The NHL has awarded the 2011 NHL All-Star Game to the Carolina Hurricanes, according to the team. A report in the Raleigh News & Observer originally said that the league was prepared to award either the 2011 game or perhaps the 2012 or 2013 game to the city of Raleigh, but a press conference featuring NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
Heading To Raleigh: NHL Awards Hurricanes 2011 All-Star Game
Luke Decock of the News & Observer says that the announcement is a long-overdue promise finally fulfilled.
It took nine years, a Stanley Cup, a draft, a triple-overtime loss that ranks as one of the greatest Cup finals games ever played and a season lost to a lockout, but the NHL finally may be ready to deliver on its promise to bring an All-Star Game to the Triangle.
More accurately, commissioner Gary Bettman finally may be ready to deliver. This was his carrot, dangled ahead of a season-ticket campaign in the spring of 2001 with a pledge to bring the All-Star Game here within five years. The announcement expected today that the Carolina Hurricanes will host the event, most likely in 2011 but possibly in 2012 or 2013, means Bettman is only five years late at the minimum.
SB Nation’s Hurricanes blog, Canes Country, is on the scene at the press conference and will have more as the story develops.
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