What's Adversity?
Everybody's got problems, featuring the 2025-26 Carolina Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes are a win away from capturing the Stanley Cup.
The team’s players are three strong periods away from earning their sport’s ultimate prize. And then they’ll be forever known as champions, winners.
Yet success is never a straight line from Point A to B.
Looking at CAR’s roster, we see:
Dynamic scorers who could do no wrong, until they failed as core players and bounced around (Taylor Hall & Shayne Gostisbehere)
An undrafted player who’s overcome severe injury (ACL & MCL tear) to become a top-pair D (Sean Walker)
A winger who twice got cut from major junior before scratching and clawing his way through 14 pro seasons (Jordan Martinook)
Hyped prospects who had to re-invent themselves just to stick in the NHL (Mark Jankowski, Mike Reilly)
Players who didn’t get opportunities they rightfully deserved on previous teams (K’Andre Miller, Nik Ehlers)
Players perceived as too small to be a factor this time of year (Logan Stankhoven, Jackson Blake, Seth Jarvis)
Players trying to fight off Father Time, one more time (Jordan Staal, Jaccob Slavin, Frederik Andersen)
Players no one believed in, until they kept showing up again and again (Jalen Chatfield, Eric Robinson, Brandon Bussi, Nick Deslauriers)
Players who went through growing pains in an unfamiliar land (Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Pyotr Kochetkov, Alexander Nikishin)
A player not even in the lineup who’s about to embark on a second act (Jesperi Kotkaniemi)
These are the 2025-26 Carolina Hurricanes.
Think of them next time you encounter adversity on your hockey journey.