The Carolina Hurricanes completed their first round sweep over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, becoming the first team to advance in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

It was a full team effort for the Hurricanes, with multiple difference makers each and every night, but in the end, there were a few key players who stood out throughout the series.

Here are my five Stars of the Series:

Heading into the postseason, many people were expecting (or hoping) to see Brandon Bussi in net for Carolina.

However, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour and goaltending coach Paul Schonfelder, opted to go with the guy with experience and what a decision that proved to be.

Andersen had a 0.955 save percentage for the series, a 1.10 goals against average and currently leads the entire league in goals saved above average with 4.99, nearly two goals better than the next best netminder according to Natural Stat Trick.

Ottawa managed to beat the "Great Dane" just five times across the series and only three times at even strength. 

Andersen allowed just one "softy," a shot from distance in Game 2, but outside of that, he was basically unbeatable, with the only other shots to beat him being either deflections or chances alone directly in front him.

The NHL's current playoff point leader, Taylor Hall was an offensive dynamo for the Hurricanes in their first round series against the Senators. 

Hall was making things happen in the offensive zone whenever he had the puck on his stick and his playmaking was on full display throughout.

Not only did he help generate three goals at even strength on his line with Logan Stankoven and Jackson Blake, but he also was able to drive play through partial line changes multiple times too and on the power play as well.

Hall finished the series with two goals and seven points, four of them being primary points. 

He was physical (albeit an unfortunate outcome on the hit to the head of Jake Sanderson), took contact and made plays and he's looking like he turned back the clock a few years out there.

"He's one of the guys driving the bus right now," said Jackson Blake on his linemate. "A huge piece for our group and for me and Stanks, to play with a guy like that who's been around for a while and has had so much success in this league, it's been great to have him there for advice. He's always talking, which is big. He's been great for us."

There isn't a player in the NHL hotter than Logan Stankoven is right now.

The Hurricanes' centerman scored in every game of the series, three times scoring the game's opening goal, and registered five points across four games.

But his hot streak goes back even before the playoffs as he entered the postseason on an eight-game point streak.

So in total, Stankoven has registered points in 12 straight games between the regular season and the postseason, totaling 11 goals and 16 points in that span.

And this isn't just a hot streak shooting wise either as his line was an absolute force in every game at 5v5 too.

Across their 5v5 minutes in the series, the trio controlled 65% of the scoring chances, 78% of the high-danger chances, had a 78.5% expected goals for percentage and outscored Ottawa 3-0.

That's just absolute dominance and it starts in the middle.

"He's been awesome," Hall said on his centerman. "I think if you look back at how he played the last 10-15 games of the regular season, our line was clicking pretty well. He had so many chances all year long and when you start to see some pucks go in, it just makes you feel better. I think that's probably how he's going. But it's the other stuff too. Like we weren't on for a goal against all series and he's our centerman. He's the guy down low doing the work. So it's not just the goals."

The Hurricanes were shorthanded in their first round series more than any other team has been this postseason, spending 35:53 in total on the penalty kill.

They also spent over three and a half minutes facing a 5v3 shorthanded situation.

But across all of that, the Hurricanes surrendered just a single power play goal and actually zero while down two players.

That's a big testament to the penalty kill, but especially Jaccob Slavin, who played 24:45 shorthanded or 69% of the team's total penalty killing.

Slavin has long been known as one of the league's best shutdown defenders and that ability was on full display in the first round series as most of Ottawa's stars were completely shutdown.

"Slavo, today, was out there for 10 of the 13 minutes we were shorthanded," Brind'Amour said following Game 4. "That kind of says it all for you."

There really isn't a more important player to the Carolina Hurricanes than their captain.

Staal does just about everything for his team from setting the tone physically to not backing down from a fight with Senators captain Brady Tkachuk to centering the shutdown line to even skating on the team's top power play unit and so much more.

A perhaps overlooked factor , the series was one of the most lopsided in terms of faceoff disparity and because of that, Brind'Amour had to keep throwing Staal out there to try and win faceoffs as every other center was getting caved in.

The captain took 106 faceoffs across four games, two times as many as Sebastian Aho who took the second most draws for the team.

While he won just 46.23%, that was still the best marker on the team, and he also won 50% of them while shorthanded and 73.33% while on the power play, so he was coming through in crucial moments.

Staal also logged the most shorthanded ice time amongst forwards (18:33) and despite getting the shutdown matchups at 5v5, still outchanced and outscored his opposition at even strength.

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