seven goals in the sweep of the Avalanche, who led the league in regular-season scoring (3.63 goals per game) behind high-end skill like Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Martin Necas.
Vegas took both regular-season meetings with Carolina, first with a 4-1 home win on October 20. Eight days later, Jack Eichel scored twice in the last 4:59 for a 6-3 win that included Carolina having multiple injuries that had them down to four defensemen for a significant stretch of the night.
