The Whalers franchise relocated to Raleigh and became the Carolina Hurricanes 21 years ago already, but this season they return to the NHL.
As I mentioned already, the retro jersey trend is major this offseason in the NHL. Many of the teams announced they will use vintage alternate jerseys. Carolina Hurricanes was one of the few franchises who presented an alternate uniform of a brand new design, unfortunately, it wasn't a very good example of the 3rd jersey.
However, they went even further than anyone else and presented another alternate jersey. The Hurricanes will become their predecessor, the Hartford Whalers, for two games against the Boston Bruins in 2018-2019 NHL season. All green. They remember history and roots in Raleigh.
The new jersey is a modern copy of the one which was used by the Whalers in 1985-89 and 1990-91 NHL seasons.
It's a pure history of the franchise with some modern details. We can see the blue warning flags on the collar which refer to the Hurricanes and their modern jerseys.
The Carolina Hurricanes host the Whalers Night on December 23, when the Boston Bruins visits Raleigh. The second game in the Whalers' jerseys scheduled March 5 at the TD Garden in Boston. It is these games weren't chosen by chance. Boston Bruins is the rival since the Whalers franchise establishment in 1972. In their early years Whalers franchise (named the New England Whalers then) played in the WHL and was forced to share the Boston Garden arena with the Boston Bruins. Before the 1974-75 NHL season, it became too hard to schedule games of the two teams at the same arena and owners of the Whalers decided to move the franchise to Hartford. The Whalers played in Hartford 22 years before the relocation to North Carolina in 1997 and renaming to Carolina Hurricanes. 21 years later they revive the predecessor.
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