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Chuck Howard
6NEWS Sports Director |
The Carolina Hurricanes are now the Stanley Cup champions, what a wonderful feat. It’s one that all Carolinians should take pride in, and that includes our friends in South Carolina as well.
I must admit I have been very pleasantly surprised by the support the Hurricanes enjoyed throughout their championship run. I’m not that surprised that Raleigh would rally around their team, but the game of hockey apparently captured the interest of many here in Charlotte.
The television Nielsen ratings for the last four games of the Stanley Cup finals broadcast on WCNC by NBC were extremely good and the final game seven rivaled the ratings numbers that most of your top NASCAR races receive.
Hockey is an extremely intense game and an even more intense game to understand if you haven’t been around it much. That is what surprised me most about the interest in our area in regard to the Hurricanes run to the Cup.
The rules of hockey make it arguably the most difficult of any mainstream sport to understand, basically because most folks have never been exposed to the game and many never grew up playing the game as kids.
I grew up south of Buffalo, N.Y. which obviously is a northern city so hockey was not foreign to me growing up. Even though I grew up near many a frozen pond, and I mean that literally, I have never played a minute of organized hockey.
What attracted me to the game as a young kid was the pure excitement of the game of hockey. It has every element of every other sport and no other sport can claim that. It has the speed of NASCAR. Hockey has the collisions like football. It also has the hand/eye coordination it takes to hit a baseball and in its purest form the grace of a good fast break in the NBA.
It drives me crazy when I hear some of the hockey naysayer’s say things like “I just don’t get it.” I can understand not getting the rules if you have never been taught the sport, but you absolutely have to appreciate the excitement of the game like we witnessed in the Hurricanes run to the Stanley Cup championship.
In my opinion, there is not a more exciting event than a Stanley Cup playoff game,
especially a game seven of the Cup finals like we saw Monday night.
In hockey, a mistake made just one second into a game could mean the difference in deciding a game. That is what makes these games so intense.
I don’t expect every Charlottean to hop on the hockey bandwagon and I realize the interest in hockey may wane in our area if the Canes end up stumbling come next season, but I am pleased that many people who may have been on the naysayer bandwagon have since jumped wagons and at least rode along with the Hurricanes.
I totally agree that everyone in the Carolinas should be proud of the Hurricanes. I have been a hockey fan for years, and yes, I was born and raised in this area. I have went to Checkers games before they went to that new arena (which is another story in and of itself), and this year, I made the trip to Raleigh to see a game in April.
While this area is so dominated by the NFL and NASCAR and would naturally be the first sports story in the newscast, if the local media would give more time exposing the Hurricanes in the area (and that is all the media outlets in Charlotte, not just WCNC), they would have had a bigger following prior to their historic Stanley Cup run. Even the Bobcats, a team that the majority of the area could care less about, gets more than their share of coverage.
Hopefully this will open the eyes of the local media and give the Hurricanes more coverage... maybe a story halfway through the sportscast or even some highlights. Expose the people to the great game that it is.
Chuck...and you are telling us this why? NASCAR should revoke your credentials if you think the Stanley Cups is more exciting than the Daytona 500. Yuor roots are showing...and I am not talking about those covered by Grecian.
How Can Charlotte care abbout the Hurricanes if the Canes don't care about us enough to at least have a radio amrket here in Charlotte?
I HAVE TO ADMIT I REALLY ENJOYED WATCHING THE
HURRICANES PLAY. IM A NFL AND NASCAR FAN, BUT
I WAS SUCKED IN TO THE EXCITEMENT OF THE STANLEY
CUP FINALS. IT WAS FUN TO WATCH AND I COULDN'T
WAIT FOR EACH GAME TO COME ON. WAY TO GO CANES!
It doesn't shock me that certain people cannot (or refuse to try to)understand a sport such as hockey. Maybe it is too complex of a contest to watch for people who would rather sit on their couches and watch a bunch of cars making left turns. To compare hockey players (also known as athletes)to Nascar drivers is absurd. I don't ever recall having to be in good cardiovascular shape to drive a car. It's hard to ignore the speed and reflexes that these warriors harness to skate faster than the quickest sprinter, hit harder than the biggest linebacker and have the hand-eye coordination of Tiger Woods, but then again due to the ignorant replies I have seen to this story, maybe it's not so hard to believe why certain people won't understand hockey It was great to see the Carolinas support such an important sport and such talented athletes, and the Hurricanes won what I consider to be the best playoff season I have ever watched. I whole heartedly cheered the Canes on to victory even after they beat my beloved Buffalo Sabres, which was easy to do considering Carolina is a gritty, team oriented organization like Buffalo. Congrats to the Canes for a great season, and congrats to the fans with enough intellect to understand and support such a great sport and organization.
Chuck -
You are still the pride of Silver Creek New York! Did you see the article about the Hurricanes trashing Raleigh?
Sabres win the Cup in '07!
Hockey is simply the most exciting sport of all. I am both a Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes fan and am hooked on hockey. It is great to see hockey with so many fans in the Mid-Atlantic region now.
>>Did you see the article about the Hurricanes trashing Raleigh?
Brian, You must be joking. That "article" was a total spoof from theonion.com. Did you actually read it? If you did and still believe it, I have a bridge I'll sell you. And you should know by now that Buffalo can't win anything...
Brian? Can you NOT read? I guess not if you think the Onion article was real. We might not win anything, but you won't see Buffalo fans on and off the bandwagon like some of you "Caniacs!"