We might have just witnessed the most compelling opening three games of a Stanley Cup Final in NHL annals. While I’m not a hockey historian, I don’t remember one with as many goals, comebacks and one-goal games than the 2026 Final between the Hurricanes and Golden Knights. Vegas looks to take a commanding 3-1 series lead Tuesday in what could be its final home game of the season if it gets the victory. The Hurricanes are slight -114 favorites on the money line, with Vegas priced at -106.
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Hurricanes vs. Golden Knights same-game parlay
- Vegas +1.5
- Carolina Over 2.5 goals scored
BetRivers SGP price: +175
While these aren’t exactly two large-market teams with a ton of hockey history, the NHL has to be giddy with the product on the ice thus far, with at least seven goals in each game and the past two going past regulation. The 25 goals scored are the fifth most through the first three games of any championship series in league history.
Every game has seen a tying goal in the final 10 minutes of regulation – a first in a Stanley Cup. It’s only the fourth Final to see any team erase a multi-goal deficit three times in the series overall. It’s the first Final with the first three each decided by a goal since 2016. That either team wins by a goal tonight is +260. Only three Finals have started with four straight one-goal games and it hasn’t happened since 2015 (Blackhawks-Lightning).
Carolina had been 6-0 on the road in these playoffs and 6-0 in overtime before losing 5-4 in double OT on Saturday night in Game 3. Good thing there was an extra day off for both clubs after that amazing hockey game. That there is OT in Game 4 is +275.
Vegas scored four times in the second period to seemingly lock the game down, only to allow four goals to Carolina in the third, with the tying coming via Andrei Svechnikov on the power play at 18:17. But Shea Theodore won it at 5:38 of the second OT off Hurricanes backup goalie Brandon Bussi. It was Theodore’s second OT winner in these playoffs as he became only the seventh defenseman in history with multiple overtime goals in a single postseason.
Carolina was looking to become the fifth team in NHL history to begin a postseason with a road winning streak of seven or more games. Now the Canes are 3-12 all-time in playoff games that require two or more overtime periods. The Knights are 4-2.
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When I previewed Game 1 in this space, I mentioned that for whatever reason goalies rarely win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP these days, and that run now seems safe to continue. Neither of the guys who have started in this series has played that well.
There is no shot that Vegas coach John Tortorella benches Carter Hart, because Hart has been the guy since Torts took over for the fired Bruce Cassidy late in the regular season. Hart is +30000 to win the Conn Smythe.
Frederik Andersen (+4000) was not the main Carolina guy during the regular season, but the veteran had played every minute of these playoffs until getting pulled following two periods of Game 3 after allowing those four goals (two more were disallowed). Bussi stopped the first 18 shots he faced to help the Canes rally before Theodore’s shot off the end boards in the second OT bounced off Bussi’s skate and into the net for a fluke goal in the goalie’s first action since April 14.
Clearly, coach Rod Brind’Amour now has a decision to make but seemed to hint after the loss that no big changes are coming. Then he changed his tune a bit and said he had made a decision on Monday but wasn’t ready to share it with anyone.
“We’ll keep it quiet,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s the only suspenseful thing around here. Hold onto it. It seems to have taken on a life of its own, so I kind of enjoy it.”
Would he really go to a rookie with no playoff starting experience this late? Bussi was claimed off waivers in early October but was terrific at 31-6-2 with a 2.47 goals-against average, .895 save percentage and two shutouts in the regular season. Andersen is 13-2-0 with a 1.72 GAA and .917 SV in 15 playoff starts and gave up two goals or fewer in 12 of his first 13, but he hasn’t looked the same lately. His GAA climbed each series, from 1.10 to 1.14 to 1.91 to 4.44 in the Final. It seems likely to be Bussi’s turn.
“His games have been kind of those practices we’ve had, and he’s been sharp,” forward Seth Jarvis said of the rookie. “He keeps the same mentality going into a game as he does in practice. That’s what made coming in so easy for him. He treats everything like it’s a game and just stayed really dialed in throughout the time he wasn’t playing.”
The Conn Smythe is now clearly Mitchell Marner’s to lose, to the point that FanDuel offers the Vegas forward at -230 vs. the entire field at +168. Marner had a hat trick in just 6:10 of ice time in the second period of Game 2, the fastest hatty in Stanley Cup Final history.
Marner also had an assist in the second to become the first NHL player with four points in a period during a Stanley Cup Final. He leads the playoffs by a mile with 28 points. That’s a league record by a player in his first season with a franchise. Marner is set at +220 to score a goal and -310 to earn a point.
Teams that take a 3-1 series lead in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final own an all-time record of 38-1, while teams that win Game 4 after trailing 2-1 own an overall series record of 11-16. Vegas is now -188 on the series line, with Carolina +155.
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I can’t possibly fade a Vegas team that is 21-5-1 under Tortorella, but the Hurricanes will be desperate so we’ll do the +1.5. In an ideal world, it’s 3-3 at the end of regulation, we cash and then enjoy the overtime(s). Carolina has scored at least three goals in seven straight. The SportsLine Projection Model has Vegas 3.3-3.0. Check out more expert picks in the daily SportsLine newsletter.
