About Carolina Hurricanes
The franchise was founded in 1972 as the New England Whalers in World Hockey Association (WHA) and the team joined the NHL seven years later when the NHL and WHA merged. It also sparked renaming the team to Hartford Whalers. With a mixed fortunes on the ice and small market area the franchise had struggled to generate a fan base big enough the Hurricanes were on the move again in 1997 when they relocated to North Carolina and became the Carolina Hurricanes.
The team continued with the mixed fortunes until the season 2001-02 when the Hurricanes reached the Stanley Cup Finals losing to the Wings. Few seasons later the franchise had finally reached the very top by winning the Stanley Cup Finals in 2005-06 against the Edmonton Oilers which happened to be the first time in NHL history that two previous WHA teams met in the finals. It was also the first time that a major league sports team from North Carolina became a champion.
Unfortunately since then the team’s fortunes turned south and the team reached the playoffs only once more time in 2008-09. The team is part of Metropolitan Division in Eastern Conference, the division was created in 2013 as a part of the league realignment. The Hurricanes colours are red, white, silver and black and their mascot is Stormy, a friendly ice hog wearing jersey number 97.
The team’s head coach is well travelled and experienced coach, Bill Peters who has joined the franchise in 2014.
The Hurricanes goalie is Cam Ward whom they have drafted in 2002 and who started playing for the team in 2005 becoming the first rookie starting goaltender to win Stanley Cup since 1986 when famous Hall of Famer Patrick Roy achieved that feat.
Captain’s duties are put into Eric Staal’s hands, a center who the team drafted in 2003 and who has spent all his NHL career with the Hurricanes. He is well known for his outstanding durability as he missed only 14 games during his nine seasons.
He can rely on support of his younger teammate, Jeff Skinner who joined the team in 2010 via a draft and due to his highlighted production on ice he became the youngest All-Star game participant across all major leagues in America in 2010-11, he also won the rookie of the year, Calder Memorial Trophy the same season. Playing as a mix on left wing and center he can learn a lot from his team’s captain.
Carolina Hurricanes has been through some rough times recently but with some clever management and coaching of young players the team has potential to come back competing at the highest level and challenge for championships.
