Ward-en

I found this sign, which related to goalie Cam Ward, while rifling through some old ones. I think I archived it for karmic reasons. It's not a useful sign once the opposing team scores.

Boldly Gone

Too bad I never got to unveil this sign at a game before Alexandre Picard left Carolina to go boldly to Montreal. (Yes, "go boldly." My signage may refer to the 24th Century, but my grammar is old school.) It's a shame because I might have mustered the courage to attend the game in a Star Trek outfit.

I should have known better than to make a sign before I knew I'd have a chance to use it. I tried to skirt around the karma, but resistance is futile.

Hat Trick for Patrick

The problem with this sign is that it's bad karma to mention or even think about being close to achieving a hat trick. I must have been feeling the luck of the Irish.

Honeymoon

What kind of hockey fan am I? Scheduling my wedding during playoff season? But my husband is an Army Reservist, and he ended up deploying to Iraq two and a half months after the wedding. We really didn't have much of a choice.

We planned a two-day event in the mountains of NC, in a giant cabin and surrounding buildings that would accommodate 75 of our friends and family. As the Canes moved deeper into the playoffs, it became evident that we would have to miss one home playoff game, May 14 against the Devils, the night all the guests were arriving and socializing. The cabin didn't have TVs. Some of our hockey fan guests were ready to drive into Boone to try to catch the game at a sports bar, but we managed to get audio of the game over someone's laptop. My fiance and I were so nervous about the karma of missing the game. Ultimately, it would be the only home playoff game we missed through the whole playoffs. We were greatly relieved to hear Chuck Kaiton call the 4-1 victory.

We had sold our tickets that night to my fiance's boss, who brought his wife. Afterwards, they told us that the other fans in our section were all concerned because "Where is the Sign Chick?" When my fiance's boss explained we were getting married, the reaction was, "Well, did you at least bring the signs?"

Think +

Not one of my favorite signs, but I do always try to stay on the right side of Karma.

Fool/Moron/Loser

The other side of this "Fool -->" sign says, "<--Moron," so it is viewable and meaningful from all angles. (It used to say "Loser" on one of the sides, but I decided it would be more useful to use another word, in case the Canes were losing bad.)

I love this sign a lot because of its usefulness. Certain opponent teams have the most obnoxious fans who come and invade our arena. When one of them is particularly and repeatedly irritating, I bring out this sign and point it at them. I usually get big kudos and thumbs up from other Canes fans.

Thanks to this Barfalo fan for uncharacteristically (of other Barfalo fans) being a good sport and posing with me for the photo. She's a friend of our friends. Once or twice, we allowed the Barfalo couple to trade seats with us so they could sit next to our mutual friends, who have seats near ours. But we won't be doing that any more, as it has proven to be very bad karma.

Camera Guy, Camera Guy, Camera Guy...

YOU SUCK!

This is a sign I had long wanted to make. I assure you that I resorted to this only out of extreme frustration at the end of a bad season during which the same camera guy repeatedly ignored me.

It was the last game of the season that I would be attending, and the same camera guy yet again ignored me for two periods. I scribbled this quickly during the second intermission.

Bad Camera Guy saw it a few minutes after the third period started, and he was a good sport and laughed and/or made faces at me. It's not always the camera guy's fault, I know. Sometimes they focus on me but the producer just won't put that shot on the Tron. Usually, it's because my sign has something to do with the refs, or maybe it leans too far towards family-unfriendly (although I am careful not to cross any lines). If I remember right, after this stunt, they did finally put me on the Tron that period, but by then the Canes were losing somewhat hopelessly. (I like to think it's somewhat good luck for me to at least get on the Tron once during a game.)