Workrate Hockey - August 22, 2025

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If I were doing a song of the day today, it'd probably be Warrant's "Blind Faith" because every time I think about what I'm going to write about in this newsletter, I let out a giant sigh like Warrant lead singer Jani Lane lets out after the test signal and static in the song.

It was disappointing, but not entirely surprising, to see that Pride Night had disappeared from the list of Carolina Hurricanes theme nights, which were announced Tuesday. Seemingly replacing it was a "Hockey Is For Everyone Night", taking place on January 16th against the Florida Panthers. Few details about that night, or any of the 21 other listed theme nights, are available at the time of this writing.

If the term "Hockey Is For Everyone" sounds familiar, it's where this all began. In 2017, the NHL had a league-wide push to use February as the league's "Hockey Is For Everyone" month, spotlighting the league's commitment to showcasing "diversity and inclusion in hockey." The Hurricanes had their first "You Can Play" night that month, with Eddie Lack as its ambassador, and they had some players using Pride Tape in warmups, had a few LGBTQ+ organizations in the concourse, that type of thing. I honestly don't remember much about it because it wasn't that big of a deal when it was happening, but it was a big deal that it was happening.

The team had another "You Can Play" night in 2018 which continued to tread water, but in 2019 the team took a big step forward, having an actual Pride Night instead of "You Can Play", and actively making it part of the night's experience. The team sold ticket packages with a portion of the proceeds going to local LGBTQ+ organizations, and came with a rainbow Canes t-shirt. The biggest effort though - the thing that made the biggest impact to me - was the video they played that night:

The Canes made a commitment, and made a similar commitment the following season (though no video), this time including a (surprisingly decent quality) Canes Pride scarf. The seasons following, the night seemed to settle in, becoming a normal part of the theme nights, though a little more subdued and less noticeable on things like social media. Criticized for their lack of advertising of the theme nights and ticket packages in previous seasons, it was pointed out that they really didn't do that for most of their other theme nights, which is just kind of funny. "It's not that they don't like the LGBTQ+ community, they just suck at marketing!"

2023 figured to be a potential low point, as the "pride jersey protest" that was going on with various teams in the league creeped in, but the Canes maintained, offering a Pride Night that made some feel very comfortable, while those looking closer couldn't help but to notice that despite messages from corporate sponsors and recognition of various LGBTQ+ groups, there was nothing from the actual 23 guys on the roster; no rainbow tape on sticks, no recorded messages, nothing. 2024 saw a Canes "Pride Jersey" created and sold, but never worn as pregame skate theme jerseys were banned across the NHL after the previous seasons Pride jersey player protests, and 2025... existed. Seriously, I can't find any reference or significance to it, with the Canes only selling a souvenir ticket (which you can get for any game, RIP paper tickets), a generic rainbow logo hat, and a thank you to corporate sponsors.

Which brings us to this season. The aforementioned "Hockey Is For Everyone Night" could be anything, ranging from a Pride night that just doesn't say "Pride" to a mashing together of causes including the Capital City Crew (a Boys & Girls Club-based hockey program which is a rabbit hole for another time) and Triangle Special Hockey. No one is saying that these other outreach programs shouldn't be recognized, but to mash them all together - and to imply all of them have equal support from the Hurricanes organization - seems at best lazy and closer to disingenuous, especially seeing the efforts other organizations have made across the league.

Where is this coming from? Who is to blame? You could go in any number of directions:

Ownership - You always have to start at the top, right? But Tom Dundon's ownership - and calling of the shots - started in January of 2018. Dundon started trying some things right away, from discounted tickets to concession deals, so he made his impact immediately. So, if Dundon took issue with any kind of LGBTQ+ theme night, there wouldnt have been one. Quite the opposite, as the Canes transition from "You Can Play Night" to "Pride Night" took place in 2019 under Dundon's ownership. That said, Dundon is the owner, and if he wanted a Pride Night, there'd be a Pride Night. I don't blame him, but he's not helping.

Marketing - Man, I like to dog on the Canes marketing department, but they make it so easy. The Canes in the Peters era were a hard team to sell, and credit goes to their team at the time for shining up that turd pretty well. With likely next to no budget (these were the last Karmanos years, remember), they tried many different approaches to getting butts in the seats, with the Homegrown Series probably being the best of the bunch. Featuring limited edition t-shirt runs, posters from local artists, and a special food and drink item, it dimmed the pain of having to watch Joakim Nordstrom play first line minutes. But ever since the team turned the corner and letting their play be the reason to come to games, the Marketing team has been a little lax in their efforts. Promos like "Grateful Dead Night", "Margaritaville Night", and "Star Wars Night" are pre-built with only the need to design a t-shirt, while others are generic nights that nearly every franchise has, especially if they're receiving funds to do it. But as lazy as marketing the team might be, why would you regress instead of just maintaining what you've done seven seasons?

Players - I mean really, this is what it comes down to. Many fans have a parasocial relationship with specific players and don't want to generically think that their views might be different from their own, and for the mostpart hockey - more than other sports - allows that to happen. Professional hockey players are some of the most vanilla personalities in all of professional sports, whether it be due to the hockey culture training players at a young age that any attention drawn to them takes focus away from the team and therefore makes you a bad player, to the amount of work it takes during your emotionally developing years to become a top athlete that things like hobbies and social skills don't reveal themselves, to players just not wanting to let you inside their world because you'll make it weird. So, when something like this comes along - an actual cause - you have to find a person or people in the locker room that actually actively support it. This isn't something like cancer research where support is generic and won't draw anyone's attention. Supporting LGBTQ+ rights makes you stand out - there's literally a Wikipedia page showing NHLers who have supported them. As mentioned before, hockey players, by default, don't like to attract attention. Add onto that a team that, while neither has specifically said so, has at least two players on their leadership team whose religious beliefs that would keep them from supporting the LGBTQ+ community, and it's tough to find someone in the locker room that's going to step forward and be an advocate. The Canes haven't had an advocate in the locker room since Trevor van Riemsdyk left the organization after the 2019-20 season. Unsurprisingly, the strongest Pride Nights were while he was with the organization.

So what's next? I don't think there is a "next". The Hurricanes have operated on the belief that they don't need to cater towards any subsection of the fanbase because tickets are still selling, and realistically any "theme night" is a marketing ploy to either sell extra t-shirts or boost up the sales of a Tuesday game against Winnipeg. Hockey has never been the most inclusive sport in the world, but it was nice to think, at least for a period of time, that some of my friends would be made to feel welcome at least one night a season. I don't think the Hurricanes want LGBTQ+ people to stay away, just the same that I don't think the Hurricanes want black fans to stay away after discontinuing the Black History Month celebration they did last season despite having a game on February 1st again this season. I just think without a "want" (anyone in the locker room wanting to be an active participant) nor a "need" (the front office needing to sell tickets), we're not going to see the effort again anytime soon, and that's sad.

Try to have a good weekend. We'll be back on Tuesday with hopefully something more upbeat.