Shayne Gostisbehere had two assists in Game 5 and then spent his postgame time explaining why it worked for the Hurricanes. In a series that had narrowed to the details, that made his night more than a line in a box score.
Speaking with Kathryn Tappen, Gostisbehere pointed to the Hurricanes' penalty kill as an important part of the effort. That matters because special teams can turn a close Stanley Cup Final game without changing the larger shape of the series, and this was one of those nights where the small edges carried real weight.
What Gostisbehere offered was not a highlight-reel recap but a read on the game itself: the Hurricanes found something that let them keep pressure on while also handling the moments that usually decide whether a lead holds or a game slips away. A two-assist night is the visible part. The penalty kill is the harder part to measure, but it often shows up in what never happens — the clean chance that never forms, the momentum swing that never arrives. That is why his comments landed with more force than a routine postgame answer.
The catch is that the performance he described was still only one half of the picture. Game 5 gave the Hurricanes a reason to feel their structure was working, but the mention of Game 6 makes clear that nothing had been settled yet. The same habits that helped in one night would have to hold when the next game arrived, and that is where Gostisbehere's comments pointed most directly: the margin had been found, but it still had to be repeated.
