I don't mean that as a pejorative, either, despite what it sounds like. It's simply the truth of what a Hurricanes team minus Eric Staal now is.
Save for two brief months in 2006, college sports are this region's identifying feature to the rest of the country. Always have been, always will be. It's a different mindset to cheer for a professional sports team.
College sports are the ultimate example of "cheering for the name on the front." By design, the athletes who wear those names are transient. Sure, you'll get to know them for two, three, maybe (if you're lucky) four years at a time, but then they're off to greener pastures, earning a paycheck, coming back to the area every so often to make appearances but ceding the spotlight, by and large, to their successors now donning the jersey they once wore.