The Carolina Hurricanes found themselves in the crosshairs of another angry old-school hockey analyst on Saturday night when Hockey Night in Canada’s Don Cherry used his Coach’s Corner segment to criticize the team’s Storm Surge celebrations that take place after home victories.
During the segment, which was basically a 1:17 rant, Cherry repeatedly referred to the Hurricanes players as “jerks” (four times to be exact, including as “a bunch of jerks” at the end) and warned them not to do it in the playoffs because, well, this is the National Hockey League and that’s just not what you do.
This all comes after former NHL general manager Brian Burke has repeatedly criticized the celebrations and referred to them as “pee-wee garbage stuff.”
(You can see Cherry’s segment here starting at the 4:25 mark.)
The Hurricanes, of course, do not really care what the outside world thinks and their social media team wasted no time in having some fun with the criticism.
So guess what happened on Saturday night?!
The Hurricanes won again by defeating the Dallas Stars, 3-0, to move into a playoff spot for the time being by jumping one point ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins who were on the losing end of a 5-4 decision against the Calgary Flames earlier in the day.
The Penguins still have a game in hand and play on Sunday afternoon (12:30 p.m. ET on NBC), but the fact remains that the Hurricanes are currently occupying a playoff spot. Even if they fall a point back by this time on Sunday, they have still played their way back into legitimate playoff contention and are right in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff race, not only for a potential Wild Card spot, but perhaps even a top-three spot in the Metropolitan Division.
They are in it.
The Hurricanes also did what they do in these situations and broke out another Storm Surge celebration by doing ... the limbo.
We set the bar tonight 🔥 pic.twitter.com/dDJMsmcQlw
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) February 17, 2019
With a minute to play in regulation, fans at PNC Arena, obviously having been made aware of Cherry’s commentary, started chanting “bunch of jerks” as the clock ticked away.
They are not just embracing the criticism, they are feeding off of it.
My stance on the Storm Surge is very well established at this point: It is great, it is fun, and it is not showing anyone up because the other team is already long gone from the ice and it’s for the home fans. And even if it was, if you do not like it as an opponent you always have the option of winning the game. Nothing wrong with showing personality and having fun in sports. Also, I want to see them doing it on the road, but as Jordan Martinook said to me after a game a couple of weeks ago “that will never happen.”
As for the recent results on the ice and what this all means for the Hurricanes, with Saturday’s win they are now 16-5-1 since Dec. 31, giving them 33 points during that stretch.
No team in the NHL has more points since then.
Everything is clicking for them right now.
They have an outstanding defense that makes them the best shot suppression team in the league (again!) and Curtis McElhinney has been a surprising stabilizing presence in net. That combination has made them a top-10 goal prevention team in the NHL and the recent addition of Nino Niederreiter from the Minnesota Wild has given them a much-needed goal-scoring presence in their top-six to go with emerging stars Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen.
Whether or not this will all be enough to end what has been a decade long playoff drought has yet to be determined, but this is probably one of the best chances they have had to get back in the playoffs. It is also the most exciting team they have put on the ice since that last playoff appearance during the 2008-09 season. They are young, they are fun, and they are building something that is worth watching -- during and after the games.
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.