Carolina Hurricanes
On Tuesday, the Hurricanes hosted the Golden Knights for the first game of the Stanley Cup Final. Eric Staal was tapped to get the Carolina crowd going by sounding their signature siren ahead of the contest, but he may have jinxed his former team after donning a piece of apparel that could be traced back to Las Vegas.
The Carolina Hurricanes earned home-ice advantage for their Stanley Cup Final showdown with the Golden Knights, and there was little doubt the Lenovo Center was going to be rocking when the series got underway on Tuesday night.
The contest marked the first time fans in Raleigh got to soak in a Stanley Cup Final game since Carolina secured its first championship in franchise history with a win in Game 7 over the Oilers in 2006, and a member of that squad was tapped to serve as the “Siren Sounder” in the form of Eric Staal.
However, the retired center did not put as much thought into his wardrobe as he probably could have.
Eric Staal wore a hat from a golf course in Las Vegas while trying to amp up Hurricanes fans ahead of a loss to the Golden Knights
Staal spent the first 12 seasons of his 18-year NHL career with the Hurricanes, and he became just the fourth player to have his number officially retired by the franchise when his #12 was raised into the rafters in 2025.
He was still playing in Carolina when the team ushered in a new pregame tradition by adopting the hand-cranked siren that’s been sounded by various dignitaries before home games since the 2008-09 season, and he was tapped to do the honors ahead of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.
ERIC STAAL, YOU MAD MAN pic.twitter.com/WCasadBgU2
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) June 3, 2026
However, as one astute observer on Reddit pointed out, Staal cranked the siren while wearing a hat emblazoned with the logo for The Summit Club, the ultra-exclusive private golf course that’s located in…Las Vegas.
The Hurricanes got off to a promising start by pulling out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, but they ended up losing 5-4 after the Golden Knights became the first team to pull out a victory on the road after falling into a multiple-score deficit in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Now, it might be foolish to suggest the hat played a role in that unprecedented collapse, but Staal may still want to be a bit more deliberate when it comes to his choice of headwear moving forward.