After 15 straight Eastern Conference Final losses, the Carolina Hurricanes have finally broken their curse, thanks to a 3-0 win Monday night in Sunrise.

Before last night, the Canes' last conference win had come nearly two decades prior.

On June 1, 2006, the Hurricanes defeated the Buffalo Sabres 4-2 at the RBC Center in Game 7 to punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final, which they wound up winning as they defeated the Edmonton Oilers in seven games as well.

But for a while, it looked like they might have sold their souls for that Cup run.

The curse started way back in 2009, with a sweep at the hands of the eventual Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins (Jordan Staal was actually a member of that Pens team)

Then there was the decade of darkness, and then the Hurricanes' first time back in the playoffs they go on a big run before the Boston Bruins dismantled them in four straight.

Then in 2023, they lost four straight one-goal games to the Florida Panthers.

And then they lost three straight to kick off this current series.

Things felt very grim in Carolina Hurricanes land.

But hey, they got one, so now that tired narrative can finally die.

Because it was pretty silly, to be honest. Like, I get it from a fan perspective, because more than likely, they lived all or most of those series.

But how many players actually are still on this team that were even on that 2023 team? Only 10 of their current rostered players played in that series.

What about 2019? Five.

And like we said, Jordan Staal was actually a Penguin back in 2009.

So the narrative really didn't hold much water for the guys in that current locker room, but boy did they get asked about it a lot. And I mean a lot.

If you think the fans are happy to be done with all the 'ECF Curse' talk, let me tell you, the players are especially happy to no longer be hearing about it

"It means nothing to those guys because half of them weren't here, but it's been a story so, yeah it's nice to not have to talk about that," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour.

"I don't really care about that stuff," said Frederik Andersen. "I mean you'd obviously rather win, but I don't think a lot of players here were here when it started. I mean, Jordo was on the other team that started it all. Shows you how big of a narrative that is. It's something we don't really care about. We care about tonight and care about trying to win the game in front of us."

"Wonderful," Jaccob Slavin said when asked about not having to hear about the losing streak anymore. "Wonderful."

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