Four games kicked off the National Hockey League (NHL) season on October 8. Three days later, the Carolina Hurricanes started their season with a matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Hockey fans have spent the past three months waiting, watching the NHL draft, preseason games, and preparing their tailgates for the fateful beginning of the season.
“Yeah, my family’s always been big on hockey. My uncle’s played, and my brother still plays, so growing up, we’d always go to the Canes games and stuff like that. So I try to go as many as I can per season, but I think it’s really fun,” said Gracie De Haro, junior.
Ice Hockey is ranked as the fifth most popular sport by viewership in the United States and fourth in the world, with over 2.2 billion viewers. While hockey is more commonly popular in northern countries and states, it is watched worldwide.
“I have liked it since I was a kid because when my dad moved down here from Virginia; Virginia didn’t have a hockey team. But when he moved down here, he lived near PNC Arena. So he was super into it. He snuck into the Stanley Cup Final when they won,” said Ella Johnson, junior.
The Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup Championship in 2006, captained by current head coach Rod Brind’Amour. Despite not winning another cup since then, they have gotten very far in the past few seasons. Consistently making it to the second round of playoffs and making it to the conference finals against Florida in the 2022-2023 season.
“I’d like to listen to them on the way to soccer, and I went to all the ones I could. We have season tickets, so we go to every single game we can, or we move the tickets so we can all go to a game,” said Johnson.
All NHL hockey teams host games that have themes, such as Star Wars Night, a Halloween game, or a military appreciation night. The themes are largely up to each individual franchise, but every one of the 32 teams hosts a “Hockey Fights Cancer” game, where the games raise money for cancer research and patients.
“They’ve always been really supportive and invite us to the ‘hockey fights cancer’ games, and they’ve sent Abby [Johnson’s sister] a video because she just had surgery. So Aho (Sebastian Aho, Hurricanes player), like, sent her a video wishing her well and stuff,” said Johnson, “It’s just that they’re really supportive, they’re a great team. They’re great with community outreach and stuff.”
Each of the 32 teams will play a total of 82 games in the season. There’s only more if the teams make it to the playoffs. During the regular season, 41 of the games will be away, and the other half at home. Playoffs start in April and finish with the Stanley Cup final in June. Players and fans alike all hope for their team to bring the famous Stanley Cup home and get each of the players’ names engraved on the cup. The puck drop on the 8th only starts the long road to victory for all these teams.
“I hope the [Hurricanes] win the Stanley Cup, and if they do make it that far, I’d really hope that I get to go,” said De Haro.
