2009 Hurricanes-Penguins Stanley Cup Final

Lore & Background

The franchise was formed in 1971 as the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association (WHA). The Whalers saw success immediately, winning the Eastern Division in the WHA's first three seasons and becoming the inaugural Avco World Trophy champions at the end of the 1972–73 season. The Whalers again competed for the World Trophy in 1978, this time falling short to the Winnipeg Jets in a rematch of the 1973 Avco Cup Final. The franchise joined the NHL in 1979 as part of the NHL–WHA merger, renaming themselves the Hartford Whalers. The team relocated to North Carolina in 1997, rebranding themselves as the Hurricanes. The Hurricanes have won the Stanley Cup Final twice in 2006 and in 2026. They are the only professional team from North Carolina to have won a major sports championship.

In Their Own Story

The arena in Pittsburgh was a cauldron of noise, the kind that vibrates through the soles of your skates before you even step onto the ice. Game 7. You could see it in the eyes of the guys in the bench area—two years of 'what if' hanging in the air like the cold mist that rolled off the boards. Cam stood in the crease, tape on his blocker hand, jaw set. The Penguins had the talent to close it out; they'd done it before. But this was Carolina's ice, this was their story, and every stick-handling sequence, every forecheck into the corner, carried the weight of 2007. The crowd roared for Malkin, for Crosby, for their own heroes. And somewhere in the chaos, in the tangle of sticks and the thud of a puck against the glass, Carolina found the one shift, the one play, that turned the whole thing around. The horn sounded. The bench cleared. And for the first time, the Cup belonged to the people who had waited the longest.

Reader's Guide

The Hurricanes play at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. They are members of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference.

Did You Know?

• The franchise began as the New England Whalers in the WHA in 1971.
• The Whalers won the Avco World Trophy in 1973.
• The team moved to North Carolina in 1997 and became the Hurricanes.
• The Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup in 2006 and again in 2026.