Canes bringing folks together

Thanks to the Canes, I had an amazing random connection moment that’ll hopefully be a bright spot in your day.

For background, I’ve been a Caniac since the team relocated to Greensboro (my hometown) when I was a kid. After living in Raleigh for years and being spoiled with having the team right around the corner, my active duty Army service pulled me away from home and the team.

Eventually my wife (also Army) and I settled down in eastern PA after switching into the Reserves. Being deep in Flyers country has meant few opportunities to see games in person, and even fewer opportunities to connect with other Canes fans.

Fast forward to last weekend where I was standing in line at Target, and just happened to glance over to another line, only to see a guy wearing a Canes beanie. I was wearing a Canes hoodie and we both simultaneously realized the connection. We chatted for a few and traded stories about how we found the team—he’s originally from GA and neither of us had ever run into a fellow Canes fan in the area. I’m not usually one to make random friends, but we ended up trading numbers and figured we could get together to watch a game sometime.

I was fortunate enough to have gotten tickets to the Canes/Flyers game later that night (cheers to Vet Tix and the Flyers organization), and planned on taking one of my daughters for her first game. After she backed out of going late that day (that betrayal will be dealt with), I reached out to the guy with a random ask to come along for the game (with effectively a total stranger).

He ended up agreeing and we headed into enemy territory together for what turned out to be a fantastic game, bonding over our shared memories as fans and watching the amazing comeback win. We became fast friends and I’m so thankful that this team has once again been a part of another great life memory.

Thanks to the organization, I’ll also be down in Raleigh for the Dec 29th game against the Rags where I’ll be fortunate enough to be part of their pregame military salute. I’ll be sure to lead us in raising a glass to Bussi and our lord and savior, Slavin that night.

LGC!