It’s hard to be a Canes fan in Charlotte

• I even left both cities to live and work in Wilmington for a bit before coming back to Charlotte. My credentials are strong.
• But jeez, during hockey season, especially this year, y’all are testing me. Because where are my Caniacs?

Why it matters: The Carolina Hurricanes have been on fire this year. See that first word? Carolina. As in, where Charlotte is.

• It just seems like people in Charlotte aren’t pulling their weight in hyping up our team for the Stanley Cup.
• You don’t see sports bars here packed with fans in Jordan Staal jerseys and with multiple TVs blaring the game. It’s hard to even know where to watch a Canes game with other fans in Charlotte.

State of play: The Hurricanes have a 3-2 series lead against the New York Islanders. They would have to win 16 games, overcoming three more teams, to win the Stanley Cup.

• Let’s not forget in 2006 the Hurricanes won our state’s only major professional sports championship to date.
• The Panthers, on the other hand, haven’t made the playoffs since 2017.

Of note: The Charlotte Checkers are in the playoffs for the Calder Cup.

Disclaimer: I’m no sports expert, but if I’m going to watch a sport, it’s going to be the one with non-stop action. Here’s what I know to be true:

• Hockey is cool. In the playoffs, teams play the best of seven games against the same team before moving to the next round.

After a while, the refs put their whistles away. Punches get thrown — because either they’re trying to rile each other up to get a penalty or the other team’s mad that this young man from Finland named Aho keeps scoring on them. It’s sick.

There are also a lot of “PLAY-THAT-BACK” and “WHAT-A-SAVE” moments.

• Even Roy Cooper is a huge fan.

Now that I’ve caught you up to speed, here’s what we are going to do to make up for this lackluster support coming out of Charlotte.

To the sports bars: I no longer want to walk in and see only one dusty TV in the corner playing the most important sporting event happening in North Carolina. And I definitely don’t want to guess if you’re even going to have it on.

To my fellow Charlotteans: The bandwagon is open for jumpin’. I want to see people walking down Tryon in red and black. I want to see Hurricanes flags swaying in the wind. I want to hear you honk “Let’s. Go. Canes.” on I-77.

To the boys: Let’s win this Cup.