Captain Jordan Staal paraded the Stanley Cup through an emotional arena as Carolina celebrated their title, turning a narrow season-opening defeat into a timeless tribute for faithful fans.
The Carolina Hurricanes weren't on the winning side of things Tuesday night in their season opener against the Florida Panthers.
But despite the 1-0 overtime loss, the day was a pretty special one for the team and the fans.
Before the game, the Hurricanes held a banner raising ceremony to commemorate their Stanley Cup championship.
The ceremony started with player intros, with every player having their name announced as they skated out of the Zamboni entrance, and they all gathered at center ice.
The final player was captain Jordan Staal, who arrived carrying the Stanley Cup, which he paraded around the ice before taking it the center of the team logo.
The players then proceeded to do the Storm Surge celebration with the home fans, before all converging in the middle to touch Lord Stanley.
Following that, the team lined up on the blueline to witness the banner being raised, where it joined the 2006 one up in the rafters.
"It was great," said Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour on the ceremony. "That to me is more so for the fans though. They didn't get to see us celebrate it on home ice, so it was nice to do a little victory lap. I thought that was cool. They need to enjoy that stuff. They're a big part of the success we've had over the years."
"Cool experience," said goaltender Brandon Bussi, who made 19 saves in the loss. "Our fans deserve it. They deserve to have a moment like that."
While the banner raising ceremony was certainly a special and memorable event, it probably didn't help the Hurricanes ability to get into the actual game they had to play.
The ceremony itself was over 18 minutes long and with warmups having taken place well before all the festivities, it probably made for some heavier legs with all the standing around.
"Obviously, kind of an emotional night, emotional start," said Sebastian Aho.
"It was such a weird... I mean, it's hard," Staal said. "You have so much emotions getting into it and you're then trying to start a game, start a season."
Regardless though, the team was happy that it got to share the moment with the Hurricanes faithful because championships are forever. Game 1s? Not so much.
"You obviously want to still enjoy those moments," Staal said. "It was pretty special. I wish we had more time to kind of give it to everyone and get the crowd going, but it was pretty special to have that Cup in the building on the ice with them and share that moment."
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