20 Long Years
The Carolina Hurricanes are headed to the Stanley Cup
Folks, this is not a drill. The Carolina Hurricanes have beaten the Montreal Canadiens in five games and are on their way to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since the team won it all back in 2006. Somehow, it still doesn’t feel real. This win is one for all Hurricanes fans, and while I know we’re still four games away, I need to write about the significance of this for the fan base. To be honest, the words that I can write about the gravity of all of this isn’t going to do this justice. So, I crowdsourced for this a bit. I’ll share about what the experience means for me, a long-term fan, and then I want to share individual stories as well.
Let’s dial it back to 2006, shall we? Hockey was still less than a decade old in Raleigh and while the Hurricanes had a rowdy, passionate fan base, it was still pretty local. Hell, we didn’t even get all of our regular season games broadcast here until 2009 or so. If we wanted score updates, we had to look for them on the game sheet on the computer, dammit. I remember having the 2006 DVD and watching game seven over and over and over again when I was a kid. Someone else DMed me with the same exact story, and it’s amazing the sort of impact that had on kids at the time. 2009 felt like such a whirlwind, and I remember the team losing in the conference finals and not knowing the misery that we were about to face. I want to focus more on what this team means to people in this piece, but in order to do that, I need to tell you all everything that happened from the Hurricanes ECF appearance in 2009 until the team made the playoffs again a decade later, just to show you all what we’ve been through.
Drafting Ryan Murphy
Drafting Zach Boychuk over Erik Karlsson
Losing to Tampa in 2011 in game 82, eliminating us from playoff contention
I went to this game with friends for my birthday. Horrible day for 13 year old Matt.
The team deciding that they were always “one piece away” and those pieces being Ron Hainsey, Viktor Stalberg, Lee Stempniak, Radek Dvorak, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Derek Joslin, and a who’s who of aging, past their prime players.
The team letting Jim Rutherford resign rather than fire him, despite giving the team no prospects (at the time) and the seventh overall pick in the 2014 draft.
Ron Francis drafting Haydn Fleury over a whole host of better options.
Noah Hanifin not hitting his stride with Carolina despite being drafted fifth overall
Ditto for Elias Lindholm
Carolina selecting Jake Bean and Julien Gauthier in the 2016 draft
The entire 2016 draft could be used here, as the team had two first round picks and four picks in rounds 2-3 and wound up with zero good NHL players from that draft.
Victor Rask cutting his hand wide open while prepping sweet potatoes and missing a ton of time.
The entire Klas Dahlbeck experience
Derek Ryan and Chris Terry playing actual NHL roles
The team sending a draft pick to Vegas so that they wouldn’t pick Joakim Nordstrom or Lee Stempniak in the expansion draft.
Stempniak getting injured immediately during offseason training and only playing 37 games for the Hurricanes afterwards.
Kirk Muller quite possibly being the most boring coach in team history, even somehow surpassing Paul Maurice in that regard.
Bill Peters and the entire Akim Aliu story as well as multiple reports of him abusing players.
All love to Eddie Lack, but Eddie Lack being brought in to replace Anton Khudobin.
The team trading for 47 seconds’ worth of James Wisniewski
There’s a lot more that I’ve probably repressed. The point is, this team could never stop getting in their own way. We’d hear reports of Karmanos giving his GMs the green light to spend money and then the team doing nothing with said money. The Hurricanes were awful on the ice, were lucky to get 8,000 fans in the building on a Tuesday night, and seemed to be trapped in an endless cycle of hockey purgatory. They were too good to finish as one of the worst teams in the league, but they weren’t nearly good enough to make the playoffs.
But what really marred the Hurricanes’ ten year playoff drought was the constant threat of relocation. Canes fans were constantly being told that the team should relocate to Quebec since that was a real hockey market and actually deserved an NHL franchise. Every loss felt devastating because you felt that the league would intervene sooner rather than later. Then, Peter Karmanos gets sued by his own children for failing to pay them back for their investment when he purchased the Whalers. At the time, that felt like the nail in the coffin for the Hurricanes. How could the NHL let this continue? And it’s why a lot of long-term Hurricanes fans get so mad when we aren’t taken seriously. Not every fan base knows what it’s like to be under the threat of losing your team, and it’s why the team’s success means so much to us now. That 2019 run was special and did a damn good job of erasing ten years of absolute misery.
And so, I set out to see what the Hurricanes mean to people. What each person’s story is. For the Hurricanes, it’s always been a team that has a strong community feel. The Hurricanes are North Carolina, and they’ve been engrained in the community here. Obviously they’ve united plenty of college fans, and the tailgating culture here only adds to that sense of community. So, here’s what this run means to you, the fan, in your own words.
I’ve followed this team from the first game in Greensboro, to the move to Raleigh, the magical run in 2002, the awful 2003 season, the magic of 2006, the run in 2009 & the doldrums from 2010-2018. Rod changed this team & culture. 2006 was amazing, but 2026 is something different
In 2018 I went to my first HAC (Hockey Analytics Conference), so there was a general fondness for a team that hired Tulsky. At that same HAC, I met a very cool guy who, a few years later, would be hired by that very same team… and marry me. Getting to watch them build something incredible makes me so proud — Them getting over the hurdle that brings them into view of the real finish line? It’s fucking special.
I purposely bought tickets when the team was bad (2011 - 2021, or so) because I was scared they would leave. And I didn't want them to leave and feel like I could've done something but didn't. It's a little hard to believe that we're here.
We’ve got a good Canes buddy that passed away last June. He had a quarter pack w another good friend. The last few years, all of our families have bonded through Canes playoff runs. He sadly isn’t here to see us get past the ECF, but we know he’s up there rooting them on.
Was there in 06 so getting back is amazing. But I want this for this generation. The people that fell in love with a team when tickets were 10$ in the lower. The ones who have stayed through all the ECF losses. For my wife who is one of them. And my 3 year old. They deserve this
This is my dad and I when we won the cup last time. I’ve been a life long fan and the obsession is probably unhealthy, but through the ups and the downs, from Rask cutting off his hand to watching Jeff skinner get destroyed every game, to this is just unreal. I love this team.
As a lifelong canes fan, I was 2 at the inaugural game in Greensboro. Canes hockey was my first love, I watched them win the cup when I was 11. Now I’m watching every game with my 3 year old, getting her into the game. I’d be happy to chat more about it.
Man, this is big. My wife and I stuck with this team attending games for 9 playoff free years and then watching them knock on the door but coming up short. The culture and family that this team is and how they transcend that to the community. Its special man.
Wow. I’m still speechless. I was young in 06 and was more a basketball fan at the time so I just started following the canes in the playoffs that year. Still didn’t quite grasp the depth of what I saw. Said man hockeys fun. Let’s watch next season. Commence the dark times. I watched them fall and I watched them rise. I was there at RBC,PNC, the Lenny. I was there during the 5 games for $50 year. I watched ruutu and Gleason serve Knucks. I drove from NYC to NC for the stadium series game over night after my flight was canceled. I’ve watched this team grow hockey in the NC. Hockey has been some of the best parts of my life. I’ve met the best people through hockey. I’ve never been so proud of a hurricanes team. It’s been a great year. Let’s keep the ride going boys.
My husband and I became STMs in 2019 when I was graduating from grad school. I was always active on Twitter and because of that, became friends with some people on here, and then Covid happened. One of those people invited us to their house to watch hockey during lockdown playoffs. What happened after that is a multi-year friendship with a fantastic group of people. The past few years, a solid group of us have gotten season tickets together in a section. We have traveled to multiple stadiums for a road game each year. We have cheered together, cried together, raged together, and been there for each other outside of hockey for celebrations and for tragedies. This team did more for me than entertain me, they have given my husband and I a second family and lifelong friends. We hope to add watching the Stanley cup be raised to our memories with our best friends.
I lived in Raleigh in 2012-18. Dark times. I moved to the UAE in 2018. Hard transition. When the season started, if it was a 7 game, the 3rd period was beginning as I got up to shower. Forslund was my buddy. (He was in form during the Ayres game - i had no idea what was going on) They were a bunch of jerks. I woke up at 4am to watch the whole clincher against the Devils.McGinn hit the winner in my office right before my first class.
That year was really hard - that team kept me going and connected to home.
My dad has been a fan since the beginning! He really got me sucked into Canes Hockey a few years ago. I was eight in ‘06, and Game Seven was on a school night for my sisters and I. My dad was helping us get to bed, while sneaking glances at the TV. Once we were all in bed? He was GLUED to the TV. And when the final horn sounded? He’d never been happier! And now the both of us get to experience this together, 20 years later. And we are both excited! We’d also decided, after going to our first Canes Game in person in Buffalo, to go to all 32 NHL Arenas. And so far, we’ve been to 8 out of the 32!
Sure, every fan base has new and old fans, that’s a part of sports. The dark times of the 2010s were able to make this fan base feel more like a family rather than just a group of fans. They received their own rallying cry in 2019 thanks to Don Cherry, who called the team a “Bunch of jerks.” Carolina’s marketing team ran with it, and to this day, I’m pretty sure no other piece of merch has sold as well. While that motto doesn’t really exist anymore, it united the fan base and gave the fans a bit of a chip on their shoulder at the same time. The Hurricanes mean something to people in this area. Youth hockey has exploded in the area and we’re seeing more kids playing hockey than ever before. People I knew a decade ago that never paid the Hurricanes any mind are now die hard fans. We’ve seen the team get their first (and hopefully not their last) outdoor game. Fans here have waited twenty long years for this opportunity, and the Hurricanes are right on the doorstep of greatness. Whatever the outcome of this series, one thing is clear. This one’s for North Carolina. All of us. Enjoy it, folks!