06/20/26 02:20:00
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06/20 14:18 CDT Hurricanes fans jam into downtown Raleigh for team's Stanley
Cup parade, celebration
Hurricanes fans jam into downtown Raleigh for team's Stanley Cup parade,
celebration
By AARON BEARD
AP Sports Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) --- Thousands of jubilant Carolina Hurricanes fans crammed
onto sidewalks, gathered around office building windows, even lined up on floor
after floor of at least one parking deck to cheer and wave at the team's
Stanley Cup championship parade on Saturday.
The turnout that packed downtown was enough to leave their coach --- the
captain of the team's last Cup winner 20 years earlier --- at a loss.
"I'm in shock," Rod Brind'Amour said in the gap between the end of the parade
and the start of the rally that would end the day's festivities in North
Carolina's capital. "It doesn't very often, but I'm just kinda speechless."
The Hurricanes brought their Stanley Cup celebration to downtown Raleigh on
Saturday, with thousands of fans arriving hours early to line the parade route
and grab a spot near the rally stage. The players boarded double-decker buses
for the parade that weaved by the State Capitol building, while Brind'Amour was
in the back of a late-model truck taking in the scene.
They were greeted by fans screaming, chanting, waving flags and wearing
Carolina jerseys, still buzzing from the franchise beating the Vegas Golden
Knights last weekend to win the Cup for the second time, the other coming in
2006.
"I was trying to explain to the fellas what I knew was going to happen," said
captain Jordan Staal, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP. "And
my expectations were so high because I know these Caniacs, I know what they're
all about, and I was still blown away. I couldn't even describe how amazing
that was."
The team took the rally stage with Staal hoisting the Stanley Cup skyward
before a roaring crowd, while Jordan Martinook and Andrei Svechnikov were among
a line of Hurricanes players who kept intermittently cranking the "Storm
Warning" siren that is a pregame tradition for the team to take the ice.
The Hurricanes even got some business done, with general manager Eric Tulsky
calling reserve forward Nicolas Deslauriers to the podium to sign a two-year
$1.75 million deal. The trade-deadline acquisition was set to become an
unrestricted free agent, one of the few bits of roster uncertainty for a team
that has the core of its roster locked up to long-term deals.
Otherwise, though, it was a daylong party.
Carly Goodman, 35, of Raleigh, was hard to miss in the front row behind
barricades in front of the stage where the parade would end with a rally. She
sported a red Sebastian Aho jersey, waved a large Hurricanes flag and was
blinged out with a silver "Stanley Cup" chain necklace.
She was drinking from a "beer skate," the novelty mug shaped like a Hurricanes
skate that sold out immediately during the Game 1 of the second-round series
against Philadelphia. She got up at 5 a.m. --- "Let my dogs out, they were mad
to get up," she said --- and made sure to head straight downtown hours in
advance to ensure a prime spot.
"It's been something special ever since 2006," Goodman said. "Raleigh's a small
market. We've got college sports, but this is epic. It's a team that everybody
can get behind. It breaks down all the barriers. Everyone just comes together
and smiles, no matter if you're a Duke fan, Carolina fan, whatever --- it
doesn't matter."
It was a longer trek for Scott Stiles, 60, and his son, Joey, 24. They weren't
about to miss the celebration even though they live in Concord, a city outside
of Charlotte known for its ties to NASCAR and other motorsports. So they hopped
in the car around 3 a.m. to make the 2 1/2-hour drive, arriving more than five
hours before the parade was scheduled to start and finding fans like Goodman
already waiting closer to the City Plaza stage.
The duo --- Scott in an Andrei Svechnikov jersey, Joey wearing a Seth Jarvis
one --- had chairs plopped in the middle of Fayetteville Street straight back
from the stage, their spot marked by a giant Hurricanes flag.
"When's the next time they're going to win a Cup?" Scott said, pausing as a
"Let's go Canes!" chant wrapped up. "They might win it again next year, who
knows? But we wanted to be a part of it."
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL
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