Triangle fans proved there was plenty of sunshine to go around at Carter-Finley Stadium

Forty-one degrees never felt so warm.

At a venue fit for football, and on a day with weather befitting it, 56,961 — officially — poured through the gates and packed the bleachers at N.C. State’s Carter-Finley Stadium on Saturday to watch two of the top teams in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.

The result — a 4-1 win for the Carolina Hurricanes over the Washington Capitals— mattered to the hockey fanatics, of course, but to the teeming masses huddled closely among the stadium’s bleacher-style setting, the feeling of being here at all was its own ray of sunshine, long after the actual sun set beyond PNC Arena, the Canes’ regular home, to the northwest of the field.

The esteemed Jack Falla, a noted hockey writer, author and outdoor hockey connoisseur whose stories and books have had a lasting, positive impact on the hockey community at large, shared the following quote, spoken by his wife, Barbara:

“Anyone can love summer, but to love winter, you have to carry your sunshine around with you.”

There was plenty of natural sunshine blanketing the Triangle throughout the day Saturday as the Hurricanes — and Raleigh at large — hosted the National Hockey League’s biggest midseason event.

Fans flowed through the limited access points to the parking lots surrounding the venue from the moment they were allowed, stacking up for miles in multiple directions to ensure arrival in time for the main event. Once on the grounds, tailgates flipped down, hatches popped up and the unmistakable sizzle and snap and smell of pregame food permeated the crisp late-winter air.

Cornhole bags thumped. Hockey sticks and balls and pucks clickety-clacked. Stories flowed as fluidly from excited onlookers’ lips as the beverages from their myriad containers.

It was colder than it had been in recent days, but with the unadulterated sunshine, the daytime revelers were plenty warm. During the day, at least, Mother Nature provided the sunshine.

But as the sun is wont to do in February in the northern hemisphere, it disappeared quickly beyond the western corner of Carter-Finley, plunging the tailgating masses into dusk and then darkness. Fans huddled a bit closer to their grills. Many added layers — gloves, jackets, wool caps — to make the chilling air more bearable.

But they smiled and laughed and hooted and hollered along the way. They were definitely carrying their sunshine with them.

And this year’s event in Raleigh is special for many reasons. It is, of course, the first outdoor game held by the NHL in North Carolina, that alone making all of these proceedings historic.

But the mere existence of the Stadium Series game in Raleigh marks another important milestone, one to which the Hurricanes themselves pay homage in a video they play before each home game. The chronology is simple: A young boy hears a radio broadcast announcing the Hurricanes’ relocation from Hartford, Connecticut. He becomes enamored with the team, grows up bugging his parents to bring him to games. The full-circle story, of course, is that some years later, this young lad grows up, has kids of his own, and he now shares his love of Canes hockey with them.

Hokey as the notion is, that’s the real impact of the NHL in the Triangle. That’s the impact the Canes have had here: There is now a complete generation — going on two, really — that don’t remember a time when there wasn’t NHL hockey here.

And among the throngs of hockey fanatics caught up in the madness at Carter-Finley on Saturday were scores of those younger fans, none of whom know an NHL devoid of the Hurricanes. For them, until their favorite team again hoists hockey’s ultimate prize, this event will be their most precious hockey memory. They pulled on their parents’ hands, leading them through mazes of merchandise and undoubtedly convincing some of them to pull out the plastic and lighten their bank accounts.

As these youngsters walked through the archways leading to their seats and first laid eyes on the newly-decorated football field, clad in red white and blue, mouths dropped open.

Their eyes beamed with sunshine.

By the time the on-ice pregame festivities began, long after the natural light faded and the stadium lights appeared more prominently, spectators pulled their caps more tightly around their ears. Sales of warm beverages — and those some believe make you warmer — remained steady.

By the third period, the temperature had dipped to the high 30s. The stadium remained packed. No one left early. Despite dealing with the colder weather less often than fans in most previous outdoor game locations, the hearty bunch in Raleigh on Saturday remained in place.

People in the Triangle might not love winter for the colder temperatures or unsettled weather, but they love it for the hockey, and they proved once again Saturday that no matter the conditions, hockey fans here do in fact carry their sunshine around with them.