Empire State Building comes to the defense of NY Islanders fans after Canes loss

The Empire State Building is a symbol of New York City and the entire Empire State, including Long Island, but it was still somewhat surprising to see the city's landmarks come to the defense of New York Islanders fans last night. A big part of the reason could be that the building is run by Empire State Realty Trust, and the chairman and CEO of it is Anthony Malkin, brother of Islanders owner Scott. So, maybe it's not so surprising after all.

The Carolina Hurricanes social media account has long been known as one of the more colorful ones in the National Hockey League. Sometimes that results in creative comebacks and funny memes, but it can also can leave it subject to criticism and clapbacks when things backfire.

During the first round series with the Islanders, the social media account on X posted "Cry" as a response to Isles' fans unhappy with arguably soft calls that went the way of the home team. When Carolina took a 2-0 series lead, they tried to capitalize on the viral attention of the post and even made "Cry" merchandise available online.

That came back to haunt them during their second round series with the New York Rangers as it was them complaining about calls not going their way as the Blushirts raced out to a 3-0 series lead. Things culminated last night as Carolina blew a 3-1 third period lead in Game 6 as the Rangers, behind a third period hat trick by Chris Kreider defeated them 5-3 to win the series. When the Rangers took the lead, the TNT broadcast even flashed a young Canes fan crying.

This led to the original Canes "Cry" post being quoted all night on social, including from the Empire State Building's official account. We know the building will adopt the colors of New York sports teams during big moments throughout a season, but we rarely see it get into a social media fray.

The account posted "You first" to the Canes account, and then later after Carolina's social media manager finally addressed the attention with a "gonna do this right now" as in crying, the ESB replied, "apologize to the Islanders." Thanks, but I think they can defend themselves.

For Islanders fans, the series between Carolina and the Rangers was a matchup of two teams and fanbases they didn't like. So whatever brief kinship there was between Isles and Rangers fans (along with NYC landmarks) over Hurricanes fans suffering was a brief moment in time before the Eastern Conference Finals.