The Hurricanes fizzled in the second round, but they deserved the closing cheer

The Carolina Hurricanes ended their season Tuesday night with an anticlimactic thud, losing 2-0 to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

As the final seconds ticked down on an otherwise terrific season, many in the crowd of more than 15,000 fans stood and cheered. My son and I, watching from our usual seats in section 304, did so as well.

It was a nice moment at the end of an absolute stinker of a game, and it apparently rubbed some Serious Hockey People on Twitter the wrong way. A couple tweets quickly surfaced taking the Canes and its fan base to task for cheering a loser.

One Washington D.C.-based hockey writer tweeted in part: “Not many hockey markets are cheering a team as good as the Hurricanes off the ice after getting shoved out in 5 [games] in the second round.”

There was one or two other tweets to this effect as well, and because Twitter is a bottomless pit of faux outrage, local hockey fans got all twisted up over the perceived slight.

I get the reflexive outrage though. This year in particular. Because we, the fans, have a lot to be thankful for.

COVID actually interrupted two hockey seasons. The 19-20 season concluded in a ‘bubble,’ the champion Tampa Bay Lightning winning the Stanley Cup in an arena in Canada with no fans. This year, there were no fans in Raleigh – or anywhere else – until well into the spring, when restrictions loosened and teams were allowed a trickle of supporters.

The Canes made the playoffs in each of those years, winning a round each time. By this year’s playoffs, PNC Arena was nearly full – and loud. It felt like old times, which is to say, very old times.

Before the Canes became a really good team recently, they were a really bad team. Missed the playoffs for 10 straight years, which is harder to do than you might think. There were plenty of nights where PNC Arena was more yellow and gold than red and white. (Ugh. Pittsburgh fans) For several years in a row, the season was over before it was actually over, the Canes mathematically eliminated from the playoffs by around March Madness – with a dozen or more games still to be played. For years, the only reason to go to a Canes game in late March was for the barbecue nachos.

But now we have a legitimately excellent, fan-friendly, absurdly likable team that has made the playoffs three times in a row, led by a coach, Rod Brind’Amour, who may already be the best in team history. These are exciting times to be a hockey fan, and yes, our expectations are high.

But we also know the history. We remember how bad the team used to be. And we appreciate what hockey has given us this year. So when we rose seats Tuesday and cheered the team that had just been neutered on home ice, we were recognizing more than just a single game. It’s a kind and human thing to say thank you and I’m glad it happened.

With the season over, Canes fans now get to argue about the starting goalie; the offensive defenseman who seems too slow sometimes; and the young Russian prodigy on the wing who needs to re-discover his scoring touch.

Those are all plot lines heading into next season, which will arrive in a few months with, presumably, a building full of cheering fans.

I can’t wait.