Carolina Hurricanes take on the Washington Capitals in the outdoor game stadium series game. Carolina should have had this in 2021, did not because pandemic and then in 22 decided to push it out of here because we're at shore and now they're going to be about almost 60,000 people at Carter-Finley Stadium watching a hockey game. Luke DeCock will be there. I will be there and frankly, 25 years ago, I would have never guessed that we would have anything like this. First, as a man who I heard was doing triple axles and Hamil Camels on the ice last night, how does the ice feel, Luke? Slippery. Dennis is a much better skater than I am.
Yeah, I think 99.99 the fan would beat the NNO because we each have one capable player and if I'm the NNO's nominee, it's going to be ugly. I'm glad I know video exists. I know where it is. I can destroy it if needed, but it was awesome being out there. You know, I said all along really from the first day they started putting the rink in.
This is all so much cooler than I ever imagined and as you alluded to earlier, you know, you go back to 2003. I was having this conversation yesterday with someone who used to work for the hurricanes back then. We were joking and I wrote this, we joked about this. Like they played the first heritage classic in Edmonton and everyone's like, Oh my God, outdoor games. And we, I remember we were joking like, Hey, Carter Finley, let's do it. There was not a hint of seriousness in that.
It would never happen, not in a million years. Um, but as I wrote it only took 20 and you know, it says a lot about this market. It says a lot about the hurricane says a lot about how things have changed since 2018 because of Tom Duncan and Rod Grindel Moore and, and, and others. Uh, it says a lot about the way this market embraces big events, whether it's the NCAA tournament someday, hopefully a women's regional or women's final four PNC, uh, whether it's the all star game, the drafts, obviously the playoffs.
Um, you know, this is an area that gets behind that kind of thing. If Carter Finley were wide enough to host like a, you know, a big time club soccer exhibition, uh, we'd get behind that too, because we did that kind of stuff. Um, but, uh, the fact that it isn't wide enough to host a big time soccer also makes it perfect for this. The fans are so close to the rink. Um, it's amazing being out there in the stadium, obviously on the ice. Uh, it's, it's going to be wild. Looks like the weather is going to be a lot better than today. And as the joke I've been making, which I really didn't think was that funny. Maybe it isn't, but people seem to laugh. It just feels like traditional North Carolina, outdoor hockey weather.
It absolutely does. Luke DeCock is joining us from the NNO at Luke DeCock on Twitter. Five years ago, five years and a month ago, uh, Tom Dundon was introduced as the owner of the hurricanes. And at the introductory press conference, I remember this to a T I hope I'm not imagining it.
Cause I do feel like it definitely happened. And he said, sitting next to Gary Bettman, I want one of those outdoor games and Bettman kind of chuckled. It was, it was sort of an uneasy.
Yeah. Like pump the breaks, dude, kind of a chuckle because the most recent full season Carolina was dead last in the NHL in attendance. It was about 11 for a night.
And you and I were at almost all of those games know that that was maybe an artist's rendition, uh, renditioning of 11 for many times it was well below that. And for where, for them to be where they are today, they are eighth in the NHL in attendance and they'd be higher. If the building were bigger, they've gotten so many sellouts.
This year, they've got one crowd this year, all year long under 18,000, as it turns out, it was the capitals on Halloween night. Um, absolutely. But that's where this franchise is. It's not all winning because, you know, they started to grow immediately after Tom Dundon. Um, what do you, what do you attribute it to the most winning? I, it's not all winning.
The marketing's been good. Uh, you know, obviously spending to the cap, send the message that wasn't being sent, uh, during the Carmanos regime, you know, and let's not forget, this was a two way street. There were fans who tuned out.
That's fine. The team was terrible. It was uninteresting to watch a lot of the time at the same time, the hurricanes were, as I wrote today, we're selling stew meat and calling it filet mignon. They were insulting the intelligence of the fan base. And I've told every, I told at that time, anyone who would listen that the fan base was not dead.
It was dormant. And if you gave these people something worth coming out to see win or lose, but show some effort, show some hustle, uh, show some skill, put some talent out there. Don't tell us that Jeff Skinner is the next big star. We can all see him late, you know, lollygagging back on defense. Give us guys like the bastion. I hope, uh, give us guys like Jacob slave and give us a coach like rod Brenda Mark, who will build an identity, give us a captain like Justin Williams, who will be, you know, shares a brain with Brenda Moore and could implement that in the room and knows what it takes to win.
Not just me until it knows what it takes to win here and what matters here once. And that's all happened. It's all, it's all happened on every front.
Um, as well as been smooth. Um, but you know, now it kind of feels like there's a direct connection from 2006 and 2009 and even 2011. Cause that all star game was a pretty seminal moment to now when four or five years ago, it felt like that stuff was another generation. We've kind of glossed over those eight or nine years when things were really, really dismal, but you know, the full 10 year playoff job. And honestly, it reminds, it reminds me a lot of what happened last night. Cam ward, he even said it, there were some great times and some not so great.
The same people who cheered wildly when he talked about calling Raleigh home, a lot of those people were booing him. And what happens is with time by honoring cam ward for the great things that he did do, you buff off some of the rough edges on that. You feel better about things that the bad times start to get a little hazy. If you focus on the good and what cam ward absolutely deserved to be the first player into that hall of fame, other than the retired numbers. And, and, you know, we can argue about whether or not cam ward rises to the level of a retired Jersey.
I don't see him at the same level of those guys as two sure-fire hall of famers and a guy who's, who's right out, you know, right on the edge, not a hall of Famer, but right, right there, one of the best defenseman of his generation, but cam ward did amazing things for this franchise and he deserved to be honored, deserved to be honored last night. And we can kind of say, Hey, 2006, 2009, we watched this kid grow up and he was classy and did it with dignity and humility and all that. We can say the same thing about the history of the hurricanes. Now in everybody's mind, we can jump straight from 2009 to 2019 and the feel great about it and the stadium series and go to the conference finals and all the things that have happened under Ron Brindemore the last couple of years, it buffs off all those rough edges. And now you've got an owner who's committed. You've got players who are committed. You've got a team with an identity and a personality that it lives up to and that it adheres to. And there's none of this phony crap that we use that we heard for years about, you know, Oh, it's overtime losses and one goal games, or, you know, a Martinette coach who didn't trust himself enough to have a real captain and had co-captains instead. I don't blame Jordan Stoller, Justin's boss, but that they were putting in an impossible position. And you can see what Jordan's all done as a solo captain. That was a, that was a coaching and general manager problem.
Yes. You get Ron Francis out of here. You start making an actual hockey trade for the first time. Jim Rutherford has some money.
You get a real coach in here who gets this market, the city, this franchise, you get a real captain or two in here who can communicate at that level. And look, look, what's happened to Sebastian. Oh, look, what's happened to Marty nation. That's not just Marty.
Although he deserves a ton of the credit. That's him being swept along in a culture that he wasn't keeping up with and he knew it. And he knew he had to change where he wasn't going to fit in.
And he wasn't going to be here. That's culture and that's outdoor game. It fits into that too. The way that people bought the league was blown away at how quickly tickets sold. They were worried about ticket sales.
I know here's the thing people understand this market. We, we, I don't know how long that took, but we got to the real answer. And the real answer is rod Brenda Moore. Uh, because all of that culture is rod Brenda Moore and you saw it from the ovations last night. Um, you know, Francis got a great ovation. Wesley got a great ovation.
Cam ward got a great ovation, uh, rod Brenda Moore. I think everybody just kind of felt that it's, it's the way we look at him and, and he's got his fingerprints on everything. Uh, every conversation I have had about the current state of this team and the future of this team starts with the head coach. It is remarkable, um, what he has been able to do, given the tools, uh, presented to him by the owner.
I'm not in any way, uh, overlooking what Tom Dundon's philosophy is put money into the team. And he has given rod Brenda Moore, those, uh, those tools real quick, because something else is going to be at PNC arena on Sunday. And I don't want to forget that it happens, uh, that it's going to happen and it matters a lot. Uh, so in our last minute or so here, Luke to cock of the news and observer, uh, who needs that one more? You know, it's funny. It's funny.
Eventually that now I'll be quicker. Um, I I've been thinking a lot about this and I'm working on a column right now, but I honestly think state needs it more in here in the wild, not because of the NCAA tournament, Carolina needs it more for that. Analytically, anecdotally, uh, and any kind of our, uh, objective measurement NC state is a better team than UNC this year.
They both have player of the year candidate. NC state's got a better resume. They got better efficiency numbers, all that, but it's really hard to sit here and say this when they can't beat Carolina. And so I think this is a big one for NC state. If they really want to say that they're a better team in Carolina and they may play them again in Greensboro, you, you, that, that higher seed is going to feel really hollow.
If you lose both games in the seasons here. So I think it's bigger for NC state in the big picture, not the NCAA tournament picture, the big picture. I think there's a little bit of NCAA tournament ramifications there for state. State is, uh, and I think risking putting themselves in a little bit of jeopardy, but certainly risking crushing their ability to get into, to be in a white Jersey to, uh, to start the NCAA tournament or whatever the home jerseys are now.
I have no idea what teams wear home or road anymore, um, based on all sorts of sports changing it up. But, um, yeah, I do think that at this point, state, the state needs to prove it to themselves too, uh, just about how good they are. And this would be a good litmus test for that. Yeah. Carolina still has not proven anything away from home.
Uh, they have a couple of nice home wins, but they have not proven anything away from home. Uh, all right. I will see you out there.
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Try the superior strength of hefty large black bags. Well, I wouldn't say I'm following my own advice and getting out there right when the lot's open. I probably will give it an hour or two, but I do. I do want to say, you know, I was at the YouTube concert with probably a lot of people who are listening. I got there early. I didn't realize how bad the traffic was until we, we parked right in front of PNC, right on the, on the, the, you know, the road that goes out there.
And we hopped into the car, pulled out, got on the highway and all of a sudden there's all these cars abandoned on the side of white Avenue. Get there early. I, you know, like I'm not going to go to the fan fest and drink a bunch of the NHL official hard sell for cause I'm working. But if I were going as a fan, I would be there between two and three and I'll get a good spot and I would have a good time. And I would watch the team show up and I would tailgate and do all the things that we like to do.
And I would not mess around with showing up at six o'clock for an eight o'clock game. No question about it. I'll see you out there bright and early. All right, Luke, take care. Take care. You got it.
Luke to cog of the news and observer here. This is the smell of the leftover tuna fish sandwich you left in your lunchbox over the weekend in a wimpy trash bag. And this is the smell of that same sandwich in a hefty ultra strong trash bag. Smell the difference. Hefty ultra strong has arm and hammer with continuous odor control. So no matter what's inside your trash, you can stay one step ahead of stinky. And for bigger jobs, try the superior strength of hefty large black bags.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-02-19 12:25:44 / 2023-02-19 12:32:04 / 6