Since coming to Raleigh in ’97 the Carolina Hurricanes have developed some heated rivalries due to fan, team, and organizational interaction.
Nothing makes sports more interesting and fun than a good, heated rivalry. The more historic, and the more hate; the better. Fans bickering, players fighting, and general bad blood gives the players a sort of rush to play like never before.
Most rivalries tend to come from history; such as Pittsburgh and Philly, or Montreal and Boston. So with the Canes starting in 1997, only 22 years ago, how do they create rivalries of new? Most teams will simply say; “you aren’t our rival, so and so is.” That quote in itself, means the other team and fans think about us, and dislike us, which is by definition a rivalry.
So let’s break it down, Who are the Canes biggest rivals?
1. The Montreal Canadiens
Rivalries are most often started by bad blood between players or fans of two opposing teams. Every now and then there is another cause, such as a a bold move by an organization as a whole. Which brings us to the Canes first rival, a rather new one.
Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon on Canadiens giving offer sheet to Sebastian Aho: pic.twitter.com/2KqP4F2U7M
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) July 2, 2019
Let’s take a trip down memory lane to July 1st 2019. All unsigned free agents can be offered by any club that is allowed to offer them. On this day in history, the entire city of Montreal made their worst mistake ever; giving Sebastian Aho an offer sheet to play for them.
For the next couple of months, and even still today, Montreal fans have wrecked havoc on Canes twitter. Saying things like Aho doesn’t want to be a Hurricane, Dundon is cheap, and he wasn’t even worth it any way. The actual quotes were to laughable to even directly quote.
This is totally the face of someone who does not want to play for the Carolina Hurricanes (insert sarcasm here). Aho never for a second wanted to leave Carolina. He loves his teammates, his coaches and us fans down here. Don’t believe the hype?
https://twitter.com/SebastianAho/status/1147928380521799680
This entire situation caused such a ruckus on social media that many arguments between Habs and Canes fans ensued the offer sheet. Even after the deal was done, Habs fans began to loom to the fact that they could still spoil our opening night. The way this game went was what etched this rivalry into the books.
Mind you this was in shootout. Had the Canes, or even the Habs destroyed the other, possibly all of the hullabaloo would have been but aside. But the Canes just had to wreck the nerves of everyone in Raleigh and take this in to Shout out where Dougie Hamilton sealed the deal. While Aho didn’t net a goal himself, this was the beginning to a new and exciting rivalry for the Canes.