> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.keeganthecaniac.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Guy Who Ended Our 2009 Run Is the Guy Who Ended the Drought - URL: https://www.keeganthecaniac.com/the-guy-who-ended-our-2009-run-is-the-guy-who-ended-the-drought/ - Published: 2026-08-10T02:33:16.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-10T02:36:14.000Z - Author: Keegan Every Canes fan has a version of 2009 they've made peace with. Mine took about fifteen years. That team had no business being where it was. They beat New Jersey in seven, on the road, on a goal with 32 seconds left in Game 7\. Then they beat Boston in seven, on the road, in overtime. Cam Ward was unconscious. Eric Staal was 24 and the captain and looked like a guy who was going to win two or three of these. Then Pittsburgh swept them. And the 20-year-old third-line center on that Penguins team was Eric's little brother. ## Sign up for Keegan The Caniac Hurricanes takes and stories written for Caniacs, by a Caniac. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ## What actually happened in that series Jordan Staal was in his third NHL season. He'd been drafted second overall in 2006, scored 29 goals as an 18-year-old rookie, and by 2009 Pittsburgh had already figured out he was going to be a checking center rather than a scorer. Carolina scored first in Game 1 and lost. Game 3 was the one that broke it — tied 1-1 late in the first period, and then Crosby and Malkin scored in the final minute to make it 3-1\. Game over. Series basically over. Game 4, Carolina scored first again and gave up four straight in a 4-1 loss. Four games. Done. Pittsburgh went on to beat Detroit in seven and Jordan Staal had a Stanley Cup ring before his 21st birthday. Carolina didn't make the playoffs again for nine years. That series is the line in franchise history. Everything before it was the good era. Everything after was the drought. ## Then Pittsburgh traded him here Three years later, June 2012, Pittsburgh sends Jordan to Carolina. They had Crosby and Malkin and couldn't pay a third center like a top-six guy, and Carolina had a Staal already and figured they'd take another one. He got to play with his brother for four seasons. Then Eric got traded to the Rangers in 2016 and Jordan stayed. And stayed. He was here for the Storm Surge years. Here when they finally made the playoffs in 2019 and got swept by Boston in the conference final. Here in 2023 when Florida swept them in the conference final. Here in 2025 when Florida did it again. Three trips to the third round in seven years. Never made it past. If you want to know what the drought actually felt like, it wasn't the nine years of missing the playoffs — it was those three series, where the team was good enough to get close and not good enough to get through. He was the captain for all of it. ## And then June He turned 37 in September of last season. He scored 20 goals in the regular season, most he'd had in ten years, and finished fifth in Selke voting, which is roughly where he's finished forever. Then the playoffs. Carolina swept Ottawa, swept Philadelphia, beat Montreal in five. Then the Final, where the thing that happened doesn't really make sense. He scored in Game 1\. And Game 2\. And Game 3, 4, and 5\. Six goals in the series, most of anybody on either team. That five-game streak ties the longest in Cup Final history, and the other names on that list are Yvan Cournoyer in 1973, Jean Beliveau in 1956, Maurice Richard in 1951, and Cyclone Taylor in 1918. He won the Conn Smythe at 37 years and 277 days, which makes him the oldest player to ever win it, past Tim Thomas. ## What I keep thinking about Seventeen years between Cups. He got the first one at 20 as the kid on somebody else's team, in a series where he helped end his own brother's best shot at one. He got the second one as the captain of the team that brother used to captain, in a city that brother left ten years ago. But there's something about the guy who was on the ice when the drought started being the guy who ended it. Not by design, not because anybody planned it, just because he stayed here for fourteen years while everything else changed around him. The 2009 sweep and the 2026 Conn Smythe have the same guy in them. That's the whole thing.