Chip Alexander: For the Hurricanes, it's time to raise a new banner and start a new season

Chip Alexander, The News & Observer on Sep 28, 2026

Published in Hockey

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Don’t expect Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour to be emotional when the Stanley Cup banner is raised Tuesday at Lenovo Center.

The Florida Panthers will be in the house. It’s time to start a new season. It’s great to put a new banner next to the one Brind’Amour helped win as the Canes captain in 2006, but it’s the opponent that will have his full attention.

“We’re on a different journey now,” Brind’Amour said Friday. “It’ll be great for the fans. Kind of put a cap on last year. There’s such a symmetry between us and the fans, they deserve it. So that’s really what I think it’s about.”

The Stanley Cup was in the arena and Brind’Amour on the ice Oct. 4, 2006, when the 2005-06 Cup banner went up. The Canes then took a 3-2 shootout loss to the Buffalo Sabres and dropped the next three games in a stumbling start to the season.

The Sabres had extra incentive as they put a sour end to a celebratory night. The Canes had beaten Buffalo in seven games in the 2006 Eastern Conference final, denying the Sabres the chance to play for the Cup against Edmonton.

Feisty battle with Florida starts Cup defense

The Panthers will come in on Tuesday looking to fully put last season behind them. After winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2024 and 2025, Florida missed the playoffs last season as injuries to captain Aleksander Barkov and others took a toll.

Now it’s Hurricanes-Panthers to start things off. The Hurricanes have received their championships rings, which have 900 individual stones and were designed by Jason of Beverly Hills. They’re impressive — and hard-earned. Like the Panthers, they’d like to have another.

One has to think NHL types couldn’t resist that one in scheduling given the recent run of Cups and, in truth, the disdain between the two teams that usually shows up once the puck is dropped and makes things spicy and often chippy.

Barkov is back and full go. The Panthers have brought in Brady Tkachuk to play alongside his brother, Matthew, an antagonist against the Canes and a lot of other teams.

Brad Marchand won’t be around to stir things up in the opener. After offseason surgery, the always feisty forward will miss some games early in the season for Florida.

The Panthers want to reestablish themselves as the alpha dog in the East and the NHL. In their minds, that starts Tuesday in Raleigh.

“They’re all big games and I understand what everybody is talking about,” Brind’Amour said. “I mean, they were Stanley Cup champs previous. They obviously have a great team, and it will be a great match.”

Banner night makes for extra special opener

Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov said he’s looking forward to it – the banner going up, a game with the Panthers, getting things started, whatever comes with it.

Svechikov put in his first preseason game Saturday, scoring a goal as the Canes took a 6-0 road victory over the Nashville Predators in their fourth and final exhibition game. He’s ready for the real thing.

“Obviously it’s going to be the coolest moment, raising the banner,” he said. “But in our minds, it’s a new season and kind of move on and we’ve got the game ahead of us.”

And having the Panthers as the leadoff game?

“It’s going to be a battle all season long,” Svechnikov said. “Maybe in the playoffs, as well.”

Canes captain Jordan Staal was a part of a banner raising in Pittsburgh after the Penguins took the 2009 Cup. He was 21 years old, playing behind star centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, the 2009 Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the playoff MVP in the Pens’ championship run.

Staal now has a Conn Smythe of his own. At 38, he’s a Stanley Cup champion again and will proudly watch a Hurricanes banner go up Tuesday before the scheduled 5 p.m. ET start.

“It will be special, a fun night.” Staal said. “You’ll have different emotions, I think, with stepping into a new season against a team we love to hate, on a special-memory kind of night. There will be a lot of emotions, but I’m very excited.”

The Canes would like to go back-to-back and have nearly everybody back – sans goalie Frederik Andersen, who left in free agency – whose names now are on the Stanley Cup. Many around the NHL believe they can.

“It’s always tough to win, no matter what,” Staal said. “We talked about it here for years when we came up short. It’s not an easy thing. You’d love to repeat, love to win three, four in a row, whatever you could.

“It’s a new challenge. It’s a process again, the same process we’ve talked about since Roddy took over (as coach) and what we want to accomplish.

“It’s about doing our best and seeing where it takes us.”

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