‘Jacksandrei Blakenekov’: Pro-Hurricanes post by US Senate candidate skewered by NC fans over AI use :: WRAL.com

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Democrats and some Carolina Hurricanes fans are criticizing Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley for a social media message cheering on Raleigh’s NHL team. They’re accusing him of being a fair-weather fan and using artificial intelligence to create images of a fake player.

Ahead of the team’s Game 1 Stanley Cup Final loss to the Vegas Golden Knights Tuesday, a post appeared on a Whatley social media account, saying: “Let’s go, Canes!” The message, posted on his X account, featured emojis of a hockey stick and an American flag.

Let’s go, Canes! 🏒🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/TTgCNisONB

— Michael Whatley (@WhatleyNC) June 2, 2026

Some social media users took issue with another feature of the post: An image of what appears to be a Hurricanes player that accompanied the message. The problem: Fans had a difficult time identifying the player.

They accused Whatley of using artificial intelligence to create the image, pointing to garbled letters on a jersey where the NHL logo typically is and helmet stickers that are inconsistent with the team’s current branding. While a few users took the opportunity to praise Whatley in responses, many derided the post as “AI slop.”

At least one fan implied that the image looked like a mashup of two Hurricanes forwards, Jackson Blake and Andrei Svechnikov.

“Jacksandrei Blakenekov, also one of my favorite HHL players. Why’s everyone so upset?” a user quipped in response to Whatley’s post, which had been viewed by almost 300,000 users by late Wednesday.

“Nothing says…

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