LAS VEGAS — The day before the Carolina Hurricanes reached the NHL’s summit, their coach reflected on the climb.After years of progress and setbacks, growth and stagnation, minor tweaks and wholesale changes, Carolina’s moment arrived on Sunday at T-Mobile Arena. Coach Rod Brind’Amour’s team is a champion now, in the realest, fullest sense of the term, beating the Vegas Golden Knights 3-0 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final to finish off a dominant 16-3 postseason run.For years, the Hurricanes operated on parallel tracks, largely following regular-season dominance with late-stage playoff disappointment, earning admiration for a remarkably high floor and prompting questions over whether they’d bumped a ceiling that wasn’t quite high enough.We have our answer. Carolina’s players, coaching staff and front office never doubted that their validation would come and that their process was sound. On Saturday, his final day as a coach without a Stanley Cup victory, Brind’Amour reinforced it all one last time.“I know what works,” he said. “I know we didn’t win, and we haven’t won yet and all that. I get it. And that’s our goal, of course. But I know what doesn’t work. I know if we play a different way, we’re not going to be even knocking on the door.”On Sunday, the Hurricanes knocked it down — and they did it their way, after nearly a decade spent staying true to a bone-deep, fundamental belief that their method of doing business could work on the grandest scale, even as meaningful chunks of the hockey world had begun to wonder.Three times between 2019 and 2025, the Hurricanes advanced to the Eastern Conference final. Three times — owing to some combination of bad luck and a lack of a finishing kick — they lost.Their roster remains one built around the chosen style of Brind’Amour, their coach the past eight seasons and former captain. Carolina plays with relentless pressure, tireless forechecking, aggressive defensive play and limitless belief. Every NHL team holds similar values. Few match the Hurricanes’ level of dedication to the cause.The 2025-26 version had its foundational pieces: Jordan Staal, the 37-year-old captain, Brind’Amour proxy and all-situations war horse; Jaccob Slavin, a top-pair defenseman and a savant of positional hockey; Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov, first-line talents tasked at times with sublimating their offensive gifts in pursuit of the greater good; Seth Jarvis, a three-time 30-goal scorer, lab-built for Brind’Amour’s system. All were Carolina draft picks, save for Staal, who’s been with the organization since 2012.The group also had late-stage additions: Logan Stankoven, their 5-foot-8 leading playoff goal-scorer and a long-sought impact center on the second line; Nikolaj Ehlers, a dynamic force at five-on-five and on the power play; K’Andre Miller, a supremely talented defenseman identified by Carolina’s front office and unlocked by its coaching staff.