The Carolina Hurricanes home opener is tomorrow and Brett Pesce joins Adam to talk about rituals, traditions, and how he's feeling with it being 24 hours out.

It is the eve of the start of a Carolina hurricane season. There are two NHL games tonight. Tampa at New York, the Rangers by the way, and Vegas in Los Angeles take on the Kings. I don't know if Brett Pesci has a ritual for the eve of the start of the season, but we'll find out.

Brett Pesci joins us on the Adam Gold show. So how do you celebrate start of the season eve? I don't really do much different than my normal routine.

Try to get to bed early. I'll probably watch a few of those games. Yeah, that's about it, man.

Nothing too special. So you're going to watch hockey as opposed to, I mean, I don't know if you want to watch the Lightning and the Rangers and Scout, or are you going to watch the Guardians and the Yankees tonight? Yeah, well I'll definitely be flipping back and forth, but Yankees game is going to take the cake for sure. I was actually watching a little bit of the Phillies game before this call. I love playoff baseball, man. It's a lot of fun to watch. It's tremendous, especially, I mean, we grew up in a similar area, obviously different times. I grew up 30 years before you grew up, but yeah, there's nothing like playoff baseball.

I've had the Braves and the Phillies in the studio all the time. First of all, are you okay when Brett Pesce doesn't play the third period of any game, regardless of whether or not it matters or not, those of us worry. So are you okay? Yes, I'm good. Feeling really good.

Yeah, just had a little tweet there. Didn't want to make it worse, but yeah, I feel 100% well, thankfully, and I'm ready to rock. I hope you are. And you and Brady Shea are joined at the... Do you guys go everywhere together?

Honestly, pretty much. Yeah, he's one of my best buddies. I actually just moved to a house, we're like less than a mile away, so we have dinners together probably once or twice a week. Yeah, glad to have him on the team and develop a friendship that we have now. So it's pretty cool. Yeah, I mean, you guys, you probably don't pay attention to these.

I do. Fourth in the NHL in ice time together at five on five. And the only reason why that number wasn't higher was someone, I don't know, missed a handful of games last year, which is why I asked you if you were doing okay.

So what was the summer like? And are you... How long have you been really dialed into October 12th, which is tomorrow, based on everything that has happened the last couple of years and the development of this team? Yeah, I've been dialed... I think we've all been dialed in for a while now. I mean, even before preseason, there was almost our whole team here, but I know I got here roughly two weeks before and we already had like 12, 13 guys skating. And I'll tell you what, they weren't easy skates. We weren't just going out there messing around.

We were getting after it. And I think over the years, I think last year we started out, I was an 8-0 or something. And that's super important. If you can get out to a little cushion like that, it helps you throughout the whole year. So we know how important the start of the season is. Yeah, and it starts this year with a West Coast trip. After tomorrow night, you guys, I know I'm going to be up late. So what are your thoughts on just the way the schedule lays out right away to go out West and Western Canada as well? Exactly. I think that just goes back to us having to be even more dialed in than usual.

Obviously, it's not easy going on a two-week road trip right off the bat and playing really good teams out there, but we have to find ways to win those games and get points. Brett Pesci is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. Hurricanes and the Columbus Blue Jackets tomorrow night, 7 o'clock. How many guys came back, like Aho or Terra Vida, did they come back earlier this year than they have in the past, or is it my imagination? Aho for sure. Even Turbo I think came back a little bit earlier.

But yeah, Aho was there before me, working out, skating every day. It just shows how bad guys want it. Obviously, we fell short here the past few years, and last year was extremely disappointing, and I think everyone's going to have a little extra chip on their shoulder going into this year. What does Brent Burns mean to this team? Oh man, he's unbelievable. He's going to just make our team that much better. Such an incredible talent.

Unbelievable guy off the ice. I've already developed a pretty good friendship with him. Just an awesome guy to talk to, the way he takes care of his body. He's just a pro's pro.

He gets there before practices at 8 a.m., three hours before I see him riding the bike when I get in. It's just awesome to see. There's a reason why he's been so good for so long, and why he's not slowing down.

He hasn't missed a game in seven years. Yeah, it's incredible, man. And you see why, his preparation is incredible.

I don't know where he ranked, but I was down there at practice one day and I was talking to the head coach, and he was marveling at the fact that both Jordan Stahl and Brent Burns had basically crushed the conditioning test. What are your thoughts on those two giant human beings doing that? It's insane. They're just two freaks of nature, to be honest. They're two Greek gods. Obviously, they're a little older, and you just, the fact that those two are crushing our test, which is not an easy test, I'll tell you that.

You learn from those guys, right? You see how they prepare and take care of themselves, and we're lucky to have them both. Where does Rod rank on the conditioning test among the team? He's right up at the top.

Definitely makes me feel pretty bad about myself, knowing that he could probably beat me in those. He's a freak himself. He is.

I was not asking you directly whether or not you can beat Rod in the conditioning test, but I appreciate you offering that information on your own. Brett Pesci is here on the Adam Gold Show. All right, so are you in a fantasy football league?

I am, yes. Who's your quarterback? I actually have Aaron Rogers. Not the best, to be honest so far, but I think they'll figure it out over time. I guess. My team has completely decimated my injuries. Is it a bunch of guys on the team? Is it competitive?

Yeah, you know what? This year, we usually get a fantasy league every year, and for some reason, this is actually, I'm only in one with my buddies from home, but no one wanted to play, which was kind of disappointing. I mean, we only have like seven or eight guys say yes, and it's kind of tough to make a league like that, but we're going to start doing some DraftKings. It's kind of like a fantasy thing.

It's one week, and we'll see how that goes. Is it too many fins? Is that why there's no fantasy football league? Do they want to do fantasy, I don't know, curling?

Yeah, too many euros on the team, man. Everyone's got more of a liking into football, I'll tell you that. Soccer? Yeah, I'm not doing soccer, though. That's a thing. Oh, come on.

You've got to get into it. I'm more of a football guy. Well, this is actual real football. Is football played with sport played with the feet? That is true. I'll call it more of an American football guy.

See, that's the distinction we need from Brett Pesci here on the Adam Gold Show. All right, just real quick about tomorrow night and Columbus. They're much improved. They've got a lot of offensive firepower. Your thoughts going into that? Yeah, going to be a great test for us right off the bat. Obviously, they picked up the draw, line A. They've got a lot of threats up there. Their power, I think our penalty kill needs to be dialed in. Obviously, they're going to have a really good power play. But I think if we bring our game and just play our game and do our work, I think we'll be okay. Do you like the expectations?

I think ESPN picked you guys first in the East. Is that a good thing? I mean, I guess. I don't think it really matters to any of us. I know it doesn't mean we try not to look at the big picture kind of down the road. Our motto is just taking it day by day and game by game and such a long year and anything could happen. So we've got to focus on winning the day. And that's all we can really do. Winning the day.

I just heard that from the new Panthers football coach, Steve Wilkes, just wants to win the day. I appreciate you keeping it simple. And that is that is also a hockey mantra.

Keep it just keep it simple. But I'll see you down at the arena. By the way, I don't know if you knew this, Brett, but you need to you need to be nice to me because I'm on the Hurricanes Hall of Fame selection committee. Hey, I hope I get a vote one day, one day. You have to stop playing before I can vote for you, but I don't want you to stop playing. So maybe 12 years from now or so, I'll vote for you.

That would be nice. All right, man. I'll see you tomorrow. Take care. Sounds good. You got it.

He dreads he dreads the conversation. Really? Oh, absolutely. It's beautiful because they're they're much like this. They're much like that. Keep it on the ice. I don't know what we're talking about.