Hurricanes fans are giving it their best against Montreal’s hockey kings

To the extent that it existed, North Carolina hockey culture in the 1990s might best be described as Southern Gothic. The rinks were foggy, the ice had “irregular topography,” and the only place injuries could be treated was next to the snack bar in cramped collegiate arenas.

“During one game I separated my shoulder,” said James Helfield, a Canadian who played at Duke University at the time. “Kids would buy corn dogs and ask me if it hurt.”

Major sports in the Raleigh-Durham area meant college basketball. The rivalry between Duke and the University of North Carolina is one of the most storied in the game, and Dark or Powder Blue were the region’s defining loyalties.

Hockey had to work hard to make an impact in a state where ice rarely forms, and commissioner Gary Bettman’s Sunbelt expansion strategy had as much to do with the Hurricanes’ move from Hartford, Connecticut, as it did with local demand.

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When the Carolina Hurricanes debuted in 1997, their mascot Stormy the Ice Hog collapsed from lack of oxygen in a Zamboni during a promotional stunt. As recently as 2019, Don Cherry called the franchise a “bunch of assholes” for its playful on-ice celebrations, like a limbo line. The team had T-shirts printed within 24 hours.

Thursday night in the parking lot of Raleigh’s Lenovo Center, before Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Montreal Canadiens, that bunch of dorks were busy showing just how far hockey fandom has come in the Tar Heel State.

After eight years of thrilling playoffs under coach Rod Brind’Amour, the Hurricanes have one of the NHL’s best attendances and one of the league’s loudest buildings.

Caniacs, as fans call themselves, have brought a distinctly Southern flavor to their hockey fandom, usually in the form of tailgating. Jim Leonard has hosted his pre-game Hurricanes tailgate for the past nine years, with steaks on the grill, lots of bourbon and shooters with margarita mix from a new hockey stick he calls a slapshot.

He epitomizes the sport’s rise in the region: A neighbor, originally from Boston, introduced him to hockey in the first place, a common story in an area overrun with transplants from the northern states. His daughter eventually played goalkeeper at Penn State.

But Leonard also exemplifies the ongoing local backlash over the northern perception of North Carolina as a weak hockey market. For Montrealers skeptical of his city’s puck bona fides, he had a message of southern hospitality mixed with playoff fighting spirit.

“Because of the heritage, they deserve to hold on to those feelings, but they need to understand that a new culture is coming to appreciate the wonder of hockey,” Leonard said, between sips of beer. “I want them to get their heads out of their asses because despite all the cups last time I checked they didn’t win them [in] a long time. … So come to our tailgate and experience our culture – or shut up.”

Despite winning a Stanley Cup themselves in 2006, the Hurricanes only really found their footing when billionaire Tom Dundon bought the franchise in 2018. The team finished a season in which they had the lowest attendances in the league, but Dundon pumped money into the squad and hired Brind’Amour, the hero of that ’06 Cup, as head coach.

The result was an uninterrupted run as one of the NHL’s model franchises, with a passionate fan base to match. Although the team has not reached a cup final under Brind’Amour, they have reached four conference finals in eight years.

Youth hockey throughout the southeastern U.S. has exploded as a result, growing seven times faster than 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.

Yet Caniacs continue to feel rejected and overlooked at every turn. It’s hard not to notice that they’re enjoying the feeling.

“Everywhere we go we come up short. Everyone hates us,” season ticket holder Stuart Eaves lamented with a smile the night before Game 1. “Part of being a Caniac is knowing you’re on the bottom rung. But we rise above that.”

There remains a case for Canadian snobbery about the Carolinians’ puck sense. Even with a spot in the Cup Final on the line, local media pay as much attention to college sports as the Hurricanes. Even longtime hockey fans in Raleigh acknowledge that the Lenovo Center crowd is relatively uneducated, clamoring for punishment during routine body checks and obvious icing on the cake.

Yet the love for the game continues to grow, more than northerners might want to admit. Jim Leonard, the tailgater, still has the zeal of a convert about the glory of hockey. It has a little bit of everything, he said: the best features of football, lacrosse, soccer and even baseball (the goalie’s glove, anyone?).

“It is the most beautiful sport in the world.”