Carolina Hurricanes

From Free net encyclopedia

{{NHL Team Infobox |team_name = Carolina Hurricanes |bg_color = #E03738 |text_color = white |logo = Carolina Hurricanes.gif |alternate_logo = Carolina-alternate.gif |founded = 1972 |home_arena = RBC Center |hometown = Raleigh, North Carolina |conference = Eastern |division = Southeast |team_colors = Red, black, white |head_coach = Peter Laviolette |captain = Rod Brind'Amour |alternate_captains = Kevyn Adams
Cory Stillman
Glen Wesley |general_manager = Jim Rutherford |owner = Peter Karmanos |minor_league = Lowell Lock Monsters (AHL)
Florida Everblades (ECHL) |league_champs = |no_league_champs = 0 |conf_champs = Eastern - 2002 |no_conf_champs = 1 |div_champs = Southeast - 1999, 2002, 2006 |no_div_champs = 3 }}

The Carolina Hurricanes Hockey Club is a National Hockey League (NHL) team based in Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, and is the city's only major league team.

1 Facts
2 Franchise history
3 Season-by-season record
4 Notable players
5 See also
6 External link

[edit]

Facts

Founded: 1972-1973 as a World Hockey Association (WHA) franchise (awarded November 1971)

Former League(s): WHA (1972-1979)

Formerly Known As: New England Whalers (1972-1973), Hartford Whalers (1979-1997)

Arena: RBC Center (capacity 18,731)

Former Home Arena: Greensboro Coliseum (1997-1999)

Uniform colors: red, black, white, grey

Logo design: a stylized hurricane symbol engulfing a hockey puck

Alternate logo: a red hurricane flag on a hockey stick as an impromptu flagpost

Stanley Cup final appearances: 1 (2001-02 NHL season, lost to Detroit Red Wings, 4-1).

Conference championships: 1 (Eastern - 2002)

Division championships: 3 (Southeast - 1999, 2002, 2006)

Mascot: Stormy the Ice Hog.

Local Televison: FSN South

[edit]

Franchise history

In March 1997, Hartford Whalers owner Peter Karmanos announced that his team would leave Connecticut after the 1996-97 season due to the team's inability to negotiate a satisfactory construction and lease package for a new arena in Hartford. In July, Karmanos announced that the Whalers would move to the Research Triangle area of North Carolina and Raleigh's new Entertainment and Sports Arena, become the Carolina Hurricanes, and change their team colors to red and black.

Unfortunately, the ESA wouldn't be complete for two more years, and the only other hockey building in the Triangle was Dorton Arena, a 5,100-seat, 45-year-old building completely unsuitable for NHL hockey. Thus, the Hurricanes were forced to play home games ninety minutes away at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro for their first two seasons in North Carolina, displacing the AHL's Carolina Monarchs and temporarily putting them in the highest-capacity arena in the NHL for 1997-98. Due to the distance from the nominal home city of Raleigh, the initially lackluster level of play, and general disinterest in Greensboro (whose fans had already rebelled once over ticket price hikes when the Monarchs moved from the ECHL to the AHL in 1995), the Hurricanes pulled in fewer fans than they did in Hartford. Attendance numbers were inflated due to "2 for 1" deals where seats sold were counted, despite no fans in them. Sports Illustrated ran a story named "Natural Disaster", and ESPN talking heads mocked the "Green Acres" of empty seats in Greensboro.

For 1998-99, in an attempt to create artificial scarcity in the ticket market, the Hurricanes curtained off most of the upper deck, lowering capacity to about 12,000, but attendance continued to lag behind league standards. On the ice, the 'Canes were out of the doldrums; led by the return of longtime Whalers captain Ron Francis, Keith Primeau's 30 goals and Gary Roberts's 178 penalty minutes, they won the new Southeast Division by eight points and made the playoffs for the first time since 1992. Tragedy struck when, at the end of their lost first-round playoff series with the Boston Bruins, defenseman Steve Chiasson was killed in an auto accident driving home from a players' end-of-season party.

Despite their move to the brand-new ESA, the Canes played lackluster hockey in 1999-00, failing to make the playoffs. In 2000-01, they claimed an eighth seed in the playoffs and landed a first-round date with New Jersey. Carolina fans were outraged when, in consecutive games, Devils defenseman Scott Stevens knocked star rookie Shane Willis and captain Ron Francis out of the series with vicious (if debatably legal) hits; Stevens's team similarly disposed of the Canes in six games.

The Canes made national waves for the first time in the 2002 playoffs. They survived a late charge from the Washington Capitals to win the division, but expectations were low entering the first round against the defending Eastern Conference Champion New Jersey Devils. Arturs Irbe and Kevin Weekes were solid in goal, and two games were won by the Canes in overtime as they put away the Devils in six games. The second round matchup was against the Canadiens, who were riding a wave of emotion after Saku Koivu's return from cancer treatment. In the third period of game 4 in Montreal, the Hurricanes were down 2-1 in games and 3-0 in score, before the Hurricanes rebounded to win 4-3 on Niclas Wallin's overtime winner. The game became known to Hurricanes fans as the 'Miracle at Molson'; Carolina easily won the next two games over the dejected Habs to win the series.

The conference final was against the heavily-favored Toronto Maple Leafs. In game 6 in Toronto, the Leafs' Mats Sundin tied the game with 22 seconds remaining to send it to overtime, but Carolina's Martin Gélinas scored in overtime to send them to their first Stanley Cup final, against the Detroit Red Wings, thought to be the prohibitive favorite all year.

After the first game of the final, where Ron Francis scored in the first minute of overtime, Detroit stormed back to win the next four games in a row to win the Stanley Cup. Game 3 in Raleigh featured a triple-overtime thriller (won by the Red Wings 3-2 on a goal by Igor Larionov), which sportscasters called one of the best Stanley Cup Finals games in history. Despite the 4-1 finals loss, it was by far the most successful season in franchise history.

The next two seasons (2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons)saw the Canes drop into the cellar of the NHL rankings; the new fans attracted to the team (and to hockey itself) during the 2002 playoff run lost interest and attendance declined. One of the few positive results of these losing years was the team's drafting rising star Eric Staal in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft.

The outcome of the 2004-05 NHL lockout led to the shrinking of payroll to $26 million; many fans were not optimistic about the 2005-06 season, but the team has so far been one of the league's best. The team currently sits in third place in the entire league, surprising everyone with a remarkable 52-21-7 overall record (111 points) through April 15; attendance has increased over the 2003-04 doldrums, averaging over 15,000 per game with eight sellouts[1] as of February 7, and the team expects to break even financially for the first time since the move. On March 14, 2006, the Hurricanes broke a franchise record in wins, home wins, and points [2], marks that were set during the 1986-87 NHL season as the Hartford Whalers. On March 31, 2006, the Hurricanes won their third Southeast Division championship by defeating the Florida Panthers 3-2.

[edit]

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Logo	Season	GP	W	L	T	OTL	Pts	GF	GA	PIM	Finish	Playoffs
Image:Carolina Hurricanes.gif	1997-98	82	33	41	8	--	74	200	219	1455	6th (last) in Northeast	Out of playoffs
Image:Carolina Hurricanes.gif	1998-99	82	34	30	18	--	86	210	202	1158	1st in Southeast	Lost in Eastern Conf. quarter-finals
Image:Carolina Hurricanes.gif	1999-00	82	37	35	10	--	84	217	216	799	3rd in Southeast	Out of playoffs
Image:Carolina Hurricanes.gif	2000-01	82	38	32	9	3	88	212	225	1083	2nd in Southeast	Lost in Eastern Conf. quarter-finals
Image:Carolina Hurricanes.gif	2001-02	82	35	26	16	5	91	217	217	1022	1st in Southeast	Lost in Stanley Cup finals
Image:Carolina Hurricanes.gif	2002-03	82	22	43	11	6	61	171	240	1208	5th (last) in Southeast	Out of playoffs
Image:Carolina Hurricanes.gif	2003-04	82	28	34	14	6	76	172	209	1102	3rd in Southeast	Out of playoffs
Image:Carolina Hurricanes.gif	2004-05¹	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
Image:Carolina Hurricanes.gif	2005-06	82	52	22	--	8	112	294	260	1107	1st in Southeast

¹ Season was cancelled due to the 2004-05 NHL lockout.

[edit]

Notable players

[edit]

Current squad

As of April 3, 2006 [3]

Goaltenders
Number		Player	Catches	Acquired	Place of Birth
29	Template:Flagicon	Martin Gerber	L	2004	Burgdorf, Switzerland
30	Template:Flagicon	Cam Ward	L	2002	Sherwood Park, Alberta

Defensemen
Number		Player	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
2	Template:Flagicon	Glen Wesley - A	L	2003	Red Deer, Alberta
4	Template:Flagicon	Aaron Ward	R	2001	Windsor, Ontario
5	Template:Flagicon	Frantisek Kaberle	L	2004	Kladno, Czechoslovakia
6	Template:Flagicon	Bret Hedican	L	2002	St. Paul, Minnesota
7	Template:Flagicon	Niclas Wallin	L	2000	Boden, Sweden
22	Template:Flagicon	Mike Commodore	R	2005	Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta
24	Template:Flagicon	Andrew Hutchinson	R	2005	Evanston, Illinois
48	Template:Flagicon	Anton Babchuk	L	2006	Kiev, U.S.S.R.
70	Template:Flagicon	Oleg Tverdovsky	L	2005	Donetsk, U.S.S.R.

Forwards
Number		Player	Shoots	Position	Acquired	Place of Birth
8	Template:Flagicon	Matt Cullen	L	C	2004	Virginia, Minnesota
11	Template:Flagicon	Justin Williams	R	RW	2004	Cobourg, Ontario
12	Template:Flagicon	Eric Staal	L	C	2003	Thunder Bay, Ontario
13	Template:Flagicon	Ray Whitney	R	LW	2005	Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta
14	Template:Flagicon	Kevyn Adams - A	R	C	2002	Washington, District of Columbia
16	Template:Flagicon	Andrew Ladd	L	LW	2004	Maple Ridge, British Columbia
17	Template:Flagicon	Rod Brind'Amour - C	L	C	2000	Ottawa, Ontario
18	Template:Flagicon	Mark Recchi	L	RW	2006	Kamloops, British Columbia
26	Template:Flagicon	Erik Cole (Injured Reserve)	L	LW/RW	1998	Oswego, New York
27	Template:Flagicon	Craig Adams	R	RW	2005	Seria, Brunei
39	Template:Flagicon	Doug Weight	R	C	2006	Warren, Michigan
59	Template:Flagicon	Chad Larose	R	LW/RW	2003	Fraser, Michigan
61	Template:Flagicon	Cory Stillman - A	L	LW/RW	2005	Peterborough, Ontario
63	Template:Flagicon	Josef Vasicek	L	C/LW	1998	Havlickuv Brod, Czechoslovakia

[edit]

Hall of Famers

none

[edit]

Team captains

Note: This list of team captains does not include captains from the Hartford Whalers (NHL) and New England Whalers (WHA).

Kevin Dineen 1997-98
Keith Primeau 1998-99
Keith Primeau & Ron Francis 1999-00
Ron Francis 2000-04
no captain 2004-05
Rod Brind'Amour 2005- present

[edit]

Retired numbers

3 Steve Chiasson, D, 1996-99, including 1996-97 in Hartford (Not officially retired, but not issued anymore by the team. Chiasson was killed in an automobile accident the night the Hurricanes were eliminated from the 1999 playoffs)
9 Gordie Howe, RW, 1977-80 (retired by Whalers, which continues to be honored by the Hurricanes, but no banner hangs in the RBC Center)
10 Ron Francis, C, 1982-91 (Hartford) & 1998-2004
99 Wayne Gretzky (retired league-wide by the NHL)

The Whalers also retired the number 2 of Rick Ley (D, 1972-81) and the number 19 of John McKenzie (RW, 1977-79), but these numbers have been restored to circulation by the Hurricanes.

[edit]

Franchise scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in the history of the Carolina Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers franchise in the NHL. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season. Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points

Player	POS	GP	G	A	Pts
Ron Francis	C	1186	382	793	1175
Kevin Dineen	RW	708	250	294	544
Jeff O'Neill	RW	673	198	218	416
Pat Verbeek	RW	433	192	211	403
Blaine Stoughton	RW	357	219	158	477
Geoff Sanderson	RW	479	196	173	369
Ray Ferraro	C	442	157	194	351
Andrew Cassels	C	438	97	253	350
Sami Kapanen	LW	520	145	203	348
Sylvain Turgeon	LW	370	178	150	328