An Islanders Anxiety Special Presentation - Cheaper by the Dundon

In a spiritual sequel to "A Canesmas Carol," we examine Hurricanes' owner Tom Dundon's decision to put his wife and five kids - none of whom work for the team and some of whom are in elementary school - on the Stanley Cup.

There are written and unwritten rules about whose names can be engraved on the Stanley Cup. Rich asshole Dundon seemed to break all of them by putting his entire family on it ahead of - and in some cases, instead of - team members who helped actually win the championship. This is an egregious breach of established hockey protocol that angered even some of the Hurricanes' biggest cheerleaders, in and out of their fanbase. This was a bridge too far, and may have - finally - shown people who this guy really is, despite all of the Twitter mutuals he may have hired.

We dramatize a selection of writing about this topic, from the serious to the satirical and from full length explainers to tweets and Reddit posts. The only people okay with this are the ones willing to stick up for the poor, put-upon billionaires who are just trying to make their kids happy (while ruining life for the rest of us).

We didn't expect to do a sequel to our last Special Presentation, but we're glad we were able to and keep the series going.

Works Cited:

• Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon has names of wife, kids engraved on Stanley Cup above actual players By Chuck Schilken LA Times, 7/10/26

• Why Hurricanes owner is facing criticism for having entire family engraved on Stanley Cup by Daniel Chavkin, The Sporting News, 7/10/26

• Carolina Owner Faces Backlash for Engraving Kids’ Names on Stanley Cup by Eric Fisher, 7/10/26

• I’m Not Sure There Are Enough Dundons On The Stanley Cup by Barry Petchesky, Defector, 7/9/26

• Jeff Marek, Twitter, 7/8/26

• Mike Harrington, Twitter, 6/9/26

• Mark Lazerus, Twitter, 6/9/26

• Josh Yohe, Twitter, 6/9/26

• Chris Johnston, Twitter, 6/9/26

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