One of the most versatile but also one of the best play-by-play voices in all of sports is in town because tomorrow night at 8 o'clock or a 20 faceoff, the stadium series game between the Hurricanes and the Capitals at Carter-Finley Stadium will be on ABC and Sean McDonough will be on the mic and he joins us on the Adam Gold Show.
Versatility can be a curse but not for you, sir. How are you? I'm doing fine, Adam.
How are you doing today? I'm dry. We were supposed to be outside. It was raining sideways when we got out there this morning and they sent us back inside.
I guess they thought we would melt. You have a different vantage point for this. Normally you're up in the fifth floor because I've seen you at PNC Arena already this year. We're up in the fifth floor.
We overlooked the ice. We're going to be just right down there, rick level. Yeah, I got a picture last night from some of our ops people who are out the stadium setting up the booth. I think my vantage point is going to be sort of at the top of the lowest level of seats kind of underneath the overhead. I think we'll be closer than usual. Most of these arenas, as you just said, were kind of dangling from the ceiling and trying to find a puck that isn't very big.
I really don't care where it is. I'm just excited to be there. I think it's going to be an amazing spectacle as these outdoor games almost always are. When you add in the rabid fans that you have here, I think in our experience here last year, particularly in the playoffs, this is the liveliest NHL arena that I've been in. I expect it will be a similarly raucous atmosphere there tomorrow night. So yes, I'm sure you're familiar with the tailgating culture of Raleigh, North Carolina, really the entire state with the three colleges that do such a great job in football and even basketball game days. But that has bled over into Hurricane's hockey and it's been the case here for more than 20 years.
Yeah, we saw that last year. As a matter of fact, I know a lot of those playoff games we did in particular, we would be rolling in shots of the people who are out there tailgating hours before the game. So it really is in that way kind of a football atmosphere, which I guess makes it appropriate to be playing in a football stadium tomorrow night.
John McDonough is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. These types of events, I mean, they can't change how you do your job, but it obviously changes perspective. What is different for you for something like this than just chains caps Saturday night in Raleigh? Well, I think a big part of it is, you know, usually when you do a game, the atmosphere is a part of it and the playoffs, it's even more than usual part of it, particularly in a place like here, as we just said, or Madison Square Garden, wherever there are a lot of great venues around the league where the building really rocks. But I think these outdoor games, you just kind of try to capture the look and feel of it, what it's like to be there, what it's like for the spectators, what the atmosphere is like. I thought it was really cool being a Bostonian earlier this year when the Bruins hosted the Penguins in Fenway Park. And I thought Turner did a great job of kind of captivating the uniqueness of that and the position of the ice relative to the Green Monster and that sort of thing. So we will definitely spend a lot more time tomorrow talking about, you know, the physical setup of the ice relative to the stands and just trying to capture all the great images of the people having a great time.
What does Sean McDonough is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show? What does a game like this in a market like Raleigh say about the development of it? Well, yeah, I think this has become a great hockey market, you know, with the success of the team in the 25 years that they've been here. You know, as you know, when they first moved here from Hartford, I think it was a question to a lot of people, you know, is this going to work here or not?
And, you know, not only is it working, it's thriving for a lot of reasons. And I think one of them is that they have one of the best teams in the NHL and have been pretty good for the most part for a long time. Now, there was a long stretch there before Rod became the head coach where they didn't make the playoffs. But, you know, there's history back to the early days, a good history when they first got here to Raleigh.
And obviously, the current track record is pretty good. You know, I think if it weren't for the season that Boston Bruins have been having, you know, the Canes would be the story of the league. And for the record setting pace that Boston is on, that Carolina is right there pushing them as hard as they are for the best record in the league kind of says a lot about the kind of season that the Canes are having. Yeah, I do think that Boston is the best team, but I'm not sure that in the two games that these two teams have played against each other this year, Carolina might have been the better team even in both occasions.
I know Boston won the first one in overtime, but the one here in circumstances, it was their third game in four nights. And Carolina was, I thought, significantly better. What is your experience dealing with the head coach? I think he's great.
Yeah, I just like he's a straightforward guy. Yeah, I think he's a tremendous coach. Obviously, he was an outstanding player, you know, and I think he should be in the Hall of Fame.
I know he's just in this new Canes Hall of Fame. They did a nice job inducting Cam Ward into last night. But yeah, I think if he's not the best coach in the league, he's certainly among the very best. And I just like everything about him. I think he really cares about every aspect of the organization and really cares about the players. And I think his coaching is a big part of the success that they've had. You know, I read an article the other day that Tom Dutton was talking about, you know, he's the most important person in the history of the Carolina Hurricanes. And I don't think there's any argument about that.
He's great. No, he is. There's there's no doubt that like there should be like a Rocky style statue.
In fact, if we took Rocky statue and just put Rod's face on it, we could do that right outside the NC Arena right in this right in this whole development. But you're right. He is that important. And he touches and he's a player. He was an assistant coach. He was off the ice for a while, but he does everything. And he's to me, he's the culture of this entire organization you do.
Sean McDonough is with us here in the Adam Gold Show. You do so many different events. This I'm not asking you to tell us about like that. Hockey is your favorite.
What is your favorite event to do at this point in your career? Well, you know, it's a question I get asked a lot and I don't ever have a good answer. So I apologize.
I'm probably not going to have a good answer for you either. What I really do like the most about my job, and it's been the case for many, many years at ESPN and CBS is the variety. I grew up a rabid all around sports fan. My dad was a sports writer for the Boston Globe.
I used to follow him around and I grew up loving all the sports. And when I knew this is what I want to do, I never thought I want to be a baseball announcer. I want to be a hockey announcer.
I want to do everything if I could. And I feel very blessed that I've had the chance to do 11 different sports on national TV. So if you ask me now, I'd probably say hockey.
Well, it's going on. We're going to be having the chance to do an event like tomorrow. If you ask me during college football season with that great color and pageantry and the importance of every game week to week, that's probably would be my answer.
What I really enjoy the most is the variety of it. And you know, you hope in your career that you get a chance to do events like this. I mean, this is really special.
What is it? The 37th outdoor game. So, you know, there still haven't been that many relative to the 100 plus year history of the National Hockey League. And to have it be the first one here, you know, it's it's special. It's not just another Saturday game on ABC.
You know, we have an army of people here who have been working very hard on it for a long time and are really excited to bring it to the rest of the country. I know you're a golfer, by the way, Tiger Woods is two under almost completing his second round at Riviera. I think you're good at golf too. Well, I appreciate that. I'm probably better at announcing golf.
I'm probably not that good at that, but I'm certainly a better announcer than I am a player. But we had a chance to go play Old Chatham here during the playoffs last year. Very nice. What a nice place that is. That was a real treat.
We don't get many off days during the playoffs, but the fact that we had one here last year and had a chance to go out there and play was really a treat. Yeah, like a lot of people, I have been watching this golf the last couple of days very closely. It'd be great to see Tiger be able to physically perform. I don't think he'll ever be what he was before.
That would be impossible anyway. Probably not even close to it, but just to be able to see him compete, be in the hunt, have a chance to maybe win one of these things every now and then. That would be a huge win given everything that he's been through, the fact that he very nearly lost his leg in that car accident. I think just playing.
Honestly, Tiger playing to me is a victory. So if he's making cut, that's it. I thought there was a really good chance that would never happen again. Obviously, as we all know, it wasn't just a car accident. The back problems that he's had, knee problems, and a lot of other stuff. So yeah, even that he's back out there playing says a lot, I think, about his will to compete.
I think that's part of what made him one of the greats of all time, if not the greatest, is his incredible competitiveness and fire and desire to win. Well, welcome to town again. I know you've already been here before, and we'll hope to see you a lot during the playoffs, and I hope it's a long run.
I think there's a good chance of that. There's a really good team here, and selfishly, I hope we are here because we love coming here. It's a great organization. As I said, the atmosphere in that building is unlike... I think it's the liveliest arena, and I haven't been to every one of them since I got back into the NHL. Last year, you'd walk out of here after these playoff games and your ears would be ringing like you'd been in a Las Vegas nightclub.
Not that I go to those. So yeah, I hope we're back. I certainly think that we will be, and it wouldn't surprise me if we're here a lot. I hope you are. Sean McDonough, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Have a good time tomorrow night. Back to Adam. Appreciate it. Should be a lot of fun. You got it. Take care. Sean McDonough.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-02-19 12:02:53 / 2023-02-19 12:07:48 / 5
