{"id":1581,"date":"2026-06-02T21:07:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T21:07:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1581"},"modified":"2026-06-02T21:07:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T21:07:34","slug":"how-a-stanley-cup-final-between-carolina-and-vegas-embodies-the-modern-nhl-era-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1581","title":{"rendered":"How a Stanley Cup Final between Carolina and Vegas embodies the modern NHL era"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n

Read our AI Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in the Triangle, and you\u2019re tired of the lazy trope that NHL hockey doesn\u2019t belong in warm-weather climates, away from the so-called \u201ctraditional\u201d hockey markets \u2026 you\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n

Read more NC could have been a Canes owner. The state deemed it \u2018cool\u2019 but too risky<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re reading this from \u201caway,\u201d perhaps from within one of many markets where snow and ice have a normal place in the annual weather cycle, and you still<\/i> believe pro hockey doesn\u2019t belong in the above-mentioned warmer-weather markets? You, also, are not alone.<\/p>\n

But you need to get a better grip on reality.<\/p>\n

In the NHL\u2019s first expansion era, when it doubled in size from its \u201cOriginal Six,\u201d Los Angeles carried the torch as the lone sun belt addition. And there it stayed for more than two decades, the Kings failing for more than four decades in finding ultimate success by winning the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

But, the Kings survived \u2014 buoyed in large part by the addition of Wayne Gretzky in 1988 \u2014 and have thrived.<\/p>\n

An outlier?<\/p>\n

For a while, maybe. Atlanta came and went (the first time). Then came Tampa Bay. And Florida. And Dallas. And, eventually, Carolina.<\/p>\n

Still, the Southern tier teams carried a chip on their collective shoulders, always seemingly fighting for legitimacy.<\/p>\n

In 2002, five years after the Canes\u2019 move from Hartford to North Carolina, and three years after what is now Lenovo Center opened its doors, the Hurricanes hosted their first Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

News articles in Detroit tried to coin the series \u201cHockeytown vs. Mayberry,\u201d aggrandizing the Motor City and its stature among professional hockey\u2019s elite markets at the expense of the NHL\u2019s foray into Southern markets.<\/p>\n

Remember, this was 2002. Raleigh\u2019s total metropolitan population was about 605,000 people, about one million fewer than today, with Raleigh proper sitting at about 313,000. It was the smallest market in the NHL at the time, the team fresh off a move from a legacy Northeastern city, and that Stanley Cup Final against the Red Wings marked just the fifth time an NHL team from a \u201cwarmer climate\u201d played for the championship. (Dallas had been the first to win in such a market in 1999.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was funny at first,\u201d then-Carolina coach Paul Maurice told reporters a few days later. \u201cBut it\u2019s probably more embarrassing now for the people who are saying it. You just need to spend a little time in Raleigh \u2014 what a fabulous place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maurice had two stints as head coach of the Canes, and has since won two Cups with the Florida Panthers. But he\u2019s always spoken fondly of his time in Raleigh.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay broke through again for the southern tier of teams in 2004, and after the NHL lockout killed the 2005 season, the Hurricanes won their championship in 2006. Anaheim made it three in a row in 2007, with each southern-tier team defeating a Canadian counterpart in the final.<\/p>\n

Twenty years \u2014 an entire generation \u2014 has passed.<\/p>\n

Yet, social media \u2014 a far larger part of the public discourse these days than in 2006 \u2014 has been riddled with predictions of low TV ratings, of boring hockey, of people watching something they don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n

Read more How bonding with his sons made NC Gov. Josh Stein an \u2018intense\u2019 Canes fan<\/a><\/p>\n

To be fair, after the Canes made a third deep playoff run in 2009, the franchise fell on hard times on the ice, a stretch of 10 years some refer to as the \u201cdark times\u201d in Hurricanes history. Many people tuned out, and that gave rebirth to the trope that hockey couldn\u2019t survive.<\/p>\n

But the roots from 2006 had grown deep, if dormant.<\/p>\n

A new owner in 2018, Tom Dundon, begat a new general manager, a new coach \u2014 and a new attitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first half of my first season, we weren\u2019t winning very much,\u201d Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook admitted Monday, ahead of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. \u201cI feel like with any organization, you put a good product in front of them, they\u2019re going to start coming, and that\u2019s exactly what we did and it started happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we gained traction, started selling out the building, you started realizing what could happen here,\u201d Martinook continued. \u201cThe team had struggled for a long time, and it\u2019s hard to keep people invested if you\u2019re not winning and you\u2019re not relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NHL believed in what was happening in Raleigh enough to award the city one of the league\u2019s crown jewels, a Stadium Series outdoor game. On the ice, the team has been to the playoffs in each of Rod Brind\u2019Amour\u2019s eight seasons as head coach. Last week marked the team\u2019s fourth Eastern Conference Final appearance in those eight years, and the Hurricanes have sold out the past 165 home games at Lenovo Center \u2014 and counting.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just Raleigh and the Hurricanes continuing to prove Bettman\u2019s expansion vision correct.<\/p>\n

Florida won the Stanley Cup in 2024 and 2025. Vegas won in 2023, defeating the Panthers. Tampa Bay went to three Stanley Cup Finals in a row before that, also winning two of them, and one of those against Dallas.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a whole lot of sunshine filtering through those snowflakes.<\/p>\n

And the TV ratings?<\/p>\n

A glance through those numbers provides a bigger indictment of the NHL\u2019s choice of primary network carriers than it does of the teams involved in the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

Regardless of matchup, series\u2019 on over-the-air networks fare far better than those offered on niche or cable\/streaming-only options, and that dates back to the Versus\/NBCSN\/NBC days.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is, hockey is hockey. Vegas is easily the most successful expansion franchise in NHL history (the reasons are many, and that\u2019s for another day), and fans have followed the Golden Knights\u2019 rise from the beginning.<\/p>\n

Of the NHL\u2019s top 10 teams in average per-game attendance, Dallas, Carolina, Tampa Bay and Florida are all there. Four southern-tier teams are also among the Top 10 in the NHL in percentage-to-capacity attendance for the season, which accounts for the variance in building size.<\/p>\n

Read more How to watch the Canes in the Stanley Cup Finals on TV or streaming<\/a><\/p>\n

That, friends, is the modern reality of the NHL.<\/p>\n

To those who need to hear it: Get a grip.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 5:30 AM.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stanley Cup Final between Carolina Hurricanes, Vegas Golden Knights shows how southern markets like Raleigh, Tampa Bay, Florida now shape the modern NHL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nHow a Stanley Cup Final between Carolina and Vegas embodies the modern NHL era - Durham Moving Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1581\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a Stanley Cup Final between Carolina and Vegas embodies the modern NHL era - 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