When I called my dad in North Carolina (where I spent the first 23 years of my life) on Sunday for Fathers Day and he mentioned NHL hockey, it just didn’t seem right. When I was growing up there, I’m pretty sure the World Cup garnered more excitement than hockey. Hockey and the South just don’t mix well.
One of the more difficult management problems I’ve ever faced was hockey-related. When I managed a team of developers at CNN / Sports Illustrated (now just SI.com) in Atlanta and hockey season rolled around, we had to crunch all the stats into our various databases and generate useful web pages for hockey fans. I remember how difficult it was to get anyone on my team of Southerners to do the work. We had meetings where we hashed over NHL rules that seemed like they had been created on another planet. I still don’t know what “icing” is. The work got done (the team was great), but I always dreaded hockey season.
Fast forward to now, and the Stanley Cup is sitting with the Carolina Hurricanes somewhere in Raleigh, North Carolina. I’m stunned. The world has clearly gone mad.
Chad Dickerson's blog 
I am equally stunned, but from the opposite direction. I grew up in Minnesota.
hey – but they moved down there from my corner of the universe up in connecticut – canes use to be the whalers – so we’ll take a little pride in their win 😉
the south actually has a rich tradition of minor league hockey – but you’re right it’s not nascar…
overall the playoffs were very exciting, especially to a hockey playing geek like me – and going to a very closely played game 7 in the finals was just about all anybody could have asked for…
congrat’s to the canes – hope they have fun carting it around this summer to all their hometowns 🙂
ohhh – icing is what you put on cake chad, duh…
You’re stunned?! I too am stunned. I was stunned by the fan base that the hurricanes obviously have. Stunned because living in Canada the impression of Carolina in general would be something akin to the Dukes of Hazzard tv show, which is obviously wrong, but the questions still linger, like “Bo and Luke Duke like hockey? Well I’ll be damned! I wonder if Daisey likes hockey…?” 🙂 Never would have thought hockey would take off (eh?) in the south. There may be other impressions of the south that I need to adjust. I’ll have to come down there and see for myself.