RALEIGH, N.C. --Hamilton the Pig is still hog wild for Dougie Hamilton.
But because his namesake left Hamilton's beloved Carolina Hurricanes to sign with the New Jersey Devils before last season, those feelings were put on hold, beginning with Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Second Round between the teams at PNC Arena on Wednesday.
"We'll be cheering for Dougie, but as long as we win, we'll be happy," said Kyle Eckenrode, Hamilton the Pig's owner/dad.
Eckenrode sold his tickets to Game 1 because he and wife Karoline are busy with daughter Parker. So, Hamilton the Pig watched from home with his human family.
"We've got a 1-year-old now, so that's kind of eaten into our pig time," Eckenrode said.
during their run to the Eastern Conference Final. Hamilton the Pig initially wasn't permitted inside PNC Arena for games, but eventually he was welcomed and got to meet Dougie.
They took some photos together and the Hurricanes printed up "Year of the pig" T-shirts. One year for Halloween, Dougie dressed up as Hamilton the Pig and Eckenrode put Hamilton in a "Dougie" costume with a red wig and hockey gloves.
"I thought it was awesome," said Dougie, who played three seasons with Carolina before signing a seven-year, $63 million contract with New Jersey in 2021. "The pig was not named after me. It was a coincidence, but it was awesome. It's a great family and I got to know the family with the pig and they're great people, very nice. I've got a T-shirt at home still, so it was a lot of fun."
Although Dougie no longer plays for the Hurricanes, he's remained in contact with Hamilton the Pig's family, sending Eckenrode a congratulatory message through Instagram after Parker was born last year. They also messaged each other via Instagram on Monday after Eckenrode sent Dougie a photo of him with Hamilton.
"A professional athlete, one of the top defensemen in the League, and he still makes time to chat with this little thing that happened a few years ago," Eckenrode said. "It's really cool, but throughout the whole Canes and Dougie thing, we always made special time with him and he would always make time with us."
As Dougie noted, Hamilton isn't named after him. After adopting the Juliana pig in 2017 from a farm in Laurinburg, North Carolina, Eckenrode and Karoline came up with his moniker as a play on words - HAM-ilton.
He's grown from a three-pound piglet into a nearly 200-pound therapy pig, who Eckenrode wheels around in a specialized wagon. He was 90 pounds during the 2019 playoffs.
"It was a lot easier in 2019 to get him to games," Eckenrode said. "I got him like this industrial-strength steel thing now."
Eckenrode hopes to get Hamilton to Game 5 against the Devils, if it's necessary, on May 11.
"What we'll probably end up doing is my buddy has this lawn cart now that he can hook put behind his truck and we can walk him right into that," Eckenrode said. "So, we'll probably just tailgate around and put him in that like his little chariot and let everybody see him."
