Red Light newsletter 🏒 | This is The Athletic’s hockey newsletter. Sign up here to receive Red Light directly in your inbox.Good morning to everyone except whoever came up with this headline. Nice try, guys, but April Fools’ Day was weeks ago. Maybe go for something more realistic next time.So, did everyone enjoy the extra day off? There’s a good chance you needed it after the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final. Deep breaths, because Game 4 goes tonight.Greatest Stanley Cup Final ever?It’s a fair question, right? And as the local hockey history guy, you know I’m going to take a swing at it. Let’s do this.Game 1 featured a ton of offense, lead changes and drama, culminating in a late winner. Game 2 took a while to heat up, then went absolutely bonkers in the final 10 minutes of regulation, leading to OT. And Game 3 might have been the wildest of all, with one of the greatest comebacks in playoff history thwarted by another sudden-death winner, this one on a total fluke in double OT.Three games. Three different “did we all just see that?” reactions.Is this series on track to be the best Cup Final of the cap era? The best final of any era? Maybe the best playoff series of all time, period?The short answer: After three games, it’s too early to tell.The slightly longer answer: The fact that we can even ask the question is pretty amazing. Being in the “best series ever” conversation after three games is like a baseball pitcher having a perfect game through five innings. Nothing truly historic has happened quite yet, but it’s not too early to start getting excited. And it’s definitely time to go out of your way to tune in.If you missed it, I did some playoff series ranking yesterday. A bit too much, if we’re being honest. I picked the best series in NHL history for every possible combination of wins and losses that can make up a seven-game series. And that means a lot of the candidates for “best ever” are fresh in my mind. Among Stanley Cup finals, the ones you hear mentioned most often include 1994 (Rangers over Canucks), 2009 (Penguins over Red Wings) and 2024 (the Oilers’ almost-comeback against the Panthers). Outside the final, you’ve got candidates such as the Habs over the Bruins in 1979, the Rangers over the Devils in 1994, the Kings over the Leafs in 1993 and the Kings over the Blackhawks in 2014.Can the Canes and Knights climb that mountain? One thing you’ll notice is that every one of those classic series went the full seven games. There’s no guarantee it will happen here, and obviously, if Vegas closes this out in five, the discussion is over.But if it goes the distance? This series is checking almost all the boxes you’d want from an all-time classic. Overtime? We’ve had two already. Chaos? Plenty. Controversy? John Tortorella’s challenge in Game 2 will be debated forever if the Knights lose. End-to-end action? There have been some dry patches, but you never know when the dam is about to break. Storylines? Almost too many to count.Really, the only thing missing so far is some old-fashioned bad blood, and we’ve still got time to get there. If anything, it feels like this series could have another level to get to, especially if and when stars like Jack Eichel and Sebastian Aho really start to make their presence felt.We’re only in the fifth inning. But something special is happening. Let’s see where it goes.What’s in store for Vegas-Carolina Game 4? Bedlam, we hope. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)🫨 Get ready for Game 4Vegas leads the series 2-1. Let’s get you caught up.First things first: We don’t know the Hurricanes’ starting goaltender for tonight. We saw rookie Brandon Bussi for the first time in this year’s playoffs when he relieved Frederik Andersen after two periods. At the time, it felt like a low-pressure opportunity for the kid to get his feet wet, since at 4-0 the game was already over. But then it wasn’t over, because things got wild, and Bussi standing on his head was part of it.So, what now if you’re Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour? Do you go back to Andersen, the veteran who looked fantastic through three rounds? Or do you trust your season to the hot hand in Bussi, in what would be the first start of his playoff career? The speculation started almost immediately after Game 3 ended, and yesterday Brind’Amour didn’t offer any hints. We should know later this morning, but Jesse Granger has a good post on how a Bussi start could mess with the Knights.On the Vegas side, the focus has been on Saturday’s heroes: Mitch Marner running away with the Conn Smythe Trophy, Brayden McNabb’s inspiring return from taking an 87 mph slapshot to the face and Shea Theodore’s “lucky” OT winner.As for the rest of us, we’re just waiting to find out what tonight might have in store.(Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)And the award goes to …Last week, I asked you to vote on this year’s O’Brien Trophy, awarded to the team with the worst postseason. The idea was not to look for the team that went out first, but to measure each team’s performance against expectations.