Remembering 2002

[HisIceness]

Has it really been 15 years? Damn time flies.

Click to read more...

 

[tarheelhockey]

This was where I, living in Charlotte at the time, first started to embrace the Canes as a long distance fan. I remember going to Picasso's Pizza for the Finals games because they had a MASSIVE projection screen (and decent pizza). People actually turned out for the Canes somewhat, which was surprising for that time and place.

 

[Roboturner913]

That was probably the most whirlwind couple months of my life. I was living in Raleigh (ok, Apex) at the time, on hiatus from work and school for the summer so I didn't have a ton to do. Literally zero responsibility.

I was knocking boots with this girl, she was something else. Kind of a hippie. She had unbelievable legs. Not like those tall skinny girls with long legs, but I mean old school gams, like a pin-up girl. She knew it too, she would wear these stockings with the lace top, but they were loose and fluttery at the very top edge so they rustled all the time. Drove me crazy. We were just banging like rabbits, 3-4 times a day. She always had this crazy good weed on hand too, I don't remember what it was called but a couple puffs of this stuff and you were cruisin' for half the day.

Had this 87 Honda Accord my cousin lent me. Bombed around all over that place. That was such a fun car. Nearly got arrested in Cary once because the Accord had those pop-up headlights and one of them didn't pop up, and the cops stopped me and hassled me because I didn't look like I belonged in that particular neighborhood. I had had about 6 shots of Wild Turkey in a couple hours leading up to that, but they somehow didn't smell it on me and I played it cool.

Oh, the playoffs. I just lived it. Went to almost every home game, went to friends' houses for every road game. It was all there was to life. Most carefree I've ever felt.

Loved that team. They were the most hardworking gritty bunch of never-quits that never quit. People call that game in Montreal the Molson Miracle. I never thought it was a miracle, that was just sheer ****ing willpower. It was like, OK Theodore makes 50 saves, we'll just keep shooting and shooting and beating on him until he cracks, and eventually that's exactly what happened.

Beating Toronto was something else though, that was transcedent. Nobody ever thought the lowly Carolina Hurricanes were going to beat the big bad Maple Leafs, because Canada would never ever never surrender its dignity losing to redneck hockey. That was a wonderful feeling of satisfaction when Gelinas scored that goal to end the series.

I dunno, that team was special to me in a way that the 06 team wasn't, probably partially because I was actually physically there in 02, but also because it just felt like they had that chip on their shoulder, especially bc of what had happened with the Devils the previous year. Something about that whole vibe really resonated with me at the time.

 

[bleedgreen]

Thank you so much for that post. Gams. Rabbits. 87 accord.

I had an 87 accord hatchback! No chicks would go near it because I kept my gear in the back. The smell would blow your hair back.

I watched the games at home on the couch with whaler friends here in CO. Larionov broke my heart, along with a couple pairs of ankles.

 

[Carolinas Identity*]

brett hull single handily won that series

 

[Joe McGrath]

I was a senior in high school. Visited NC state during round 1 and went to game 1 as my first ever Raleigh experience. When Gelinais scored to send them to the finals I ran out the door and clear down the street. Repeated that after game 1 in the finals. Saw parts of game 3 on a portable TV at the prom. **** Brett Hull for ruining my night.

That run probably made me the full-fledged fan I am today.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

When Gelinas scored to send them to the finals I ran out the door and clear down the street.

Ha! This was my exact same reaction Game 7 against the Devils in '09. When Eric scored that go-ahead goal, I burst out my front door and ran up my street yelling CAAAAAAAAAAAANES!!! at the top of my lungs.

Damn, I miss games that matter. Sigh.

 

[Vagrant]

The thing that really stands out to me about that run was the first round. How badly we were demoralized by the Devils the year before. I don't know how we took 2 games of that series, but it felt like little brother vs. big brother the whole way. I remember thinking to myself that if this was the best we could do, we had no chance to be competitive any time soon. Not only did we lose that series on the scoreboard, we lost it in every conceivable way. I remember seeing the Devils chuckling on the bench during the first four games and fans high fiving and laughing in the stands. When '02 came around and we drew the Devils again, my heart sunk. It felt like this was the team that was going to be in our way every year. It was during this series that Erik Cole really burst onto the national scene. I couldn't find the clip, but the goal where he chipped the puck past Stevens who was lining him up and walked by him to score was the moment when it felt like a change had occurred and this was not the same team they walked over the year prior. Cole was just this young punk who didn't know that these were the big bad Devils and it felt like a shot of adrenaline. We finally had someone who was physically up to the task of banging bodies with these guys and it changed the entire dynamic. For almost the rest of that playoff run, the big story was almost always who the opposition was going to use to try to neutralize Cole. The iconic image of Cole scoring and raising his hands in Doug Gilmore's face with that dead eye contact. He epitomized the scrapyness we lacked the year prior. It was the perfect distraction away from our real scoring line and it was driving people nuts. In the Toronto series, it was all about Gary Roberts vs. Erik Cole. Roberts chased him around the ice every shift and put the screws to him so many times, but Cole just kept at it. It was annoying the hell out of them. The distraction he provided opened up so many opportunities and it's why when people review his statline from that playoff run, it never does justice to the impact he had for that team. He was the story at the outset of each series. In later years, I saw many people here talking about him being an ineffectual playoff performer and it made me chuckle. 2002 simply does not happen without Cole. We don't even get out of the first round without the confidence he gave us against the Devils.

So many good memories.

 

[HisIceness]

Oh yeah, if people thought Buffalo fans were bad in 2006, Devils fans 2001-02ish were no picnic either.

One of the first games I went to was in April of 2002 with the Devils being the road team. Before then I had been to one Hurricanes game against Chicago I think in front of about 13,000 people, and countless Checkers and one or two Icecaps games. I had also been to numerous State/Carolina football and basketball games, one Duke/Carolina game at Cameron, one Duke/Maryland game at Cameron (people seem to forget about this rivalry but it was pretty heated 15 years ago), countless Hornets games against just about every opponent, a Braves/Mets game at Turner in which Met fans were numerous, and a handful of Panthers games in which opposing fans took over the place.

Anyways, I had seen poor sportsmanship before from fans. However, the Devils fans we sat next to, the ones in our section, and the ones roaming the ESA concourse were something else. They were loud, boastful, arrogant, passionate, angry, and everything else under the sun. There was one guy who literally dressed from head to toe as a 'Devil' who was shouting at anyone with a Hurricanes sweater on that "This is our house mother****er!". Another guy was with his girlfriend and they were attempting to mock Hurricane fans by pretending to be rednecks, this one was kind of amusing because even some Devil fans looked at them like "what the hell are they doing?". Then there was the guy with the Scott Stevens jersey who tried to make his way to the ice to harass Ron Francis who hanging around the boards but security held him in check, though he tried again at intermission.

We lost that game 4-3 I think, and at that time it seemed like a rematch was inevitable because Carolina held the Division lead with no serious threat. I just remember hoping like hell this time around would be different if nothing else to shut those *******s up. Well not only did they shut them up, they shut up Montreal and Toronto fans to boot. Does anyone else remember the banner outside ESA after the Toronto series that read something like Thanks for the Hockey lessons Canada, we're good to go?

Damn. Great times.

 

[gocanes88]

(people seem to forget about this rivalry but it was pretty heated 15 years ago)

When we were having unprecedented hard times in the early 2000s (I still can't believe 8-20 actually happened), Maryland seemed to temporarily replace us as Duke's chief rival... and MAN did they have some epic battles.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

When we were having unprecedented hard times in the early 2000s (I still can't believe 8-20 actually happened), Maryland seemed to temporarily replace us as Duke's chief rival... and MAN did they have some epic battles.

So fierce that they boo-hoo-hooed themselves out of the ACC.

**** Maryland.

 

[CandyCanes]

So fierce that they boo-hoo-hooed themselves out of the ACC.

**** Maryland.

I was so upset Maryland left the ACC. Ruined so much history between some of the acc matchups with them.

 

[Joe McGrath]

Ha! This was my exact same reaction Game 7 against the Devils in '09. When Eric scored that go-ahead goal, I burst out my front door and ran up my street yelling CAAAAAAAAAAAANES!!! at the top of my lungs.

Damn, I miss games that matter. Sigh.

Yeah....that happened too. The other game that night was the Caps with Frederov. He picked up a puck behind his own net and I said casually that he was going to score now. He did. Everyone looked at me like I had two heads.

 

[Brock Anton]

that weekes double save tho

 

[geehaad]

The run in 2002 was what uniquely identified the Carolina Hurricanes' place in the world...the team as it would be, rather than the team it once was. The organization, the city/area of Raleigh, fans of the team. And not just outwardly to the hockey world, but also to ourselves...we found out who we are and what we would be during that run.

 

[cptjeff]

As somebody who came to the team after the 2002 run, is there anywhere I can watch some/all of that playoff run? I've seen a lot of the highlight videos, but watching some of those old games in full could be a fun way to fill a long, hot offseason.

 

[Roboturner913]

As somebody who came to the team after the 2002 run, is there anywhere I can watch some/all of that playoff run? I've seen a lot of the highlight videos, but watching some of those old games in full could be a fun way to fill a long, hot offseason.

Sadly enough, before the times of digitized TV recording. I once had most of those games on VHS tapes, but they were in a box in my parents attic for years and the heat killed them. I've looked all over the internet for them since but there's just not much there.

 

[SaskCanesFan]

Sadly enough, before the times of digitized TV recording. I once had most of those games on VHS tapes, but they were in a box in my parents attic for years and the heat killed them. I've looked all over the internet for them since but there's just not much there.

Was it you that said you have the entire 2006 run on video?

 

[Roboturner913]

Was it you that said you have the entire 2006 run on video?

Not all, but most of it. I think I'm missing Buffalo game 6 and the last period of Devils game 4.

 

[geehaad]

I'm sure I'm not the only one with the 2006 run on DVD. Good ol' DVR!

 

[Roboturner913]

I'm sure I'm not the only one with the 2006 run on DVD. Good ol' DVR!

Sometime this summer I'm gonna try to figure out how to pull those recordings off the DVD's and make them into computer files, upload them to a video sharing service. I've been meaning to do it for a while but I just never have had the time.

 

[SaskCanesFan]

Sometime this summer I'm gonna try to figure out how to pull those recordings off the DVD's and make them into computer files, upload them to a video sharing service. I've been meaning to do it for a while but I just never have had the time.

That'd be fantastic, I'd love to relive that run. I was 13 at the time and that was the first time I got to really follow the team live on tv instead of just reading the hockey news magazine. I don't even remember being able to see much of the 2002 run, but in 06 I was there in my Canes jersey in the kitchen after school for pretty much every game

 

[RodTheBawd]

I wasn't a big Canes fan at the time, but definitely won't ever forget going to game 3 vs. DET. I went with my parents and my buddy, and right before the game started, some *******s came up to us and told us we were in their seats. Checked the tickets, same section and seats. Then noticed we were sent game 4 (or 6) tickets; thanks ticketmaster, and thanks ESA staff for not scanning our tickets. So we just went up to the concourse and stood... the entire... ****ing... game. Would have been worth it with a different result.

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

Ha! This was my exact same reaction Game 7 against the Devils in '09. When Eric scored that go-ahead goal, I burst out my front door and ran up my street yelling CAAAAAAAAAAAANES!!! at the top of my lungs.

Damn, I miss games that matter. Sigh.

That was my last year of college. Technically it was grad school (it's only a one-year program in accounting), but I was rooming with a couple of my undergrad friends so it didn't feel much different. I had long since established myself as a diehard Canes fan, but my roommates bandwagoned once they realized the team was actually going to make the playoffs.

I should also mention we were living in a student apartment building. And we were those neighbors. House parties every weekend, lots of yelling, and a noise complaint or two. A couple of my roommates liked to pee off the balcony and didn't care if it went through someone else's window.

That game where Jussi Jokinen scored the GWG with 0.2 seconds left? I have no memory of the goal. My only recollection of that game was jumping up and down, screaming at the end. If I had to tell you the next day why I was doing that, I would have drawn a blank. Apparently I was also throwing beer on whoever was sitting on the couch next to me throughout that game. I must have thought it was funny.

This probably explains why we never really got along with the people above us. But it hit a new low when one of my roommates opened up his Taco Bell crunch wrap and discovered they had put sour cream on it after he specifically asked them not to. He jumped up in a drunken rage, yelled something obscene, ran out the door, and threw it off the balcony onto a car below. Turns it out the car belonged to Field Hockey Girl, who lived above us and was always coming down on the weekends to tell us to shut up because she had a game the next day. In hindsight, it's pretty understandable. We were terrible neighbors. Anyway, her roommates happened to be in the parking lot when he threw his food on her car and saw the whole thing, so they really didn't like us after that.

Anyway, that brings us to Game 7 against the Devils. By that point, those neighbors knew we were pulling for the Canes because we were doing it quite loudly every time they played. For this game, we quickly discovered they were pulling for the Devils. We had no prior knowledge of their hockey fandom, so we think they were just trying to **** us off. When the Devils went up 3-2, they immediately started yelling and stomping on the floor above us. So naturally, when Jokinen tied it, we yelled more than usual because we knew they were listening. Then Staal walked in and scored right after that. We yelled even louder. But it wasn't enough. They had been stomping at us, and I really wanted to give them a commensurate response because we knew our team had just stolen the series. So I got up on the couch and started banging on the ceiling for a good 15 seconds as we all screamed at the top of their lungs.

They never made a sound after that.

P.S. If anyone reading this lived in the apartments behind the Walgreen's in Boone that year, sorry we were such jerks.

 

[Cane mutiny]

The 2002 team was my fav team of all. The run that year was more fun than the 2006 run to me, because it was so unexpected. Every round we were elated and blown away as they moved on. The fans were so much more appreciative of that team too. They were so fun and classy back then. I remember at gave 4, the whole arena stayed till the very end of the game and gave the team a LONG standing ovation even tho they had just lost three str8. They sent us STH's a dvd called Raising Canes after the season was over...you may be able to find one on line. It doesn't have full games, but has clips and is a condensed history of that season. I also miss Ecole and the BBC line...loved that team!