LAS VEGAS — Embrace the chaos.That can be the only slogan for the 2026 Stanley Cup Final.At least through three ridiculous games, anyway.How else to describe what we’ve witnessed so far between the Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights?Jack Eichel sure hasn’t seen anything like it.“No, I haven’t,” the Golden Knights star center said after his team’s unforgettable 5-4 win in double overtime Saturday night. “Obviously a lot of back and forth. A lot of lead changes. But so much resiliency by us and we found a way to get it done. I’m really happy to be on the right side of this.”Yes, because it easily could have been the worst collapse in a Stanley Cup Final game, and everyone would have been talking about it. But the Golden Knights found their nerve and now lead 2-1 in a series that has had so many things happen already.There surely has never been a wilder opening three games of a Stanley Cup Final in NHL history.“This has been the craziest start to a finals for sure,” former Anaheim Ducks star captain Ryan Getzlaf told The Athletic via text message Saturday night. “No way I can remember there ever being this many lead changes and overtime and disallowed goals all in a three-game span. Just proves where our game is right now is great for hockey fans.”Forget for a moment the intensity that we’d already witnessed in Games 1 and 2 in Raleigh, where the winning team erased 2-0 deficits in both their victories in between all kinds of other madness.But Saturday night here at T-Mobile Arena? Holy mama.The wild game included:• A Mitch Marner natural hat trick in the second period, the fastest in Stanley Cup Final history.• Brandon Bussi replacing Frederik Andersen in goal after the second period and standing on his head the rest of the way.• Marner stopped on a penalty shot which would have made it 5-0 Vegas early in the third period.• Followed by three Carolina goals in 39 seconds, fastest in finals history.• Carolina erasing a four-goal deficit with all four tallies coming in the third period to force overtime.• The only other time a team erased a four-goal deficit in the Cup Final, regardless of the result, was in Game 1 in 1972 when the Rangers trailed 5-1 and tied it up before losing 6-5 to the Bruins.
Historic Stanley Cup Final Game 3 was pure bedlam. Four more of these, please
These have been the wildest and most chaotic opening three games of the Stanley Cup Final we've ever seen.












