Carolina Hurricanes' Stanley Cup parade shows hockey's North Carolina foothold

A parade celebrating the Carolina Hurricanes' Stanley Cup win brought tens of thousands of fans to downtown Raleigh on Saturday. Why it matters: The celebration underscored how deeply the Hurricanes have embedded themselves in a fast-growing Southern hockey market. What they're saying: "I still can't believe it. It's impressive," head coach Rod Brind'Amour told reporters when asked about the city's embrace over the past three decades. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein called it a "playoff run for the ages." Zoom in: Many of the players went "tarps off" (shirtless) on the cloudless 85-degree day, which ended with drunken speeches and hoists of the Stanley Cup onstage to Queen's " We are the Champions ." The crowd chanted "Freddie" for veteran goalie Frederik Andersen. These playoffs, Andersen steered the Canes to their first 13 wins, even as he grieved the death of mentor Claude Lemieux . First-year goalie Brandon Bussi also had the crowd screaming his name. Bussi ended his first-ever NHL season with three Stanley Cup Final victories , an improbable feat for a player who, at 27, is too old to be considered a rookie. And when Olympic gold medalist Jaccob Slavin took the stage, it was "U-S-A! U-S-A!" Fun fact: Perhaps nobody was more lubricated than longtime Canes player Jordan Martinook, who shouted at the DJ mid-" Wagon Wheel " to instead play " Jamaican (Bam Bam) ." The latter, he said, had become the team's victory song. State of play: The city was expecting around 100,000 people. "There's way more than a hundred thousand f------ people here, right?" player Taylor Hall said when he was handed the mic. It was actually 150,000, according to The News & Observer . Some things continued unimpeded through the fanfare. A bride walking into a church along the parade route for her 11am wedding received thunderous cheers from Canes fans. What's next: Brind'Amour said this team could go down in history as the "greatest team that's ever won." Only time will tell.