Editing Carolina Hurricanes (section)

===Move to North Carolina (1997–2001)===
The Whalers were plagued for most of their existence by limited marketability. Hartford was the smallest American market in the league and was located on the traditional dividing line between the home territories for New York City and Boston teams. It did not help matters that the Hartford Civic Center was one of the smallest arenas in the league, seating under 16,000 spectators for hockey. The Whalers' off-ice problems were magnified when the start of the 1990s triggered a spike in player salaries.

Despite assurances made when he purchased the team in 1994 that the Whalers would remain in Hartford at least through 1998, in March 1997, owner [[Peter Karmanos Jr.|Peter Karmanos]] announced that the team would move elsewhere after the [[1996–97 NHL season|1996–97 season]] because of the team's inability to negotiate a satisfactory construction and lease package for a new arena in Hartford. On May 6, 1997, Karmanos announced that the Whalers would move to the [[Research Triangle]] area of [[North Carolina]] and the new [[Lenovo Center|Entertainment and Sports Arena]] (ESA) in [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]]. Due to the relatively short time frame for the move, Karmanos himself thought of and decided upon the new name for the club, the '''Carolina Hurricanes''', rather than holding a contest as is sometimes done. Later that summer, the team dropped the Whalers' colors of blue, green and silver for a new black-and-red scheme, matching the colors of the [[NC State Wolfpack|North Carolina State University Wolfpack]], with whose men's basketball team they would share the arena in Raleigh. The Hurricanes inherited the Whalers' place in the [[Northeast Division (NHL)|Northeast Division]].

Unfortunately for the team, the ESA would not be complete for two more years. The only arena in the Triangle area with an ice plant was 45-year-old [[Dorton Arena]]; at 5,100 seats, it was too small even for temporary use. The Hurricanes chose to play home games in [[Greensboro]], 90 minutes west of Raleigh, for their first two seasons after the move. However, the team would be based in Raleigh and practice in nearby [[Hillsborough, North Carolina|Hillsborough]]—effectively saddling the Hurricanes with 82 road games for the next two years. This choice was disastrous for the franchise's attendance and reputation. With a capacity of over 21,000 people for ice hockey, the [[Greensboro Coliseum]] was the highest-capacity arena in the NHL. However, Triangle-area fans balked at making the 80-mile drive down [[Interstate 40|I-40]] to Greensboro. Likewise, fans from the [[Piedmont Triad]] mostly refused to support a lame-duck team that had displaced the popular [[Carolina Monarchs|Greensboro/Carolina Monarchs]] minor-league franchise. As a result, even with the first game hosting more than 18,000 fans, most games in Greensboro attracted crowds of 5,000 or fewer. The crowds looked even smaller than that in the cavernous environment. Furthermore, only 29 out of 82 games were televised (over-the-air and cable combined), and radio play-by-play coverage on [[WPTF]] was often preempted by Wolfpack basketball (for whose broadcasts WPTF was the flagship station), leaving these games totally unavailable to those who did not have a ticket. With by far the smallest season-ticket base in the NHL and attendance figures routinely well below the league average, ''[[Sports Illustrated]]'' ran a story titled "Natural Disaster",<ref>{{cite web |last1=Callahan |first1=Gerry |title=Natural Disaster |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1011183/index.htm |website=SI.com |access-date=November 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100403021400/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1011183/index.htm |archive-date=April 3, 2010 |date=October 27, 1997}}</ref> and [[ESPN]] anchors mocked the "Green Acres" of empty seats; in a 2006 interview, Karmanos admitted that "as it turns out, [Greensboro] was probably a mistake."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Burnside |first1=Scott |title=Karmanos: Hard-nosed owner, die-hard hockey fan |url=https://www.espn.com/espn/print?id=2470768&type=story |website=ESPN.com |access-date=November 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170805015152/https://www.espn.com/espn/print?id=2470768&type=story |archive-date=August 5, 2017 |date=June 4, 2006}}</ref> Under the circumstances, the Hurricanes managed to stay competitive, but still finished last in the Northeast Division with 74 points, nine points out of the playoffs.

For [[1998–99 NHL season|1998–99]], the Hurricanes curtained off most of the upper deck lowering the Coliseum's listed capacity to about 12,000. Attendance continued to lag. Most games attracted crowds of well under 5,000. Conversely, on the ice the Hurricanes' performance improved led by the return of longtime Whalers' captain [[Ron Francis]], [[Keith Primeau]]'s 30 goals, and [[Gary Roberts (ice hockey)|Gary Roberts]]' 178 [[Penalty (hockey)|penalty]] minutes. They tallied their first winning season and playoff appearance since 1992. They also won the newly formed [[Southeast Division (NHL)|Southeast Division]] by eight points, only their second division title as an NHL team (following the 1987 Adams Division title as the Whalers). Tragedy struck hours after the team's first-round loss to the Bruins, when defenseman [[Steve Chiasson]] was thrown from his pickup truck and killed in a single-vehicle drunk-driving crash.

The team finally moved to their newly completed arena in Raleigh in 1999. They became the first [[major professional sports leagues of the United States and Canada|major sports team]] to play in Raleigh, and remain the only such team there as of {{year}}.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/nhl/carolina-hurricanes/article254847557.html|title=Canes at 25: A new home, and a fresh start for the Hurricanes in Raleigh|last=Alexander|first=Chip|newspaper=Raleigh News & Observer|date=October 7, 2021|accessdate=June 2, 2024}}</ref>

The aforementioned season was marked by an ultimately franchise-altering mid-season trade which saw Primeau dealt to the [[Philadelphia Flyers]] for several players, including future captain [[Rod Brind'Amour]]. With the move to the new arena, the Hurricanes introduced the "Storm Squad", the first cheerleaders for professional ice hockey in North America. In [[2000–01 NHL season|2000–01]], the Hurricanes managed to claim the eighth seed, nosing out the Boston Bruins, and landed a first-round match-up with the defending champions, the [[New Jersey Devils]]. The Devils eliminated the Hurricanes in six games. Down 3–0 in the series, the Hurricanes extended it to a sixth game, thereby becoming only the 10th team in NHL history to do so. Game 6 in Raleigh featured their best playoff crowd that year, as well as their loudest.<ref>{{cite web |title=McKay scores twice for defending champs |url=http://static.espn.go.com/nhl/2001/20010422/recap/njdcar.html |website=ESPN.com |access-date=November 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120817032804/http://static.espn.go.com/nhl/2001/20010422/recap/njdcar.html |archive-date=August 17, 2012 |date=April 22, 2001}}</ref> Despite the 5–1 loss, Carolina was given a standing ovation by their home crowd as the game ended, erasing some of the doubts that the city would not warm up to the team.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Werthiem |first1=L. Jon |title=2001 NHL Preview - SI's 2001-02 NHL Team Previews: Hurricanes |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/2001/features/preview/hurricanes/ |website=SI.com |access-date=November 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011031021444/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/2001/features/preview/hurricanes/ |archive-date=October 31, 2001 |date=October 8, 2001}}</ref>