Drop the Puck: Brandon Bussi's Parents Are Emotional

Stanley Cup Finals 2026: Game 4 Recap

by Zach

Three things made me tear up recently:

• Watching all the people yell "FUCK" in unison in the video that we've all watched thousands of times (thanks Joe for the reminder).
• Listening to "Stan" again for the first time in years.
• Watching a highlight video of Alex Ovechkin and how he's "built different." Because he is. He said there was absolutely no chance he would break Wayne Gretzky's record, but here we are, with him having broken it and then some. I hope so badly he comes back next year.

Now, for the game. Another good one, another great one, in fact. The Canes, somewhat unsurprisingly, stayed with goalie Brandon Bussi. Frederik Andersen didn't look good in Game 3, and Bussi at least kept his team in the game. Coach Rod Brind'Amour said that Andersen needed a break, and so he didn't even dress as the backup for Game 4. It was Bussi's game, no matter what. 

I know the feeling of having a goalie between the pipes who you don't feel that confident about. I felt that way with Bussi throughout the night. It just felt shaky, watching him. I hoped he wouldn't be the reason they lost the game. Carolina is the better team, I think, but Vegas has that annoying scrappy playoff energy that can lead teams to win series' they don't deserve to win. That includes no-names like Brett Howden scoring another goal, his fourteenth(!) of the playoffs. 

In the end, it wasn't. Carolina generated enough offense to beat a Vegas team that wasn't as good as them, and they won, 5-3, a final empty net goal sealing the victory.

Bussi is a great story, regardless. He was cut by the Florida Panthers before the season started, and was claimed off waivers by the Hurricanes, only getting a chance to play after Pyotr Kotchetkov went down with an injury. He ended up making the most starts for the team during the season, going 31-6-2—an insane record. Andersen, the more experienced pick, was named the playoff starter, but when Bussi got the call to start Game 4, his parents had to scramble to get to Vegas in time. They traveled from Long Island to make it in time for the game, and there are some adorable shots of them being very nervous throughout, and tearing up after the game was decided. During a postgame interview, Sportsnet showed Bussi that footage. "I can't believe you guys did that to me on live TV," he said, getting a bit emotional himself.

The game was strange and dramatic. Carolina went up 2-0—Logan Stankoven scored about a minute in, and is quickly becoming a hero for the entire state of North Carolina—but Mark Stone got behind the Canes defense and scored on a breakaway to make it 2-1. Captain Jordan Staal made it 3-1 in the first, and then the Golden Knights scored again, seemingly, at the first period buzzer, but the puck crossed the goal line a few tenths of a second after the green light had gone on.

But Vegas doesn't fold. They scored early in the second, and then Howden tied the game with an insane shot above Bussi's blocker. It remained 3-3 into the third, where Vegas got a power play chance. As became a theme for the game, Jack Eichel—who engineered a trade from Buffalo to Vegas after becoming disillusioned with the Sabres, yet another reason for the upstate New York-friendly PoYB literati to hate them—had several shot attempts, but they weren't high-danger chances, and Bussi stopped them. 

(Also on an important PoYB note: T-Pain played a pregame concert for the fans outside the arena and sounded the famous Golden Knights siren inside the arena during introductions to get the crowd hyped up. I will defer to the EIC: does this make the Golden Knights more likeable in the eyes of the PoYB readership, or less? During this week, of all weeks, no less, where a discussion about the autotune-happy artist took place!)

Then, with less than fourteen minutes left, series goat Shea Theodore attempted to pass the puck forward from behind his own net. He accidentally passed it directly to our favorite Canadian Bro, Seth Jarvis, who had a mini-breakaway, but was stopped by Carter Hart. That set off a mad scramble, where Jarvis batted the puck out of midair as seemingly the entire Vegas team surrounded him. The puck found its way to Nikolaj Ehlers (don't hockey players have cool names?), who passed it to Staal as he was falling down. Staal managed to get just enough on his backhand to get it past an out-of-position Hart and give the Canes the lead. Don't look now, but Staal has scored in each of the four games of the Final, and now has five goals in those games—a potential candidate for Final MVP if Carolina wins it all.

With two minutes left, Vegas pulled Hart to give themselves a six on five advantage. Tomas Hertl won the faceoff and got the puck directly to Eichel, who had a wide-open, point blank chance, but he missed the net. Soon afterward, Ehlers caromed the puck off the boards, and it went all the way down the ice, ending up in the net. Bussi's parents cried, and the series was about to be tied.

The Canes haven't yet named their Game 5 starter, but I'd be surprised if they went back to Andersen here, even though he got his day off and even though I feel more confident, overall, with him in net.

We continue to follow our 2025 World Series blueprint.

Game 5 is tomorrow night, back in Carolina.