Canes fans get taste of what could be with Stanley Cup visit to Raleigh
The Stanley Cup was in downtown Raleigh Saturday afternoon giving Carolina Hurricanes fans a taste of what could be.
It’s the hockey team’s first time in the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2009. The Canes defeated the defending champion Washington Capitals during the first round of the 2019 playoffs and won their first game in the second round against the New York Islanders Friday night. They play again in New York on Sunday.
Fans lined up for over an hour for their chance to win some Canes gear and take a photo with the iconic trophy during the craft beer festival Brewgaloo. At least one fan brought their own trophy.
In a Canes sweater (or jersey, for you non-hockey fans), 5-year-old Oliver Dedene carried a cardboard and tinfoil trophy almost bigger than him. Scrawled on it were the words “let’s go Jerks,” a reference to the comment made by hockey commentator Don Cherry earlier this year about the team’s post-game celebrations. “Bunch of Jerks” is a moniker the team and fans have embraced in recent months.
Oliver just started playing hockey as goalie and tries to stay awake through most of the late Canes matches, but it depends on school, his dad Kevin said.
Kevin grew up in Detroit and made a similar Stanley Cup when the Red Wings won the championship in the late 1990s. He thought his own son would enjoy the experience of seeing the real cup with the one he made. He’s hopeful the cup could be coming back to Raleigh with a Canes championship.
“The way we’re playing right now, I think we could win,” he said. “I’m surprised by who was knocked out of the first round and I didn’t expect them to make it out, but they did.”
But it wasn’t just Canes fans who stopped for a photo-op. A pair in Pittsburgh Penguin gear got a few taunts from the crowd during their photo.
John Stampf, wearing an Islander jersey, said he got a few comments from folks in line, but it helped that his 8-year-old son Ethan was decked out in Canes gear. Stampf is a life-long Islander fan but said he also roots for the Canes. They always go to the Islander-Canes games and there is a “friendly father-son rivalry,” Stampf said.
His wife Jen was wearing a Whalers hat, the name of the Hurricanes hockey team before it moved to North Carolina in 1997. Their other son, Maxwell, 12, was completely neutral in his Superman t-shirt.
“We want to be together as a family and experience these playoffs together,” Jen said. “They haven’t gone to the playoffs since Ethan has been born. So this has been exciting for him. We actually got to go to one of the games.”
Ethan has seen the trophy on television but said he’d never seen it in real-life. His favorite part about hockey? Cheap shots.
The cup is touring the nation during the playoffs with Mike Bolt, the “keeper of the cup” who travels with the trophy. Arriving in Raleigh was a way of treating the Canes fans to something special, he said.
“I am sure the fans here would hope the Stanley Cup spends a little bit more time in North Carolina,” he said.
The first person to get their photo taken was former Hurricanes trainer Pete Friesen. His name appears on the trophy from the Canes 2006 win.
After Friesen, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper took a photo, promising not to touch the cup, a tradition among some fans, and led the crowd in a Canes chant.
This story was originally published April 27, 2019 at 5:28 PM.