Carolina Hurricanes Continue To Dance On Hartford's Broken Corpse

Hartford, one of America’s shittiest cities, received more bad news today. The logo, music, and iconography of the Hartford Whalers—the scrappy lovable hockey team that Peter Karmanos uprooted in 1997 and moved to Raleigh, N.C.—have been officially appropriated by their successors, the Hurricanes.

The ’Canes, who first kicked the dirt in Connecticut’s face when they won the franchise’s only Stanley Cup in 2006, have spent most of their illegitimate existence rightfully ashamed for taking the one good thing about Hartford away from that city, and the new team initially shied away from any kind of Whaler references. However, spurred by new ownership, low ticket sales, and the irresistible pull of nostalgia—and probably the fact that the Whalers logo is so much cooler than the Hurricanes logo, and also the timeless “Brass Bonanza” is catchy as hell—the team started to make some nods to Hartford last season. This year, Carolina has officially announced the final insult: They will wear the dead team’s clothes for a regular season game in December, and presumably try to milk as much ’80s hockey quirkiness as they can from the evening.

In case you were wondering: Hartford and Carolina have the same number of playoff appearances this decade.