In 2006, Carolina Hurricanes captain Rod Brind’Amour hoisted the Stanley Cup in the chambers of the North Carolina General Assembly after leading the team to their first championship.
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Twenty years later, he returned to Jones Street to bring it back — this time as head coach.
“What I witnessed on Saturday at the parade was something very, very special,” Brind’Amour told the state House of Representatives. “People that wouldn’t normally talk to each other were — State fans and Carolina fans and Duke fans and whoever else’s fans, coming together and supporting our team.”
That, he said, is the power of North Carolina hockey. “That’s the one thing that our team can do is we can unify.”
North Carolina lawmakers welcomed Brind’Amour, team CEO Brian Fork, team captain and playoff MVP Jordan Staal and star player Jordan Martinook as they were escorted onto each chamber’s floor, bearing the Stanley Cup. It stood on the floor of both the House and Senate Tuesday as onlookers in red and black filled the galleries and erupted into raucous applause.
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The championship team arrived with the legislature embroiled in its own Game 6, House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) quipped. Lawmakers are deep into overtime on a budget due last year and they’re driving toward the final goal before they head home at the beginning of July.
“We’re in the midst of a budget right now and almost to the end, and what we need is a little pep talk,” Hall said. “Whatever you said before Game 6, maybe say some of that.”
Brind’Amour said while he tries to avoid politics, the General Assembly could do well to follow the Canes’ example.
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“You got people on this side, people on that side, but it’s amazing when I talk about what a team can do — when people can work together, what can actually be accomplished,” he said. “There’s no greater team that’s ever won the Stanley Cup than what they guys were doing, because they were what a team is all about.”
On the Senate side, Sen. Michael Garrett (D-Guilford) praised the example the Hurricanes set for North Carolinians.
“What you have taught and shown to our children and the people of this state, what it means to have teamwork and to fight for your dreams — as the father of a young son, he has fallen in love with hockey watching the Carolina Hurricanes this season,” he said.
He was quick to voice some hometown pride as well. “When the Hurricanes came from Connecticut, they came to Greensboro, North Carolina first, and played two seasons in Greensboro Coliseum.”
It was also the second encounter with the Stanley Cup for Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), who was captain of the runner-up Republicans in the General Assembly in 2006, just a few years before leading them to a comeback victory in 2010. He said this championship felt entirely different to him.
“This is at least 10 times the crowd of people, of North Carolinians, that were in downtown Raleigh this past weekend,” Berger said. “The UNC Tar Heels can win a national championship, and half the state is pulling for somebody else. NC State can win one, and half the state’s pulling for somebody else. But when you win the Stanley Cup, all of North Carolina is pulling for you, and I thank you for that.”
One one matter, the Senate and the House were unanimous: “North Carolina is a hockey state now,” Hall said.
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NC Newsline reporter Christine Zhu contributed reporting.
