Hurricanes selling ‘Bunch of Jerks’ shirts after Don Cherry’s rant

The Carolina Hurricanes don’t care if you don’t like it.

The young Canes have grabbed plenty of headlines this season with their post-win Storm Surge celebrations, full-team salutes to their fans at PNC Arena in Raleigh, including a Jose Bautista-esque bat flip, and a limbo line over the weekend.

Old-school hockey pundits like CBC’s Don Cherry and former GM Brian Burke have dismissed the fun as disrespectful and stupid. It was Cherry on Saturday, however, who really went after the Hurricanes.

“This is the National Hockey League,” he said during his Coach’s Corner segment on Hockey Night in Canada. “These guys, to me, are jerks. They’re still not drawing [fans]. And I’ll tell you one thing: They better not do this in the playoffs. I know the rest of the people, all the broadcasters are afraid to say something … I know what I’m talking about. You never do anything like that. They’re still not drawing [fans]. They’re a bunch of jerks, as far as I’m concerned.”

How the Storm Surge celebrations affect Cherry on a personal level remains to seen, though the Carolina brass has already gone ahead and turned his complaints into a good cause: T-shirts branded with “Bunch of Jerks.”

“You asked, we delivered about 20 hours later,” said Mike Forman, VP of marketing and brand strategy, who worked with Dan LaTorraca, director of digital marketing, and BreakingT in designing the shirt, according to ESPN.

The promise of fun at their home rink has led to a 16-9-4 record at PNC Arena, which has helped the Canes sit comfortably in the wild-card race, one point out of a playoff spot behind Pittsburgh and Montreal.