This escalated quickly.
The Carolina Hurricanes are no strangers to beef, but what transpired during the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the New York Islanders pushed it into the stratosphere.
This isn’t a case of the team itself beefing with their opponent, but rather the Canes social media team engaged in an all-out war with Islanders fans on Twitter. This happened after some truly disgusting individuals had their feelings hurt so badly they thought it was appropriate to engage in doxxing. Yeah, there’s a lot to break down.
The Hurricanes have been the Islanders’ playoff nightmare
These teams just can’t avoid each other. Since 2019 the Hurricanes and Islanders have met three times in the playoffs, and every single time Carolina has handled their opponents with relative ease.
2019: Hurricanes win 4-0 in the second round
2023: Hurricanes win 4-2 in the first round
2024: Hurricanes win 4-1 in the first round
Not only do the Hurricanes keep ending the Islanders in the playoffs, but there’s a lot of regional bias here too. The tired, old “warm weather cities don’t deserve hockey” trope is in full effect when they play — which has increased the angst between the fanbases.
2024 took the beef to a new level
Game 2 of the series was one of the most dramatic, and emotional games of the Stanley Cup Playoffs so far. Entering the third period the Islanders were up 3-1, and it seemed they’d level the series before returning to Long Island.
Carolina scored early in the period to make it 3-2, then with under three minutes left in the third period the Hurricanes scored two stunning goals in the span of nine seconds to take the lead, closing out the game on an empty netter.
Islander fans had made claims the Hurricanes were diving and drawing penalties. Hurricanes fans bristled at the idea. The official Twitter account, known for its sass and pettiness, posted what was a pretty harmless series of tweets.
This is pretty standard for any fan tweeting about their team’s win, but a lot of Islander fans took major exception with the team account doing it. Most simply clapped back, pointing out where the Canes had faltered in recent playoff years — but a small minority of absolute scum decided that these two tweets were enough to go on the warpath.
The head of the Hurricanes social media team was doxxed. Obviously we won’t share any of that here, but their name, home address, and phone number were posted on Twitter — as well as several Islander fan boards. This resulted in the individual being harassed, and when New York fans found a job posting that the Hurricanes were hiring an addition to their social team — they gleefully assumed they had gotten the individual fired, or made them quit from their harassment.
Fast-forward to Tuesday night
After trading games in New York 1-1, and heading back to Raleigh for Game 5 the Hurricanes had a chance to close out the series at home. An early flurry by Carolina gave way to a big Islanders comeback, and entering the third period the teams were tied.
Then, much like Game 2, the Hurricanes struck. Scoring two goals in 8 seconds, then closing out the game with an empty-netter. The Islanders season ended, the Canes moved on — and admin didn’t forget the doxxing. Neither did the Hurricanes.
There’s a branded shirt of the now-infamous tweet.
With a portion of the proceeds benefitting the National Diaper Bank.
Then there was this …
Then finally rounding it all out with some raw facts.
Naturally this was met with glee from Hurricanes fans, while Islanders fans wished nothing but the worst for the Hurricanes moving forward.
The amount of petty is absolutely astonishing. Are the Hurricanes playing with fire being such trolls or social media? Absolutely, but they’ll get their comeuppance if anything less than winning the Stanley Cup is achieved. Meanwhile Islanders fans will wait another year, where hopefully they won’t meet the Canes again in the playoffs.
