A North Carolina "Caniac" says he loves Canada and its progressive ways, but he can't turn his back on his team.
"I have so much admiration for Canada that, if it were anyone else, I'd be rooting for the Oilers," said Alex Charns, 50, a lawyer who lives in Durham, about a 15-minute drive from the Carolina Hurricanes' home, the RBC Center.
"But I'm a Caniac, I'm a Canes fan."
He grew up in Detroit, playing the odd street hockey game, but didn't really learn to love the game until he was an adult.
A paper boy in his Detroit childhood, close to the Canadian border, Charns knows the game is Canadian through and through.
"It took 40 years for the hockey bug to germinate, but it did."
He moved to Durham 20 years ago to attend law school. When the Hurricanes - formerly the Hartford Whalers - came to Raleigh, they sparked an interest.
And when his daughter WilloJane, 7, was younger, she wanted to learn how to skate.
"At the rink, they'd have these learn-to-play (hockey) classes, and I thought that's for 20-year-olds, and I'm 48. I'm maxing out here."
But WilloJane wanted to go. "We both sort of pushed each other," said Charns.
Along with our national game, Charns said he loves aspects of Canadian society and culture - our socialized health care and lack of a death penalty.
And he said he sees a parallel between Canada's love of hockey and our nation's spirit of hope and optimism.
"When that Zamboni comes on and cleans the ice, everything's new again. You go to the rink and every day, that ice is clean again. It doesn't matter how beat up it got. So there's always hope.
"With hockey, you go out there and you forget the troubles of the world, not only when you're a fan, but when you're playing.
"You can control things, if you play right, and you play as a team.
"Hockey saves the world by giving us hope, and giving us exercise, at a basic level."
While Charns said college football and basketball steal hockey's thunder in sultry Raleigh, the Canes still have a solid and enthusiastic local fan base.
"Actually, you'd be surprised. The beer leagues are really packed here," said Charns, adding many people in the area have come from the northern United States, where hockey is more popular.
And fans can be seen waving team flags and wearing jerseys around Raleigh - although fan enthusiasm doesn't reach the same "crazy" level seen in Edmonton, said Charns.
