Until Sam Rosen pointed it out on NHL Live this afternoon, I had completely forgotten that today was June 19th. Three years to the day since the Hurricanes' Stanley Cup win. This year it was a little easier to forget, because we didn't watch the playoffs as outsiders. Instead of reminiscing to better days a trip to the Eastern Conference Final is still fresh in everyone's mind; a much needed run after making the wrong side of history by failing to make the playoffs two years in a row after a Cup win. Less than four months ago the debate was whether the Canes should be sellers at the deadline; what a terrible mistake that would have been. Then again, who saw this coming.
The season started out innocuously enough. A rare crop of decent prospects in the system, with Brandon Sutter, Drayson Bowman, Zach Boychuk, Jamie McBain and others attending camp. Joni Pitkanen's arrival giving the team a mobile blue line for once. Opening night in Raleigh would foreshadow just how up and down the season would be, with the Canes going down 2-0 just minutes into the game only to end up winning 6-4 over their Florida Panther rivals in a wild affair. Then there was the early season slump of Sergei Samsonov, and the shockingly bad start for Rod Brind'Amour. Peter Laviolette fired just over two years after winning a ring, and the very man he replaced after chants of "Mo Must Go" in 2003 back in the fold. Disaster was written all over this season, but that's why you can never lose faith. The trade deadline acquisition of Erik Cole was just the spark the team needed, even if he was completely incapable of finding the back of the net. I never thought I would see the 9 game winning streaks from 2005-06 duplicated here, and certainly not by this year's team, but there it was. A 9 game winning streak ended just two games before the end of the season, and on top of that a franchise record 12 game home winning streak. 12 games!
The fact that the campaign ended with a sweep by the Pittsburgh Penguins doesn't even seem to matter that much in the end. There can only be so many miracles, and the first two rounds were filled with those. The New Jersey series was the best playoff series I have ever watched. Tim Gleason's Game 2 overtime winner was only a warm up for what was to come. Jussi Jokinen's tip in game winning goal literally as time expired in Game 4 was probably the most insane moment I have witnessed in the RBC Center, and at the time was probably my second best sports memory. I don't know if it is anymore. The end of Game 7 was like something out of a dream. From dispair and depression to being lifted up over a table at the Tobacco Road sports bar, and somewhere in the total mayhem that followed Eric Staal added the winner. These kinds of moments don't happen to sports teams very often, but there we had two of them in the first round. The second round would bring one more. The Bruins were supposed to walk all over Carolina; an easy 4 game sweep. Once they got their act together they nearly came all the way back, but too little too late. With honorable mention to Jussi Jokinen once again being a hero with his fantastic Game 3 overtime winner in Raleigh, Scott Walker added moment number three in overtime of Game 7. If that game had gone on any longer I may very well have gone into cardiac arrest (seriously). But, there was Scott Walker; the same Scott Walker who was public enemy number one in Boston after the so-called "sucker punch" of former Hurricane Aaron Ward in Game 5. The same Walker whose wife, unknown to anyone outside the organization at the time, had just been diagnosed with cervical cancer (treatable). Scott Walker, who after 15 years in the NHL had never scored a playoff goal, conjuring up images of Jim Valvano as he sprinted down the ice completely overwhelmed by emotion.
For me, it was my first year as a season ticket holder. I was there for most of the regular season games, including the retiring of Glen Wesley's jersey in February. I traveled to see the team play for the first time, going to Buffalo in January (a loss) for what was shockingly the most friendly reception of the away games. Then it was Washington in March (a loss), where I got to be taunted by a guy who would then fall through the entire section just minutes into the game before getting ejected. Finally, Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final in Pittsburgh, one final loss and some pretty terrible treatment. I was there for every playoff game at the RBC, and it was good to once again gather at General Aviation at RDU at 2:00 in the morning for the return of the team from away games. Where else but North Carolina would you see a full BBQ cooker and catering set up in the middle of the night in an airport parking lot?
As in 2006, I went through all of my photos from the season and put together a slideshow. This time I have included a few video clips as well with some of the best moments from the playoffs.
If the video is choppy on YouTube or you want a higher quality version, you can download a Windows Media verison HERE.
