Seeing Green: The Commitment & Preparation For Whalers Night

RALEIGH, NC. - The Carolina Hurricanes are set to celebrate their annual Whalers Night tomorrow when they host the New Jersey Devils.
Pucky, the elder statesmen of franchise mascots, will be on hand and Brass Bonanza will tag in for Petey Pablo's "Raise Up" as the home team's goal song. Perhaps the biggest element of change for the unique event though?
Green.

While the team's black warning flag alternate uniforms have risen in popularity over the last few seasons, the team most commonly takes the ice in red or white sweaters.
For this night though, it's green jerseys, green helmets, green gloves, green socks, green pants. Even the goaltenders are in on the paraphernalia, with both Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta getting custom equipment for the event.
This is no nonchalant effort, where the team merely throws on a green sweater and call it a day. In fact, in the past, we've even seen players take warmups with the 1980's-style headbands, fully buying into to the party-like atmosphere.

"We're proud to represent the Whalers brand and our organization's heritage and that's why we've continued to make Whalers Night part of our overall marketing strategy since the 2018-19 season," Chief Marketing Officer Mike Forman shared regarding the promotional night. "We can see in the demand for tickets and merchandise that this night still resonates with our fan base along with Whalers fans and hockey fans in general. We are also very cognizant of the fact that we don't want to overdue it at any point either and feel like we've found the right balance of one or two games per year on average where we can rebrand all of our platforms from digital to in-game, but then quickly transition back to our foundation here in North Carolina where we will be celebrating 25 years next season. Big theme nights like Whalers Night also help break up the monotony of a long season and you can feel the energy in the building both on and off the ice."

The team's
in-arena merchandise stores
will once again be stocked full of new Whalers getup,

throughout PNC Arena.
This all doesn't just happen on a few days notice though, not for the retail team, nor the club's equipment staff, who works for months leading up to to ensure everyone on the ice is outfitted accordingly.
Led by Bob Gorman, Canes Head Equipment Manager, the group starts its preparation for the evening in July.
Orders for the helmets, pants, sticks, and socks get submitted during the middle of the summer, but this isn't just a one-stop shop where one click of a button makes all worries go away until the night comes. As they get closer, there's more items to be prepared, including some of the more detailed aspects.
The custom-made green True-brand pads that Andersen will take the ice with? Those were discussed with the All-Star netminder back during the early fall. Gorman gets the ball rolling and a lot of the work from there is in the hands of the man wearing them himself.
"For most pads it's normally about a two month-long process, so we had time with this one," Gorman said of getting Andersen his pillows. "The way it works now with True, I get them the purchase order and Freddie can kind of take it from there. He can go right online and edit the colors of the pads, how they look and how he wants them to be."

As far as Antti Raanta's blue and green setup, a slightly different operation. Instead of ordering completely new pads, which can take time for goalies to break in and feel comfortable with, the Finnish netminder will be instead utilizing his since retired pads that he started the year with in Carolina. Assistant Equipment Manager Jorge Alves has undertaken the project since the middle of November, working on covering the black and red with the Hartford-themed colors.
The protective masks, each uniquely designed? Not outsourced to a helmet designer, which could take up to half a year, instead, another Alves project.
"Freddie and I had a few different sit-downs on the plane and we talked over a couple different designs. We came up with something we liked and then I threw in a couple small touches myself. Then, with Raanta, we actually didn't even discuss anything, I just went with it. He ended up liking it."

Again, not your typical specialty jersey night. So many moving parts and so much work, all for just one night.
In addition to the netminding gear, the 18 skaters who take to the ice tomorrow will be clad in the green paraphernalia of their own. The team began dressing in their new attire at Monday's practice, donning their getup for the occasion to break it in before getting to game action. For the first time in the event's history there's an even bigger commitment to the venture as well, as the players will be wearing actual green hockey pants. In years past the skaters wore green shells over their standard black pants that are worn for 81 other contests per year.
"There's always a level of excitement too it, right in the room with the guys. They love wearing it," Gorman continued. "I think they get a charge out of it."
As for what happens when the night's over, Gorman and Alves say that a lot of the players have a genuine interest in keeping the gear. While in years past most of the items are held onto for the next Whalers Night, the equipment crew is never short of asks regarding it.
"It's extremely popular, everybody gets really excited about it. We get inquiries from people all over wanting to buy this stuff. We have a small sprinkling of stuff that we put out for the equipment sale in the summer and it goes right away."
On-ice festivities begin tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. when the Canes... or Whalers, rather, take to the ice for warmups at PNC Arena.
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