New Jersey Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe said it before his team’s season-opening game against the Carolina Hurricanes: “There’s no better place to get your attention than going in there.”
“There” meant the Lenovo Center, the Canes’ home rink. It meant dealing with one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams, but also doing it in the din of a full house at full crank that can make the crowd seem twice as large — and twice as loud.
After the game — a 6-3 Hurricanes win in front of an announced crowd of 18,404, Keefe said it again: “It’s a tough assignment coming in here, especially for their home opener.”
It’s tough, regardless of the circumstances, and a recent league survey of NHL players confirms it.
The Canes have long self-proclaimed the Lenovo Center as the “Loudest House in the NHL,” based on decibel meter readings dating back to the team’s run to a Stanley Cup championship in 2006. But the recent survey backs up that claim. Of the players responding to the survey conducted by NHL.com, 24%picked the Lenovo Center as their least favorite place in the league to play.
Some did not like the visitors’ locker room in an arena that opened in 1999 and hosts Canes hockey and N.C. State men’s basketball. Although renovated in 2024, it’s still cramped.
Others noted the Canes, always an aggressive team, typically feed off the energy of the crowd early in games after many Canes fans have been energized before the game by a healthy dose of tailgating. The first five to 10 minutes of a game can seem like a survival test for the visitors at times.
Forward Nikolaj Ehlers played 10 seasons with the Winnipeg Jets before signing as a free agent in July with Carolina. Although the Jets came to Raleigh just once a season, Ehlers said they knew what to expect.
“You go to Carolina and you know they’re going to be ready to play, that they’re going to come out hard, and they’re going to keep stressing you,” he said. “So now, to be on the other side, will be pretty fun.”
Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour has often used the word “electric” in describing the atmosphere at home.
“I know every fan base, the coaches and players, are going to say that, but when we score a goal, I get excited,” Brind’Amour said after a playoff game in the arena. “I wish I was playing because you can’t beat that feeling. You pump one in and the crowd goes crazy. It’s very special.”
Part of the reason for the resonant noise is the configuration of the arena. The arena can seat more than 10,000 in the lower bowl, making it extraordinarily loud at rinkside — or courtside for Wolfpack basketball.
When defenseman Tony DeAngelo was playing with the Canes, he noted he grew up outside Philadelphia and was a part of some very rowdy crowds at Flyers games.
“Those crowds in Philly were crazy, but the crowds here are the loudest I’ve ever played in front of,” DeAngelo said.
Canes forward Taylor Hall came to the arena in Raleigh with several teams during his career including the Devils and Boston Bruins. He, too, found it loud to the point of being unsettling as the visitors, and added, “I think the acoustics pronounce that even more.”
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The decibel count in the arena, whether aided by the acoustics, can be unnerving. One official count from a control room at the arena was about 117 decibels, although it’s believed the level has hit 130 decibels during past playoff games.
That’s similar to the blast of noise a military jet makes taking off from an aircraft carrier, according to a noise comparison chart from Purdue University.
Whatever the count, the Canes have sold out every game at home since Feb. 24, 2023. That’s a lot of ear-ringing noise.
The NHL.com survey was held in September during the NHL/NHLPA North American Player Media Tour. The runner-up to the Lenovo Center as toughest place to play? The Bell Centre in Montreal.
The Canes will be glad to return home after six away games, their longest road trip of the season. Their next game at Lenovo Center is Oct. 28 against the Vegas Golden Knights.