Carolina Hurricanes lose to the Nashville Predators, 5-3

Time to talk to my friend Luke Tkach, columnist, news and observer. He was there last night. We're going to get to 67 shots in honor of the debut of the man wearing number 67 for the Carolina Hurricanes Max Pacioretti. But we're going to start with the game you were at the arena for the other night. I'm going to start with State and Duke.

Your thoughts, Mr. Luke, on not only what we watched, but the significance of what we watched. Yeah, Duke having, I think, three field goals on 67 shots feels about right. Now, you know, I mean, a couple of things there. I mean, obviously Duke struggled at PNC before. I don't ever remember, ever remember a Duke team getting absolutely just big man the way that the Blue Devils did by a team that wasn't, you know, a national power. Like, you know, NC State's a bubble team. I think, you know, they have a path forward. They should be in the tournament, but that's not, you know, look at NC State, especially with December or check out and say, well, it's a big physical team that's going to push you around.

NC State shot the lights out and push Duke around. I mean, Kyle Philip policy gets dunked on DJ Burns was just a hat his way in the second half. I mean, this is a guy who was at Winthrop last year playing against, you know, top 50 NBA draft prospects and, and bullying them around. And so I, I, you know, I think John Shire has got some work to do. We know he's not his mentor.

He's not his predecessor, but his predecessor, we all know what he would have done in this situation. The Jersey's on the floor, those blocks changed on the doors, Cameron at midnight, whatever. There was an old, long, Mike, you playbook of when you feel that your team is mentally and physically not tough. And I remember Jeremy Roach said it soft, timid, like there's, there's no hiding from this.

So we'll, it'll be interesting to see how John Shire handles it. He's a different kind of coach. He's younger. He's more in tune.

I think with this generation, just because he's closer to it and understands it. But he's got to find a way to get his team to play tougher because when they got going at certain points late in the first half, early in the second half of time, it's too cool to, okay. But as soon as something would go wrong, they just, the blue devil's just kind of folded this no toughness at all. And that's just not what you think of when you think of Duke basketball, we've seen it come and go obviously over the years, especially in the one and done era. But I just don't remember a game where Duke just got beat down that badly, both physically and mentally by a team that you didn't expect it coming in. Maybe, you know, against the Syracuse team with five seniors or something, but you know, this was different. That said, State played great. And as, as the great NC State basketball philosopher, Sidney Lowe would say, got to make shots.

Yeah. And State did absolutely make sure it took a while. It took three, some minutes before anybody made a shot. And then once the lid came off for State, it really came off.

Here's the thing about it. I actually thought going into the game that it was just a bad matchup for Duke because State's strength is two super quick guards. And I don't believe Duke has a player anywhere on their roster who can stay in front of Jarkel Joiner or Terquavian Smith. They get wherever they want with the ball. The only way, I thought the only way Duke was going to win that, and there's a path for it, was to dominate the interior, but they kept turning it over.

And 21 empty possessions, forget about a missed shot, 21 turnovers, pretty much dooms you against the team that can get out and play good chaos ball, which it doesn't appear that Duke can do. No. And, and, you know, I think what they really need, John Shire aside is, you know, Jeremy Roach is the veteran on the team, his experience, he's been through it. They need him to step forward and lead. And this is that time. Maybe it didn't come together for him until now.

And it certainly didn't Wednesday night, but now is the time. And he's got to take charge of this team and be the alpha dog. He wasn't on the basketball court Wednesday.

He's got to do that off the court and then on the court going forward. Now, if Duke is going to turn this around, there's no reason Duke can't, it's been a discombobulated season because of the injuries to, to whitehead and lively and all of that. But you know, I look at this Duke team and I don't see a leader.

I think it will be Jeremy Roach in the end, but I don't see it right now. And I don't know who scores for Duke against good teams. Like you talked about staying in front of Turquavian Smith and Jarkelle Jenner.

How about just going toe to toe with them? Who wins the game of horse on Duke with those guys? So Duke's got to figure that out.

It should be white head. I don't know that lively has that much offensive upside. We've got a pretty good book on him by now, but, but as white head gets healthier, he's got to start scoring. He's got to be an explosive score for Duke because the other guys they have just, just aren't capable at this point.

There's no exploded. I don't who has the best first step on that team. And again, I, I thought that that game was more about state than it was about Duke, but I totally understand the margin was probably about Duke. But I liked state in the game going in simply because of the matchup. All right, last night, Max Pacioretty, who wears number 67 drew into the lineup for the first time this year, Carolina had 67 shots.

My fear is that when Andre Kasha comes back, who wears number 73, it's going to be, it's going to be even uglier. Two more shots, Adam, for the kids. You know, I mean, I wrote this, it was like Paul Murray's flashback night, right? Great zone time, ran into a hot goalie.

It's Roger into Moore's right. Sometimes it happens. But this is not a team that should score three goals in 67 shots with UC sorrows or anybody in net and, and finishing has been an issue for the team all year. Max Pacioretty is supposed to help with that. He had chances in, in the game last night for sure. I mean, you could see it, he didn't score, but he may have the quickest shot on the team in terms of his release and, and, and the, and the pop on it.

So he's going to be okay. Um, but, but the hurricanes in general, this, this is a longstanding problem. They've got to find a way to finish chances. I do think some of that is the law of averages, but when you get into a game last night, it's something that hasn't happened to this team in 40 years.

Uh, it, it becomes a, a, a bit crazy, but that's it, man. You show up hoping to see Max Pacioretty and wave at Nino Niederreiter and you end up seeing history. That's that's sports, man. Andres Fechnikoff had 10 scoring chances, five of them great A's, and he had no points. He was, he was otherwise great, but he just couldn't buy a goal. I don't know how he didn't score on the power play with about two minutes left. I mean, UC Saros was laying down, uh, napping and I don't know, Andre couldn't get it past Saros or to hit a leg on the way through.

I don't know, but I couldn't figure out. He said Saros got a piece of it and I kind of said, what happened? And he was like, I shot it. And he made a save. Like there literally were no words to describe what happened other than like, that was a completely open net and he got his whatever on it.

So it was, it was weird. I mean, look, give Saros credit. He played great and he played great against the hurricanes before. And this is not his first 50 save win over the hurricane, which is a crazy thing to say.

But, um, you know, it's, it's, it's, you look at the roster, everybody, but yes, very cookie. And he had at least one shot on goal and cookie. And he had three blocks, so it's not like he wasn't involved. Um, you know, the power play looked at, I mean, Paul, it's nasty at one point looked like, like, like his head was spinning because nature and special cover flying around him so fast. He had great chances too.

He played well with those guys. Um, it just one of those weird nights. Now that said, three goals should be enough to beat that Nashville team the way the hurricanes played last night. You know, they, they, they lost track of Forsberg on the first goal and, and project was small. Uh, they screwed up a face-off coverage. They left three guys, left the guy at the post to go take other guys. And it's the most open Cody glass is ever going to be. I asked Rob this after the game, I think it was so easy for them that they just switched off a little bit on defense.

He disagreed. He said this, you know, it's just flips mistakes that can't happen, whatever. But I think honestly, they were buzzing so much and it was so easy.

And it was so much just like shiny out there, whipping it around and taking shots and making passes that when it came to the details on the defensive, then they just kind of flipped a little bit and it cost them because three goals should be enough to win in a game like that. All right. Final thing. Final thing on this loop to cock second game in a row where could check off was, uh, there, there were at least one, probably two bad goals allowed. Uh, any concern in your mind?

Uh, no. I mean, I think it's a, you're dealing with a rookie in January of a season. He wasn't expecting to be in the NHL.

I, I didn't, I wasn't as harsh on him last night as you were. I, he was small on the Forsberg shop, but you're talking about the hottest player in the league, 15 feet of open ice and Forsberg may score on that no matter how well you could check off it. Uh, the fourth goal was a tip. The fifth is an empty netter. Um, the glass goal, he was just completely hung out to drop.

Yeah. It's it's it's so, I mean, I thought he was fine. He made a couple of really nice days. You know, he made a great save in fight on Nino neater writer. Um, that, that would have put the predators in the lead.

So I thought he was fine. He, that was a night where they needed him to match sorrows and win the game for them. Um, because they weren't on their, on their, their, their toes defensively. There were some slip-ups where you need your goalie to bail you out, whether it's leaving the hottest player in the league wide open at the right circle, I'm a penalty killer or whatever. Um, but I, I would have started come back with Ronta after the Rangers game.

I get why they didn't, but I would have, I, I would have changed up on that and I'm sure they will now. Um, but, but, you know, I'm sure this is a lot for a kid like that. Um, we, we, we expect a lot of him because he's talented and he's got a quirky personality and all of that, but, but we're asking a lot of him and it's not surprising if he tails off a hair here and that's why you've got auntie Ronta and presumably Freddie Anderson will be back at some point soon. He's been practicing for almost a month now, or maybe it is a month today. Um, you know, and, and, uh, and, and then that takes some of the pressure off, but, you know, could check out, we'll be around. I think he's earned the right to stay up here for a while. He's in the right to keep playing. I think there's, there's room for a three goalie rotation given the schedule.

And, um, but, but yeah, I, I think we're seeing a little bit of a dip in his play, but not unexpectedly. So Luke to cock of the news and observers joining us here, follow him on Twitter at Luke to cock. And I want to thank you before I ask you another question. Thank you for your help on the final three episodes of the 25th anniversary Kane's corner podcast available wherever you get your podcast 20, just a search hurricane or Carolina hurricanes, 25th anniversary podcast.

All right. So the national football league canceled the bills and Bengals ain't playing that. Uh, and now they're in the process of voting to see, I don't know how they can change rules to benefit or work against the Cincinnati bank. I don't know what they're doing.

Why is it enough that they just go with the rule that they've got, which is winning percentage? Yeah, it's a little, it's a little hinky to me. I mean, I think everybody's been thrown off a little bit by this situation. I mean, I don't ever remember a situation where every single person on Twitter responded to every update with, Oh my God, I can't believe it. Like, like this has just been jarring for everybody. Like everybody's sort of thrown off by watching a guy almost die on national television from what appeared to be a totally innocuous play. Um, so I think we're all a little rattled, uh, by what's, by what's happened since Monday.

Um, and, and thrilled by the way things have turned out. So I think that probably sends to the NFL and its competition committee and the owners who are all maybe a little flustered and, and, and dealing with a no contest or playoff implications. But the solution here is simple. The solution is a neutral site AFC championship game at Ford field. So the lions finally get to host the later on.

I thought if you do it in Indianapolis, the Colts can hang another banner. Progressive presents adjusting to the suburbs. I never really thought about tools until I bought a house in the suburbs. It's like this weird homeowner test. If I need a tool for a project and don't have it. And my neighbor, Ted loves to give me that look. When I asked to brawl a pole saw a year ago, I didn't even know pole saws existed. And now I got to borrow one from Ted.

What is happening? Anyway, when you save with progressive by bundling your home at auto, that's the easy part of adjusting to the suburbs. Progressive casual key insurance company coverage provided in service by affiliates and third party insurers. Venture X from Capitol one is the travel card for people always asking where next you were in 10 X miles on hotels and rental cars and five X miles on flights booked through Capitol one travel and two X miles on everything else you buy with venture X plus receive premium travel benefits like access to over 1300 airport lounges. The venture X card from Capitol one.

What's in your wallet terms apply. See capital one.com for details. Did the predators hang a banner last night? They should.

That's a lot of slaves. They might. So I am I am absolutely against a a neutral site AFC championship game. Like just just deal with it. Just it's OK. I go considering the circumstances complaining about whatever inequities in a sport that is laden with inequities. For crying out loud, they played 17 regular season games.

So half the league played fewer home games than the other half of the league. So why are we worried about this? Just play. It's like, sorry, such is life. Deal with it, which is what they always tell us anyway.

Just suck it up and deal with it. But no, we got to complain and change it up. Yeah, right, exactly. Next man up.

Are you ready? Do you first of all, do you think that the president will approve a 90 team NCAA tournament? No, I mean, I I'm concerned about it. I don't think it's it's it's great for the sport because I don't have a lot of trust in the way it would be implemented at the moment. But I also don't get the sense from people on the inside of the basketball committee and in the world of college basketball, whether it's the coaches association or whatever, that there's a lot of momentum for it.

Just because you're allowed to go to this percentage, which would give you nice, right? So does it mean that you have to and this is the legislation that's being talked about is really for other sports and it gets caught up in basketball because that's such a hot button issue. I do think as the television deal comes up for renewal in a few years, you know, the NCAA is going to want a lot more money out of that deal.

It's like the ACC deals become over undervalued over time. And one way to get more value for Turner and CBS, assuming they're back in, is to create more games. And, you know, if you look, if you listen to people who are smart about this and they're not people who have a vested interest like Ken Pomeroy and John Gasaway and people who pay really close attention to this stuff, if you add another eight games to the NCAA tournament, another eight teams and go to 72, or I'm sorry, go to 76 or, or the math is off in my head where you basically just expand the first four and make it all at large teams, the teams that get in the vast majority of them are mid-major. So it's not stacking the deck in favor of the SEC and ACC and big 12, although these days ACC is not even in that conversation because what's it going to do with a fifth team at this point? But, um, you know, it, it, it, it would, it might be good for the game if you have a big Tuesday, Wednesday at large predominantly mid-major, you know, first 16 or whatever. So there, there is some, some possibility to do this and do this right, but I don't think there's enough momentum for it to happen until the television deals involved. And you know what?

That's fine. 68 is actually a pretty good number. We get teams in the tournament and the teams that miss usually miss for a reason, like wake forest could have gotten in, not nothing they did that was out of their control, kept them out of the tournament. It was entirely in their control. I mean, really other than NC state, the year they got sent to the NIP the first year of the net, um, where they, you know, they, they tried to play a good non-conference schedule.

It didn't work out that way and they got burned by it. Um, you know, teams that don't make the tournament usually don't make it for a reason at 68. So I'm fine with staying here. I'm less against expansion than I was maybe even six months ago, because I've started to see people who are really smart layout plans where it makes sense.

And if you can explain it to me in a way where it really does make sense, it doesn't dilute things and doesn't stretch it out. Um, then I'm okay with it because, uh, it's a fun tournament. And if you add games, you know, that that's adding to the experience. I do think you run the risk of ruining it if you can't get a bracket on one page of paper. Um, but maybe I'm just old fashioned.

We'll use legal pads at that point, Luke to cock. Here's the thing. Um, I don't think you'll ever ruin the tournament. I think that is the, uh, that's the fallacy, but I do think that there isn't as much money in an expanded tournament as people think. And I mean, there'd be more money in just tearing the contract up and redoing it. Forget about adding however many more games that is.

Uh, and I disagree. I think that we would add mostly major conference schools. I think we would add most. Yes, I do. I believe we do your research. Oh, no, I understand. The numbers are actually really interesting because I thought the same thing and then I've seen it laid out and I thought, okay, well, maybe, maybe it's, uh, maybe, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. So why would Greg Sankey, Greg Sankey, why would Greg Sankey argue for more teams from the Missouri Valley conference?

Well, he's not explicitly. No, but I mean, if, if, if they believe, cause they they've done their research too. If they believe if Greg Sankey is the one out there, uh, waving the flag for this, if they believe it would be good for the mid majors, he wouldn't care.

They're doing it to get more units for the SCC. I mean, it's a rising tide is going to lift all boats. Um, and a bigger television deal is going to make more money for everybody. But I, again, I would caution you to think about this, that what Sankey is pushing at the division one transformation committee is not necessarily basketball focus on the baseball, doing baseball. The example that he's used the most is baseball and Mississippi state. So, um, you know, I, I wouldn't necessarily put too much into the motivation on that the way say last two summers ago with the college football playoffs, where there was clearly an angle being played by the FCC in Notre Dame, trying to flip a fast one past everybody.

I don't, I don't think that's the same here. The transformation committee recommendations may have an impact on basketball. They're not basketball driven. This is really for sports like soccer, um, baseball, um, sports that don't have the same representation and finding ways to give more athletes a chance to compete in championships.

Um, I don't think it's quite as cynical as that on the basketball side, but I do think there are some unintended consequences that people like Sankey may not be expecting when you really dig into the numbers. I will see you next Tuesday night when Dougie Hamilton comes back to PNC arena. When the devil's come to town, I look forward to that. Luke, the devil's potential first round playoff matchup. Oh my gosh. We haven't played the devils in what two playoff rounds. No, we haven't played him since in the rod.

Brenda Moore error. That's right. Yeah.

14 years. Be fun. All right. I'll talk to you later. Thank you, sir.

At Luke to cock on Twitter. Why do dry January when you could do sweaty January right now, get up to $500 off Peloton tread packages. Take your training to the next level with accessories like a heart rate band, non slip grip, dumbbells, yoga mat, and more join now. And you'll see why 92% of households that start the year with Peloton are still active a year later, all access membership separate offer ends. January 8th, 2023 excludes tread basics package. See additional terms at one Peloton.com.