Credit to @TheSurgeCast on X!

44 comments
  1. Mine is that I’ve gotten 5 canes players their game worn jerseys, and have a few more irons in the fire!

  2. Mine isn’t interesting. I didn’t get into hockey until I entered into my 30s (a shame since it would’ve been fun to see the Thrashers play). I became a Canes fan when I watched the Dave Ayres game. And given I am from GA, I chose Carolina over Florida and Nashville (since I feel like it’s is just like kissing your cousin, it ain’t right). I hope to attend a game this coming up year.

  3. I was a mod on the Cane’s official forums during the dark years. Let’s just say its a job I don’t want now but when I worked third shift for like 8 years and had little to do at work it killed a lot of time.

  4. The year before I moved out of NC I went to 15 homes and saw 15 wins. The season ticket staff actually reached out to see if I wanted to buy season tickets. I’ve gone to three road games since and seen 3 losses 🙁

  5. I was 6 years old when the Canes won the Stanley Cup. They used to have a drawing from a kid on the front page of the N&O sports section every day during the playoffs. One morning, I woke up to my dad handing me the N&O sports section – my drawing of the RBC Center, with Eric Staal spelled incorrectly on the video board (Stall) and the Canes logo really looking like a toilet bowl, appeared on the front page.

  6. My tidbits aren’t cool, but:
    1) My brother-in-law went to high school with Burnsie
    2) I watched Svech (and Suzuki) play as a Barrie Colt(s) (ex-husband and daughter still buy season tickets every year)
    3) Daughter and I were at the Ayres game vs. Toronto… a whole row of Leafs fans in front of us left because we were so amped

  7. Been going to games since Greensboro! Also Stormy almost ended my life once.

  8. A few years ago I met like half the team at cornerstone and took a shot with them. I was like the only person reacting at all but they didn’t let me take a picture because some of the underage guys were there. But it was awesome

    Sadly, none of the guys that were the coolest and talked to me the most are still with the team lol

  9. Watched a game while in college with a guy I liked. We bet on the outcome of the game and Canes won so I had to tell him a secret. I decided to shoot my shot and now we watch every game together! Together since that night almost 7 years. Married for almost 3. I love you u/ProfessionalDiabetic

  10. I’m more of a recent canes fan but back in 2019, I think, my brother took me to the playoff game against the lightning. My first ever hockey experience, even though we lost the game I was hooked immediately. Ever since then ever canes game I went to in person we have won! LFG CANES

  11. Been a fan since I moved here in 2002 and have been a season ticket holder for every year in the RBA coach era. Was at Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006 and was feeling quite ill that day. I had to run to the restroom in the middle of play in the 2nd period and missed Kaberle’s goal…which eventually was the Stanley Cup winning goal.

    ![gif](giphy|vwI4mYEHP8k0w)

  12. I was a diehard Canes fan turned Canes writer. I spent a year with credentials before I quit my job. And I realized I was autistic after interviewing Pyotr Kochetkov.

    My favorite guy on the team to interview was Sebastian Aho. A really, really, really kind man who took everything he was asked incredibly seriously and responded very thoughtfully to media.

    Seth Jarvis was also very funny and kind.

  13. My first ever pro hockey gane would have been in March of 2020 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. My actual first pro game was March of 2021 against thr Pittsburgh Penguins

  14. During the Cup finals in 2006, I was on a date during a game so I couldn’t watch it. Wore my Canes hat in support and was in a wreck coming home. Hat took a hit to the bill but prevented a worse gash on my head. Then we won the Cup. Still have that hat 20 years later.

  15. Was taking a piss at some store at the SouthPoint mall in a single restroom. Open the door and this tall handsome glass of water who looked like Noah Hanifin was waiting outside the door to use the restroom. I thought to myself “oh that looks like Noah Hanifin” continue walking through the store and see Pesce and McGinn.

    Turns out Noah was waiting on me to take a piss nbd 😎

  16. A couple years ago on veterans night, my step grandfather was brought onto the ice for a tribute. (72 flight missions, 3 purple hearts. Vietnam). When he got back up to our seats my stepmoms sister asked him “ How was it with everybody cheering for you, did you feel special, Dad?”. He looked at everyone with a stone dead face and said “When I came home…..they spit on me.” and sat back down. RIP you absolute stoic badass

  17. I am the Darth Vader that choked out the Bruins on the jumbotron on “May The Fourth” (be with you) in the ’22 playoffs.

  18. If you attended Canes games in the 2005-2009 era, you probably saw me on the jumbotron a number of times. I was the kid that had a canes puckhead and did the leprechaun power play dance a lot.

    Justin Williams usually tried to fuck with me during warmups, since we were always on the canes bench side. He’d give me the side eye, and try to startle me if I wasn’t paying attention. Sometimes throw a puck at me from the other side of the zone.

    Idk if Willy remembers me at all, but if I ever got a chance to talk to him I would ask.

  19. I was in a coffee shop in N Raleigh wearing a regular Canes shirt, tired AF bc of watching the playoff game the night before that went long and bc I had no coffee. To give you an idea of what I look like, I’m kinda short and with negative muscle.

    Suddenly I hear behind me “Go Canes” in a deep voice and I have to crane my neck to see who I’m looking at. Tall, muscular guy with dark eyes and a ginger beard. I don’t like talking to people during my coffee ritual, especially before I have caffeine, so I politely smile and nod and take off to my seat.

    It was Svetch. I’m so sorry dude. You’re not actually scary, I’m just unprepared to have any sort of conversation early in the morning with someone I don’t know. 🥲

  20. Back in 2023 I got interested in hockey and used the Anaheim ducks as a starting team to get informed on hockey. once that season was up I started watching highlights on YouTube from all the various hockey teams and I loved how brutal the Hurricanes are

  21. I was at the crazy 8-6 game vs the Flyers back in October 2005. The flyers got the early lead, it wasn’t looking great. Some fans left at the end of the 2nd. The ushers were asking fans not to leave yet, the game isn’t over.

    I stayed, watched them score 5 goals to win the game and it’s my greatest in-person hockey memory. Those of us who stayed after the 2nd intermission will never forget that game.

  22. Not too interesting of lore but, back in the early-mid 2010s when the team was at its worst, my mother who worked in the Wake County Public School System would always get 20-30 free tickets for teacher’s appreciation day/week but because the team was so bad, she could not find enough teachers to take all the tickets so, she would have to take me and my sibling just to use the tickets. It was because of those tickets that I first got exposed to the team and was able to go to Rod Brind’amour’s jersey retirement game in 2011. It was because they sucked and literally gave hundreds of tickets away that I was able to be exposed to the team and become a fan, despite all the losing.

  23. 2017, was bored, channel surfing, there was a day game on. At first it was background noise but soon I got invested in the Cam Ward “Renaissance”.

    If I can become a Caniac when Scott Darling is tending net, you can do anything you set your mind to

  24. In middle school my youth group did a group outing to a game. We hadn’t bought tickets when we got to the stadium (there were plenty of available seats in those days). When we walked in, we looked over at the ticket counter and saw none other than Dawson’s Creek legend JOSHUA JACKSON standing there getting his tickets. All the girls started screaming. He invited our entire group to sit with us in his section (lower level, mid ice) where we hung out the whole game with our chaperones while he watched with his friends. Super friendly guy. Great memory!

  25. My dad (who passed about 15 years ago) was a highly ambitious but highly flawed man. He opened up a small business and started spending way above his means. One of his frivolous expenses was some kind of partnership to have his company sponsor the Canes.

    Because of the partnership, my family would frequently get tickets to the Champions Club (now the PNC Victory Club) for the 06’-07’ season. As a kid, there could not have been a sweeter experience; all you can eat buffet right behind you, comfy seats, occasional appearances from the Stanley Cup, etc.

    After that season, the tickets just stopped coming. I was far too young at the time to understand the complexities of business and partnerships, but as I got older, I started realizing that something was off. I’d ask my parents about why we weren’t going to games anymore and they’d always dodge the question. Eventually I stopped asking and moved on.

    Years and years later, after my parents divorce and my father’s subsequent passing a few years after, I asked my mom what the deal with the Champions Club situation had been. Turns out my dad had ended up owing a lot of money to the organization that he couldn’t pay. I don’t know much else of what happened (I think he hid a lot of this situation from my mom, even after it was all said and done), but to this day I am afraid that Rod will knock on my door pointing a gun at me like this asking for reparations lmaaaooo

    https://preview.redd.it/n6td7bliq3ef1.jpeg?width=503&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b64525a352040a18f1e9ecefaeb69c2ae12c0240

  26. I did mosquito control as a summer job some years ago. One day, I got my route list, and it took me to a very nice gated community. I arrived, started unpacking my gear to get ready for the job, and went to knock on the door. The man that opened? Ron fucking Francis. All I could get out was “Hi Mr. Francis, I’m here to spray your property. Just wanted to let you know I’ve arrived.”

    I wanted to ask for an autograph so bad but figured it might look bad since I was there for work. To this day I kick myself every morning for not taking the chance.

  27. I was in the NC State marching and pep bands. My very first basketball game as a freshman in Fall 2010, I was late and missed the bus that took the pep band from the Talley-adjacent music building to then-RBC Center. I walked/hitchhiked from campus to RBC, then talked my way past security at the employee back entrance. I finally got to the court….on the entire opposite side from the band. The game has already started so I start awkwardly making my way over, crabwalking the packed front row. The band director sees and makes a “what the fuck are you doing?” face. I get panicked and start to go faster, practicing my excuses in my head as I go. So of course, I trip over someone’s feet. I look up, stammering apologies. I stop. I know this face.

    It’s Rod Brind’amour.

    Brind’amour glares at me. He says nothing, just beffudled at why a scrawny teenager with a trombone just tripped over his shins. I mumble an apology and finally reach the band.

    The band director, who was (and presumably still is) a huge Caniac, saw the whole thing, and was so amused he didnt even punish me for being late or a member of the band annoying a ton of wealthy Wolfpack fans.

  28. I won the Caniac Cup and got free season tickets for the first year we went to the cup.

    Lot of luck and randomness in that whole thing but I got to over 35 games that season. That’s a lot when you don’t even have your license yet.

  29. Born ‘95. Found the Canes in ‘06 when my dad was watching the Stanley cup finals and remember watching the celebrations on TV. Fast forward to university at NC State, well into the dark days, they were handing out free tickets to the Canes games at the brickyard. They also had the student ticket line for like $10-15$ tickets for front-row upper level tickets. Crazy time

  30. My first Canes game was December 26, 1999, and my first playoff game was the Bates Battaglia game. I’d talk about the experience of a playoff OT win with my wife, and then we went to Game 5 against Jersey in 2023, so now she knows.

  31. My partner has some sensory overload troubles and they were interested in learning more about sports for me because I’m so into sports so they started to go to games with me and watch them on tv. Going to games was difficult because of sensory overload stuff but they were able to find a few coping skills to make them easier. They still can be quite difficult but during this my partner found that she quite liked hockey as a sport with all the hitting and the speed and agility and such. She began wanting to find a team that she chose herself so she began supporting the blues. Last post season we went to St. Louis for game 4 against Winnipeg and she joined me at some canes playoff games but it’s been awesome seeing someone who didn’t attend sporting events because it wasn’t a part of her interests and also because of avoiding sensory stimulating environments, come to enjoy the sport and the canes. I do wish sometimes the canes were a bit more sensory friendly but it is awesome to see someone overcome obstacles and more awesome that she was willing to try and do so in support of my interests. She didn’t need to do that but chose to and I value that and I’m glad it also paid a benefit for her to find something new she liked

  32. I got into hockey for a cute girl. She was a huge fan so I started watching every canes game and every other hockey game so I could talk to her. We dated for a few months but didn’t end well :p. But I still watch hockey a decade later

  33. Bought a Dougie Whalers jersey back in the day. Three games later, he broke his leg in three places. Have not bought a jersey with a player’s name on it since lmao

  34. martin necas winked at me once during warm-ups and i was thinking “no way he did that” and he skated by again and did it a SECOND TIME

  35. I moved from NY to Raleigh area in 1996. I was an Islanders fan but, let’s be real, things were not good at that point for the Isles for quite some time (including the Gorton’s Fisherman logo). So when the Whalers moved to NC in 1997, I knew it was time for a new team. I was in attendance at the first home game for the Canes vs the Devils at the RESA.

    My son was born in 2001, he and I have been to many games as he grew. He sat on my shoulders at the Stanley Cup celebration and parade outside the arena in 2006. And while I now live in the Tampa area and he still lives in Cary (when not in attendance earning his Masters at Syracuse University) we still share the games, texting during games and when possible. I was lucky enough this past November (awesome comeback game against the Stars), going together to the game with him.

    This franchise, this team, through the up and down seasons, it is something my son and I will always have. Thank you Canes! I really cannot say how much love I have for the team, and what it means to me for my family.

  36. A couple of years ago Svech was having a bit of a rough streak, he had gone scoreless for 19 games or something. I ran into him at lunch one day, wearing a Svech jersey of all things. And I told he was amazing and I believed in him. And he scored two goals the next game. I jokingly told my friends that I fixed Svech.

  37. Feb. 22, 2024… 19 seconds left, Aho with the ‘eff you to the Panthers. Not a single fan sitting last 5 minutes in the Lenny (PNC back then).

  38. The first interaction I ever had with the person who would become my wife was patiently explaining the rules of hockey while we watched game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup finals at a church mission camp. She still has no idea what icing is.

  39. I’m a 1st generation hockey fan/Canes fan having become sports obsessed as a kid and living in the Triangle back in the 00’s. In 2002 I read in the sports section of the News and Observer (yes, I was a child reading the sports section LMAO) that the local hockey team was in the playoffs so I decided to tune in on TV. I would say hockey is a difficult game to follow on TV, but boy I absorbed it and by the time the Hurricanes advanced out of the 2nd round against the Canadiens my whole family got invested….didn’t take long for the NHL to become my favorite sports league to follow.

    Funny bits of Canes lore: I’ve been inside the house Rod Brind’Amour had while he was a player but never met him. My family is connected to someone who worked on that house and I think Rod was trying to sell it which is why it was kind of open for us to see. My connection actually happened to be around his house when Rod got his time with the Cup and Rod said “hey, I’ve got the Cup! you wanna see?” And so there’s a photo of Rod and my family connection in the driveway with the Cup.

    Last bit of lore: when the Canes clinched a return to the playoffs in 2019, I originally didn’t plan on going because I had to work late, but spur of the moment decided to get a ticket and arrive around the end of the 1st period. If you were there, you know that the energy in that building was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced as a sports fan. The level of catharsis; people were hugging and crying. I know a number of them were die-hards like me who stuck with the team when there wasn’t much to cheer for. When Petr Mrazek said “WE’RE IN! YES!” it felt like he had lived that entire decade with the fans, and he became my all-time favorite Canes goaltender. The crazy fan in me wants him back even though his numbers haven’t justified it, but that moment and the epic poke-checks against florida during the regular season are seared into my memory. My dad loved him too; particularly his little rituals like the way he would flip the puck in his glove a few times after freezing it.

    All-time favorite Cane has to be Erik Cole though. He just played so fast and he was a rookie the year I started watching in ‘02 so my kid brain thought it was cool that I was starting my NHL fan journey at the same time his career started….I don’t know if I can ever completely let go of my disdain for Brooks Orpik as a result, even though he’s retired….also pretty annoyed with Rutherford for trading him twice.

  40. About 20 years ago, a big ole stray chocolate lab, no collar, wandered to my house. I kept him in protective custody while I looked everywhere for signs of a lost dog. No dice, so I kept him overnight. We called him Meatloaf since thats what I fed him. Next day the late great Wally Tatomir, career Hurricanes/Whalers equipment manager came by looking for Meatloaf. He gave us tickets to the game that night for caring for his dog. RIP Wally and Meatloaf!

  41. I studied abroad in 2022, and got real into hockey cuz it was something I could do with random people in Prague and get away from my American classmates. The Canes were doing good that year and as a NC boy, I started watching them in the playoffs and have been watching their games ever since!

  42. Went out to a sports bar at ECU by myself to watch the Devils/Canes game 7 game in 2009 and it was crazy in there. Everyone was loud and cheering the whole game. It was a wild and unforgettable experience. Eric Staal coming back and scoring with 30 seconds left for the win was just peak.

  43. On my first trip to vegas when I turned 21, I put 20 dollars on the canes in one of the early games of the 2006 Stanley Cup finals. Jumped on the bandwagon and never got off. Went through the real lean times and am very much enjoying the Brindy era. I have a signed puck from Justin Faulk when he was an all-star!

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