We’ve had parades, the Stanley Cup has travelled around the globe—except for Russia, the rings have been handed out, and the banners are set to go. Later this afternoon the Hurricanes will celebrate they are the 2026 Stanley Cup Champions one more time.
Then they’ll try to win it again.
Carolina opens the season today against the team that had won the Stanley Cup the prior two seasons, and a team plenty think will be deep in the fight for it again—the Florida Panthers. That team has also been a huge
nemesis for the Canes, and the two teams have managed to build up a semi-rivalry thanks to their shared success.
The biggest question for tonight is simple: after months of celebrating that included getting their rings on Sunday—more on that in a second—and having a full barn watching a second banner be raised, can this Hurricanes team put it all behind them and attack the season with the same hunger in order to get Lord Stanley back for another round in Raleigh? The league didn’t do them any favors by scheduling a Panthers team that’s the healthiest they’ve been in a while, even without Brad Marchand.
First, though, the rings. If by now you haven’t seen them they are amazing. Ryan Henkel of The Hockey News had an amazing post yesterday where he chatted with Jason Arasheben. Jason is the Jason of Beverly Hills, who last designed a ring for an NHL team in 2023 for the Vegas Golden Knights. Jason has a signature style, also seen in this year’s Super Bowl ring, and it’s absolutely worth a read as Ryan gets some insight into the process of getting the ring made, the deadlines they had, and how an NHL team actually selects who makes the ring.
Ryan notes all the details about the rings in his post, but if you want to see it:
If you look at the numbers that circle the NC Flag—yes basically a Storm Surge homage—there are three numbers on there you may not instantly recognize. Those numbers belong to Charles-Alexis Legault, Joel Nystrom, and Bradly Nadeau. Those are players who played some significant minutes for the Canes during the regular season. They didn’t get their name on the Cup, but they did get permanently immortalized on the ring that every player will wear—including themselves.
In fact, Ryan notes in his post that members of the support staff are getting rings and that members on down to security guards were being fitted. You can see from this post from Jorge Alves’wife Amanda that the rings they got are just as massive as the ones from the players, and family members were even treated to gifts.
That is the past, though, and now it’s time to talk about the present. Fans will tailgate on a brilliant early fall day, there’ll be some sort of ceremony that’ll have a video talking about the run, the new banner will be raised up to the rafters, and then the puck will drop on the 2026-27 hockey season.
Tonight is game one of the now 84-game NHL season. In case you’re wondering how we went from “offseason” to “HOCKEY” in about two weeks, thank the new CBA. Owners wanted more revenue, players didn’t want camps to be as long nor to have to play in as many preseason games. Thus the four game preseason and 84 game regular season is the result. This game begins a marathon of a regular season that doesn’t end until April 10th, and for the Hurricanes it ends with this same Panthers team.
As for who will take the ice tonight for the Canes, you had your answer at Monday’s practice. Thanks to todays’ 5 PM start time, you won’t get a morning skate to tweak things.
It speaks to the level that Legault has played in training camp that he gets the spot over Reilly in the lineup, and the missing Jarvis and necessity of bringing Deslauriers in to make sure there’s no funny busisness bumps Eric Robinson up to the Aho line. To start the year at least, Rod Brind’Amour is keeping the lines as in tact as much as possible.
As for the visitors, it’s going to look pretty much the same as their visit to Raleigh last week:
This Panthers team is ready to get back to the playoffs, and they are going to have to do it in an Atlantic division that is going to be a gauntlet. They’ll be looking to send a message that they are healthy and, specifically, in their mind the Canes were lucky they were so hurt to make it through the East last year.
If you aren’t going to be inside Lenovo Center tonight, the good news is that this game is going to be carried nationally on ESPN. So, if you haven’t subscribed to the Hurricanes Hockey Network yet, you still have time. Also remember tonight’s game is at 5 pm. ESPN has a triple header to open the season, and they chose to have the Bruins and Rangers face off at the 8 PM slot—because why have the last three Stanley Cup Champions play at 8 when you can have two teams that will be lucky to make the playoffs? I digress.
As more gameday details come up they’ll be updated, but for now, here are the details on how to catch the action:
Time: 5 PM Eastern
TV: ESPN—Bob Wischusen will handle the play-by-play, Erik Johnson will provide color, and Leah Hextall will be your roving reporter. Also note that “The Point” will start at 4 PM on ESPN, and it’s very likely they’ll have some of the pregame ceremony on that show.
Streaming Video: ESPN will stream the action, you’ll need to be subscribed to ESPN Ultimate or have access through your cable/streaming/satellite provider.
Radio: The pregame Storm Watch with Adam Gold on 99.9 The Fan starts at 4 PM and runs for 60 minutes tonight, then 30 minutes the rest of the season. At 5 PM the Hurricanes Radio Network (consisting of 99.9, 730 The Game in Charlotte, ESPN New Bern 107.5/1490, and ESPN Greenville 107.5/1570) will pick up Mike Maniscalco and Tripp Tracy.
Lines: (Per DraftKings) Hurricanes -130, -1.5 (+190) /Panthers +110, +1.5 (-230). O/U 6.5 +105/-125
