Downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, was flooded with enthusiastic hockey fans on Saturday as the Carolina Hurricanes took their Stanley Cup championship celebration to the streets. Thousands of supporters showed up hours before the festivities began, lining sidewalks along the parade route and crowding around the rally stage where the team was scheduled to wrap up the party.
The Hurricanes players climbed aboard double-decker buses for the parade, which wound its way past the State Capitol building. Fans greeted the players with screaming, chanting, flag-waving, and a sea of Carolina jerseys — all still riding high after the franchise defeated the Vegas Golden Knights last weekend to claim the Stanley Cup for the second time in franchise history, the first having come in 2006.
One fan who was impossible to overlook was Carly Goodman, 35, of Raleigh, who planted herself in the front row behind barricades near the rally stage. Decked out in a red Sebastian Aho jersey, she waved an oversized Hurricanes flag and wore a silver “Stanley Cup” chain necklace. She was also sipping from a “beer skate” — a novelty mug shaped like a Hurricanes ice skate that sold out almost instantly during Game 1 of the team’s second-round playoff series against Philadelphia.
Goodman set her alarm for 5 a.m. — “Let my dogs out, they were mad to get up,” she said — and headed straight downtown to lock in her coveted front-row position. For her, the moment carried deep meaning.
“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.”
For Scott Stiles, 60, and his son Joey, 24, getting to the celebration required a much bigger commitment. The two live in Concord, a city near Charlotte known for its connection to NASCAR and motorsports, but they weren’t about to sit this one out. They hit the road around 3 a.m. and made the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Raleigh, arriving more than five hours before the parade was set to kick off — and still finding fans like Goodman already staked out near the City Plaza stage.
Scott wore an Andrei Svechnikov jersey while Joey sported a Seth Jarvis one. The two had their chairs set up in the middle of Fayetteville Street with a large Hurricanes flag marking their territory.
“When’s the next time they’re going to win a Cup?” Scott said, pausing as a “Let’s go Canes!” chant died down around him. “They might win it again next year, who knows? But we wanted to be a part of it.”
