How Hurricanes players’ families juggle life amid Carolina’s Stanley Cup quest
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Wives and girlfriends have built sense of comradery among the team.
- Partners of players started wearing burgundy leather jackets at the playoffs' start.
- Multiple players became fathers during playoffs; babies appear at team events.
For Caroline Carrier, the Carolina Hurricanes’ road to the Stanley Cup Final is well worth a few school absences.
It’s a necessary trade-off if it means her kids can watch their dad — Hurricanes forward William Carrier — compete in arguably the biggest test in professional hockey.
“Memories over school,” Caroline Carrier said.
The Carriers’ 6-year-old daughter missed four days of school last month to watch the Hurricanes face off against her family’s hometown team, Montreal, in the Eastern Conference Final, with family members lining the stands for the matchup. And she’ll likely miss school again if the Hurricanes advance further in the final series, Carrier said.
But it’s a sacrifice they are willing to make to ensure the kids never forget the time their dad competed in front of millions to fight for the Stanley Cup.
“I feel like it’s the perfect age for them to be here, because they’re going to remember that way more than three years ago when we won,” she said, referencing William Carrier’s previous Stanley Cup title run with Vegas. “I’m trying to bring them as much as I can.”
That’s the reality for dozens of wives, girlfriends and family members along for the ride as the Hurricanes have careened into the Stanley Cup Final series opposite those same Golden Knights, with jobs, school and travel colliding with the emotional rollercoaster of watching their loved ones vie for the Stanley Cup title.
Looking the part, understanding each other
As die-hard Hurricanes fans packed Lenovo Center on Tuesday night for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, burgundy leather jackets checkered a section of the stands near the ice, each with a Hurricanes emblem inscribed on the back.
The jackets are the current uniform for the wives and girlfriends of the Hurricanes — commonly referred to across the sports world as WAGs. Partners of the Hurricanes players started the tradition at the beginning of the playoffs to rally together in support of their husbands and boyfriends playing on the ice.
“It’s incredible coming into an amazing group of women who all understand what you’re going through moving to a new city you’ve never been to before,” said Mary Raclawski, who’s engaged to Hurricanes goaltender Brandon Bussi. “The jackets are a remembrance of everything that happened this season and an ode to them.”
Clad in her leather jacket, Jane Korsh said she’s been in Raleigh for the past three-and-a-half weeks to support her boyfriend — Hurricanes right wing Jackson Blake — through the playoffs, which has taken her further from her job in New York, where she works full-time for Morgan Stanley.
“I told my boss where I’m at, and he was like, ‘I would want to be there too, so I get it,’” Korsh said. “Everyone has been very understanding, which is nice and lenient. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Korsh said the group has found camaraderie with the other women soaking in the season through traditions like tailgating, and a champagne toast ringing in the first game of every playoff round.
“We all hang out outside of the games, and we all watch the away games together,” she said. “It’s just about being there for each other.”
Oh, babies
And for the many young moms on the team, the playoff series and Stanley Cup Final has meant coordinating childcare during big games, or sometimes watching the game from home while taking care of their young kids.
The Hurricanes have seen a baby boom among their young players in recent years — with the team averaging one baby per round in last year’s playoffs, The News & Observer previously reported.
Just last month, Sean Walker had to race back to Raleigh after a Game 3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers to be with his wife for the birth of their first child, Quinn.
And Carolina defenseman K’Andre Miller and his girlfriend Addison Clark welcomed a baby boy named Kashton, leading to a viral moment after the team’s Game 5 win over Montreal as Miller sat alone on the bench, tearfully cradling his newborn son.
“It was a touching moment for sure,” Hurricanes Head Coach Rod Brind’Amour said of the video. “You catch him on camera and that stuff is special, but that’s a personal moment for him, and I think it’s a good reminder for all of us.”
Last year, Sebastian Aho and his wife Rosa, as well as Eric Robinson and his wife Alli, both became first-time parents in the middle of the playoffs, with the newborns joining a growing list of Hurricane kids.
‘They’re almost superheroes’
Now, many young kids of Hurricanes players are often pressing their noses against the glass and waving to their dads as they warm up before games, which Courtney Martinook says serves as a reminder for her husband — Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook — of what’s on the line.
“Jordan said to me the other day, ‘I want to win it for me, but I want to win it so bad for him,’” Martinook said of the couple’s seven-year-old son. “And he understands it now, so it’s an extra layer of just how much this means to so many people other than them.”
Martinook said she won’t be attending Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Final in Las Vegas to take care of the pair’s three kids. But she said when she does fly out to away games, it takes “a lot,” with coordinating babysitters and schedules.
“We all bring them sometimes,” she said. “If there’s earlier games, we’ll bring the really little ones. The guys love to see them at the glass. But it’s a lot of babysitters this time of year and kind of like survival mode.”
But it’s the responsibilities of fatherhood that bring Martinook “back down to Earth” and take his mind off a big game, she said, like changing his infant’s dirty diaper just before heading out the door for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday.
And as throngs of fans roar for the starting forward from the stands, all she really sees is her husband.
“For some people, they look at them and they’re these big superstars, which they are,” she said. “But to us, they’re just our husbands, and I think that’s what makes it special. They’re almost superheroes in that sense.”
Shelby Swanson contributed to this report.
