Stanley Cup

One of the big things we did this spring was attending a number of the Stanley Cup play-off games. The Carolina Hurricanes did a great job of leveraging the new hockey rules and the salary cap. They put together a great team and eventually won the whole thing. It was a big deal for Raleigh and even North Carolina. It is the state's first professional championship. The Carolina Panthers and Charlotte's basketball teams have done OK, but never won it all.

One of the things that we bring to NHL hockey is tailgating. Apparently, it just isn't very popular in the great white north, at least not for hockey. In Raleigh, if you put 18,000 people at a stadium, they are going to bring beer, food and grills. Nothing else makes sense. This is Julie with three lovely ladies from our neighborhood.


As the play-offs went on, you would see more and more Hurricanes flags flying on cars. This is the parking lot before a game.

Before the game, they would do a multimedia warm-up. One of the cool things they did was show pictures of players on the ice. The last image they would show was the Stanley Cup. Always a way to get the crowd going.

Turns out that Hurricanes are the only NHL team with cheer leaders. They are called the Storm Squad. Half way through the play-offs, we started seeing three big guys dressed in their version of the Storm Squad outfits. Turns out that they were all Ganymede Software people. On the left is Peter Schwaller, one of my co-founders.

Tough to get great pictures of the action with a small camera and a seat up with everyone else, but the RBC Center is a great place to watch hockey.


The celebration starts at the end of game 7!!



And this is what is all about, the awrding of the Stanley Cup.


It was a great experience and as much as I would love for them to win again soon, I guess it just isn't that likely.