A Carolina Hurricanes fan mocks French speakers and the officiating crew at Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final on Thursday.Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Insofar as it existed at all, hockey culture in 1990s North Carolina can perhaps best be described as Southern Gothic. The rinks were foggy, the ice had “irregular topography” and the only place for treating injuries was beside the snack bar in cramped collegiate arenas.
“During one game I separated my shoulder,” said James Helfield, a Canadian who played at Duke University in that era. “Kids were buying corn dogs and asking me if it hurt.”
Big-time sports in the Raleigh-Durham area meant college basketball. The Duke-University of North Carolina rivalry is one the game’s most storied, and dark or powder blue were the region’s defining allegiances.
Hockey had to work hard to make an impression in a state where ice rarely forms, and commissioner Gary Bettman’s Sunbelt expansion strategy had as much to do with the Hurricanes’ relocation from Hartford, Conn., as local demand.
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When the Carolina Hurricanes debuted in 1997, their mascot Stormy the Ice Hog collapsed from lack of oxygen inside a Zamboni during a promotional stunt. As recently as 2019, Don Cherry called the franchise a “bunch of jerks” for its playful on-ice celebrations, such as a limbo line. The team had T-shirts printed within 24 hours.
On Thursday evening in the parking lot of Raleigh’s Lenovo Center, before Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final against the Montreal Canadiens, that bunch of jerks was busy showing how far hockey fandom has come in the Tar Heel State.
After an eight-year stretch of exciting playoff runs under coach Rod Brind’Amour, the Hurricanes have some of the NHL’s best attendances, and one of the league’s loudest buildings.
Following back-to-back sweeps, the Lenovo Center faithful watched the Hurricanes sustain their first playoff loss in the Eastern Conference final opener. Game 2 is Saturday night.Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Caniacs, as fans call themselves, have brought a distinctly southern flavour to their hockey fandom, mostly in the form of tailgating. Jim Leonard has hosted his pre-game Hurricanes tailgate for the last nine years, with steaks on the grill, plenty of bourbon and shooters of margarita mix taken off a novelty hockey stick that he calls a slapshot.
He embodies the sport’s ascendance in the region: A neighbour originally from Boston got him into hockey in the first place, a common story in an area flush with transplants from northern states. His daughter ended up playing goalie at Penn State.
But Leonard also exemplifies the enduring chip on local shoulders about northern perceptions of North Carolina as a weak hockey market. To Montrealers skeptical of his city’s puck bona fides, he had a message of southern hospitality mixed with playoff truculence.
“Because of the heritage, they deserve to hold onto those feelings, but they need to understand that a new culture gets to appreciate the wonder of hockey,” said Leonard, between sips of beer. “I need for them to get their head out of their asses, because despite all the Cups, the last time I checked they haven’t won it [in] a long time. … So come to our tailgate and experience our culture – or shut up.”
Despite winning a Stanley Cup of their own in 2006, the Hurricanes really found their footing when billionaire Tom Dundon bought the franchise in 2018. The team was coming off a season when they had the lowest attendance in the league, but Dundon pumped money into the roster and hired Brind’Amour, the hero of that ‘06 Cup, as head coach.
The result has been an unbroken stretch as one of the NHL’s model franchises, with a passionate fanbase to match. Although the team has not made a Cup final under Brind’Amour, they have now reached four conference finals in eight years.
Rod Brind'Amour, who captained Carolina to a Stanley Cup in 2006, has coached the team to eight consecutive playoff appearances.Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Youth hockey in the whole southeastern U.S. has exploded as a result, growing seven times faster than in the country as a whole, according to USA Hockey.
In February, 2023, Raleigh announced its arrival as a hockey town with a sold-out Hurricanes game at the NC State football stadium attended by a reported 56,961 fans, the most ever for a hockey game in North Carolina.
Even so, Caniacs continue to feel snubbed and overlooked at every turn. It’s hard not to sense that they enjoy the feeling.
“We get shortchanged everywhere we go. Everybody hates us,” lamented season ticket-holder Stuart Eaves, with a smile, the evening before Game 1. “Part of being a Caniac is you know you’re on the bottom rung. … But we rise above that.”
There remains some reason for Canadian snobbery about the puck sense of Carolinians. Even with a berth in the Cup final on the line, local media pays as much attention to college sports as the Hurricanes. Even longtime hockey fans in Raleigh acknowledge that the Lenovo Center crowd is relatively untutored, howling for penalties on routine bodychecks and booing obvious icing calls.
Still, the love of the game continues to grow, more than northerners might like to admit. Jim Leonard, the tailgater, still has a convert’s zeal about the glories of hockey. It has a bit of everything, he said: the best attributes of soccer, lacrosse, football and even baseball (the goalie’s glove, anyone?).
“It’s the greatest sport in the world.”