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April-October, 1997 / November, 1997-May, 1998 / June-September, 1998 / October-December, 1998 / January-May 1999 / June-September 1999 / October-December, 1999 / January-April, 2000 / May-September 2000 / October-December 2000 / January-September, 2001 October, 2001 Despite the Hurricanes' claims of doubling their season-ticket base, average attendance for the first four home games of 2001-02 is actually down from 2000-01. "If they 'double' it any more," cracks one Whalers fan, "they'll be drawing what they did in Greensboro." Talk of contraction, or the elimination of financially underperforming teams, in Major League Baseball leads to discussion of similar woes in the NHL. "Rapid expansion is just one of baseball's mistakes that was foolishly emulated by the NHL," notes Mark Spector in the Edmonton Journal. "There have been many others, leading one to believe the NHL would be wise to see its future in baseball's present -- and wiser still to learn from the mistakes baseball has made. Beginning with expansion....The novelty of a new team in a new sport is already wearing off for the folks in Atlanta and Nashville, where sellouts have gone from the norm to a rarity. Carolina not only plays in a hockey-ignorant market, its chief competitor is college basketball, a winter sport with century-deep roots in Carolina tobacco country that ice hockey will never touch.... "Personally, I'm thinking you could dissolve the entire southeast division and the NHL wouldn't be any worse off." December, 2001 A home sell-out against division rival Washington gives way to three games with announced attendance of 11,838, 10,281 and 11,166. Joe Starkey, who covers the Penguins for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, presents his "best and worst" of life on the road. Carolina comes in second in "worst crowds" ("They think icing's just for cakes"), trailing Anaheim ("What crowds? Not that you can blame people for staying away"), but wins kudos for the personal mini-TVs that come with every press-box seat. December 28: Former Whaler Ray Ferraro, playing for the Atlanta Thrashers, scores his 400th career goal in a 5-4 Thrasher win over Toronto. "That's a lot of goals," Ferraro cracks, "especially when you can't shoot." He is the 66th NHL player to reach the 400-goal mark. Beginning his NHL career with Hartford in 1984, Ferraro scored his first NHL goal at Montreal on Dec. 22, 1984. He placed second on the Whalers with a career-high 41 goals in 1988-89 and placed third on the Whalers with 50 points in 1987-88. He registered a career-high 47 assists in 1985-86. Traded to the Islanders in the 1990-91 seasons, Ferraro also saw stints with the Rangers and the Kings before being selected by Atlanta in the 1999 expansion draft. In 2001, he was named one of three finalists for the Masterton Trophy, given annually to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of sportsmanship, perseverance and dedication to hockey, and was voted by Atlanta fans the Thrashers MVP Award for the 2000-01 season.. January, 2002 January 2: former Whaler Ron Francis, now Hurricanes captain, scores his 500th goal in a 6-3 loss to Boston in Raleigh. Francis becomes only the fifth player in NHL history to reach 500 goals and 1,000 assists. Francis began his NHL career in Hartford, acquiring the name "Ronnie Franchise" before an infamous trade to Pittsburgh during the 1990-91 season. He left the Penguins as a free agent in 1998; when he signed with Carolina, he was still the franchise's all-time leader in games, goals, assists, points and hat tricks. The milestone fails to spark the Canes, who give up three goals in the game's first nine minutes. Attendance: 12,404. January 12: Arturs Irbe gives up seven goals on 28 shots as the Canes suffer a 7-1 loss in Vancouver, their worst of the season; Carolina has one victory in its last five games. January 15: the Canes host the second-year Minnesota Wild. "At times like these," writes Tom Jones in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, "we are reminded of the old philosophical question: If a tree fell in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? Putting a slightly different spin on it, we make this declaration: If a tree had fallen inside the Raleigh Sports and Entertainment Arena on Tuesday night, it would've made one heck of a racket, but surely no one would have been hurt. The official paid attendance for Carolina's 2-0 victory against the Wild? A respectable 10,712. But how many were actually in the building? Maybe 3,000. "When fans started leaving with about a minute left, it isn't known if they were trying to beat traffic or if they all shared the same ride." Carolina defeats the listless Wild 2-0. One assumes that the Wild, coming off 67 straight home sellouts, saw the sparse crowd and assumed they were at a mid-day scrimmage... January 17: Defenseman Sandis Ozolinsh, signed to a five-year contract worth $25.5 million in July, 2000, is traded to the Florida Panthers for defenseman Bret Hedican, center Kevyn Adams and defensive prospect Tomas Malec. Acquired from Colorado, where he had four 50-plus point seasons and 19 points in the 1996 Stanley Cup playoffs, Ozolinsh never fit into Carolina's defense-first style. In a 4-0 home loss to Tampa Bay November 25, Ozolinsh's miscues led to two short-handed goals; he was then booed each time he touched the puck. Ozolinsh is due $5.5 million in each of the next three seasons; the Canes will pick up $1 million for each of the remaining seasons. January 18: The second-year Columbus Blue Jackets play before their 39th consecutive sell-out crowd. Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos once announced that Columbus was his number-one relocation choice for the Whalers; the team would have played in a renovated aircraft hangar while a new arena was built. The announcement that the NBA's Charlotte Hornets, unable to secure a deal to replace their 13-year-old arena, plan to leave North Carolina for New Orleans, inspires thoughts of desertion by other franchises. "The uncomfortable question now," writes Dennis Rogers in the News and Observer, "is what do we do if the Hurricanes grow dissatisfied with the 75 luxury suites at the Entertainment and Sports Arena? What happens if some other up-and-coming city with 100 luxury suites dangles bigger bucks in front of the Canes management? "Won't happen, you say? Try telling that to fans of the Baltimore Colts, St. Louis Cardinals or New Orleans Jazz. Or, for that matter, fans of the once-beloved Hartford Whalers.....The Triangle is a more exciting place because of the Hurricanes. But then, so was Hartford, Conn. And if it can happen to Charlotte, it can happen to us." |
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