Life of Bry

How the Carolina Hurricanes helped grow the NHL.

Originally Published June 13, 2019

The St. Louis Blues made history on Wednesday night by defeating the Boston Bruins 4-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final to take home the franchise’s first championship, but the biggest lesson of the 2018-19 season came from the Carolina Hurricanes.

When my playoff bracket was obliterated in Round 1, I quickly decided to jump on the Carolina band wagon. The decision was made on the basis that I still adore Jordan Staal from his tenure with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and I found that the team is bringing a new excitement to the NHL.

Then, my dreams were crushed again once the Bruins rolled over the Hurricanes in four games in the Eastern Conference Final. Yikes. May we all remember what Carolina taught us this season.

Back in mid-February, Don Cherry, a commentator for Hockey Night in Canada, called the Hurricanes a “bunch of jerks” for their fun post-game celebrations. 

These celebrations included a game of duck, duck, goose; imaginary Quidditch and curling matches; imitating pitchers and catchers reporting for Spring Training for the start of baseball season and countless others. They’re labeled as “Storm Surge” by the team and became a staple after home victories for the Hurricanes.

Carolina could have taken Cherry’s comments to heart and ended the fun for the sake of ancient unwritten hockey laws, instead the organization embraced its new title as a bunch of jerks. The phrase plastered social media, merchandise and in-game promo items. What could have been a death sentence, quickly became a badge of honor.

My personal take? I loved every second of every celebration, because it added another element of fun to a sport seeking to grow its popularity.

Growing the game of hockey is especially important in a market like the Carolinas because it’s fairly small compared to ratings powerhouses such as Detroit, Buffalo and even Pittsburgh. And, Carolina made huge strides this season.

Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell told reporters that attendance at PNC Arena during the 2018-19 season was up just over 12% from last year. And, as the regular season dwindled down to the final weeks and the Hurricanes were searching for a playoff spot, that number reached 20%. 

According to the Hurricanes, the organization now has 7,500 season ticket holders, 2,500 more than when the Waddell began his position with Carolina in 2014.

Twenty-four hours before Game 4 of Round 1, the cheapest pair of tickets available on secondary-selling sites to watch the Canes take on the Washington Capitals at PNC Arena were nearly $400, according to ESPN.

In fact, NBCSNPR’s tweeted that the Caps vs. Canes 2OT Game 7 on NBCSN had a 1.32 overnight rating — the network’s best overnight for a first round game ever.

Putting statistics and numbers aside, the Storm Surge celebrations were a great way to appeal to a younger audience and grow the game through the youth.

Sitting through an entire NHL game can be a daunting task for this generation’s kids when entertainment is instantaneous. Children no longer have to wait for their favorite shows on TV, they simply turn on Netflix, YouTube or any other streaming service and watch whatever they wish. They can choose the length of the program and not even have to sit through commercials.

And, as always, kids are the future. In order to grow the NHL and the sport, the league must find new and exciting ways to bring children to the game. It’s a fairly simple formula that doesn’t have an easy solution. 

Perhaps a child sees the fun celebrations on ESPN and begins watching the Hurricanes, then his or her parents buy them tickets to a game or a jersey for Christmas. The child becomes a lifelong fan. Maybe they beg to learn to skate or maybe they simply learn the sport on their living room floor, they grow up loving hockey. And, when they’re older and have kids of their own, they pass down that passion to a new generation.

Or, in a wild but possible scenario, the child watching on his living room floor in Raleigh becomes the first-round pick of the NHL Draft in 2030.

This is why I’ll never understand “fans” complaining when an underdog team rises from the ashes and creates an exciting atmosphere to get its hockey community hyped. Why do other team’s fans get so angry when Nashville smashes a car outside their arena for charity or when the Golden Knights put on a Vegas-worthy pregame show? They aren’t bandwagon fans, they’re just new fans. Every fandom starts somewhere. 

Nobody really cared about the Penguins or hockey in Pittsburgh before Mario Lemieux. The franchise was on the verge of relocating before it won the Sidney Crosby Lottery in 2005 and people got excited for the success that comes with getting yet another generational talent. 

As a Pittsburgh fan myself, I understand how quick my fellow community members are to point fingers at these emerging markets. But that finger could easily be pointed right back at them. 

The Pens organization sets up the big screen, a giant TV, outside of the arena for home playoff games. It’s essentially a massive block party that attracts thousands upon thousands of fans. This is a fun, but unnecessary event that could be considered a way to engage fans who may be more tempted to root on a team for the social aspect instead of a love for the game. But it’s also a great way to incorporate die-hard fans that are unable to get inside the arena on game day.

Plus these events and spectacles get the league more exposure. 

Hockey has a far climb to reach the same popularity as American football, baseball or even basketball. While NHL highlights come few and far between on ESPN, these non-hockey related clips like the Storm Surge celebrations or *unfortunately* Nashville throwing a catfish on the ice (which is gross and not on the same level as Carolina, so please stop) will often appear as highlights on the popular sports network.

Any time that hockey can make its way onto ESPN is a win for the league because of the sheer amount of eyes that will see the clip. 

I’ve always been on the side of letting players and fans have fun in sports. In college, I stood by Bryce Harper’s call to modernize the game by giving baseball more pizzazz in this column. In my opinion, watching the players enjoy themselves makes me love the game even more. It reminds me that these are people playing and not money-making robots. These are grown men playing a sport that they learned to play as children, it’s not meant to be entirely serious. It is a game. 

Personally, I’m excited to see how Storm Surge affects the Carolina fan base next season. Will attendance rise even higher? Will youth hockey participation in the Carolina area grow? Can the team keep the hype rolling despite a disappointing end to a great season?

Only time will tell.

So let the Hurricanes have fun. Let all teams have fun and let their fans join in, because you never know what little eyes are watching, learning and growing into a new generation of fans and players.