Why Roy Cooper wants Canes to win Stanley Cup — and drink Sun Drop from it

Roy Cooper didn’t get the chance to live out his dream in 2006 — not fully — but he’s hoping to make things right in 2026.

Cooper wants to drink Diet Sun Drop out of the Stanley Cup.

“Now, Mountain Dew is a great backup,” Cooper told The News & Observer on Thursday afternoon ahead of Game 2 of the Finals. “But it’s Sun Drop… so I would like an opportunity to do that. And that would probably rank as the zaniest thing that I’ve done.”

The former North Carolina governor and U.S. Senate candidate is hoping the Carolina Hurricanes win the Cup for all the obvious reasons: the spotlight it would bring to the state, the economic impact on the region and a morale boost for many of his constituents. But, at his core, Cooper is just another long-suffering Caniac who is, hopefully, three Carolina wins away from the sweet — and, in Cooper’s case, tangy citrus — taste of Stanley Cup victory.

“I certainly have been through a lot of seasons where we were pretty bad and the arena was half full,” Cooper said, “and I stuck with this team through thick and thin. I think we’d see a final payoff for fandom here if we could bring the cup home.”

It’s an unofficial requirement for any North Carolina politician to know ball. The state practically demands fluency in Tobacco Road rivalries in order to connect with constituents. But knowing puck is another matter entirely.

Hockey is growing in non-traditional markets but not nearly as popular in the South, making Cooper’s devotion to the Hurricanes something of an outlier. But for more than two decades, he has followed the franchise with the intensity usually reserved in North Carolina for basketball.

Cooper still considers watching the Canes lift the 2006 Stanley Cup his favorite sports memory. North Carolina basketball’s 2022 Final Four win over Duke is a close second for the UNC grad.

A native of rural Nash County, Cooper grew up playing football and basketball. He never strapped on the skates himself, but has loved hockey just as passionately and has been a dedicated fan of the Hurricanes since the 2001-02 season.

“I don’t know if that’s strange, but I do love the sport so much,” Cooper said, “The speed and power and the toughness of hockey is just unmatched — particularly when you see it live. Yep, it’s just an amazing game.”

And Cooper passed that love down to his three daughters, who “don’t love baseball,” are just “OK with basketball” and “tolerate football.”

Cooper jokes that one of his better parenting moments involved one of his daughters bringing a sign to a Hurricanes game in hopes of being featured on the jumbotron. Cooper can’t recall the year, but does remember a “terrible” call made against a Carolina player in the third period.

That meant showtime for Cooper’s daughter.

“The entire arena is yelling … and all of a sudden my daughter is up on the screen with her sign that says, ‘bad call,’” Cooper said. “And her dad, the attorney general, is beside her. She stayed up there so long that the boos turned into cheers.”

US Senate campaign

Cooper’s campaign has emphasized his fandom as the Democrat runs for U.S. Senate in a nationally watched race. And this week, the campaign and other Democrats took aim at his Republican opponent, Michael Whatley, for posting an AI-generated picture of a Canes player on social media and later declining to name a favorite player.

“It’s always great to welcome new Canes fans!” Cooper wrote on X, referencing Whatley’s post.

But long before he became North Carolina’s governor, sounded sirens at games or surprised Rod Brind’Amour in the locker room with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, Cooper was a season-ticket holder in search of the perfect seat in the arena.

Now, 20 years after the Hurricanes’ only championship, Cooper thinks this is their year.

“We’ve had great last eight years with fantastic teams,” Cooper said. “It would be amazing to finally bring the Cup back to Raleigh, where it belongs.”

And, maybe, they’ll allow him to pour some Sun Drop in it.

Q&A with US Senate candidate Roy Cooper, Democrat

Here are some excerpts from The N&O’s conversation with Cooper. Some of these questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: What did you make of Shayne Gostisbehere’s comments about the final Vegas goal from Stanley Cup Game 1?

A: “He took responsibility for that,” Cooper said. “What did he say? He took a breath and (Tomas) Hertl was right in the middle. These guys (the Golden Knights) are really good, and they’re very different from Montreal. They forecheck as well as we do. And I don’t remember us playing a team that forechecks as well as we do — sort of like a mirror of ourselves.”

“And consequently, I don’t think we were 100% ready for that. Too many turnovers, and these guys are a lot bigger than Montreal. We’re a little faster than they are, and we’re gonna have to utilize it. It’s gonna be fun to see what unfolds here.”

Q: What’s it going to take to get this top line going?

A: “I’m not as worried about the first line. They will be there when we need them. I know that we have been relying on the Stankoven-Hall-Blake line, but they’re too good. I think (Sebastian) Aho and (Seth) Jarvis and Andrei Svechnikov are too good.”

“I’m more worried about the power play. That’s just not been able to get clicking. We got to figure out a way to deal with that. We put a lot of rubber on the net when it’s five-on-five, but it seems like we’ve been very hesitant to take shots on the power play. I’d like to see that and find a way for us to deal with the forechecking penalty that Vegas has and take better care of the puck. Those are the keys to the game here.”

“And making sure that we’re all over the defensive assignments. This is a tough team to be dealing with, man-on-man, because they are bigger than we are in many positions. But we’re a good team too, and we can win this thing if we just get back to our game.”

Q: How important is it for North Carolina politicians to keep up with North Carolina sports?

A: “It’s more important just to be yourself and to be who you are. People expect you to be who you are when you are a leader. I just happen to be someone who loves basketball, football, and hockey, and feel comfortable talking about it.”

“Also, it relates to being a government official. Sports bring tremendous economic benefit and good paying jobs to the area. Sports put North Carolina on the map. The fact that we are in the Stanley Cup Final and are being looked at by people across the world — I think it matters. And it’s been fun for me to incorporate something that I naturally love into the jobs that I have had.”

This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Why Roy Cooper wants Canes to win Stanley Cup — and drink Sun Drop from it."