Canes win Game 4 and there's more NBA drama

Everybody feel better now? I know I do. Huh? People feel better? I wanted them to win so bad.

Yeah, it's the Adam Gold Show. Hope everybody had a good weekend. I know you had a good Sunday early afternoon. Victoria's here. Thanks for spending some time with us. We got a lot of stuff to do today. Still waiting on a little bit of a surprise.

Might be a surprise for me more than it is for all of you, but that's fine. Sometimes, this is a self-indulgent program. I've always said that. If I can entertain myself, I think it translates. Why not? So, sometimes we do things simply because I am interested.

It's okay. And that might happen today. That's why I place my bets on MMA Things Fridays.

By the way, how much love are you getting this weekend? Did you sweep the card? I did.

Look at that. Three and out, baby. Let's go. I need to start putting real money on these units.

What are we waiting for? See, that's when it goes the other way and you go, why did I do that? Exactly. As soon as I put a dime on it, I'm going to lose them all. That's why I don't bet.

I actually get exactly the same level of enjoyment out of having no real money on any of these as I do if there was. Because you don't want the pain. No.

I don't want the pain the other way. No. There are people that are okay with that. I'm not. No, I am not invested.

So yeah, so my timeline all of a sudden, like, shouts to Victoria. Three and up. Yeah. Awesome. I know. I was excited.

I was excited. And two of them were underdogs, too. It's even better when they're underdogs. Yeah, absolutely. Yep. What you had, one of them was a submission, right? Somebody gives a knockout.

Yeah. Well, both of them, I think, were knockouts. But I know for sure I had Sergei to knock the guy out in the first round. And he did. The second one, basically a knockout.

I mean, yeah, they stopped it. So Bruno Silva won. I saw you throwing shade at the the odds makers.

Why was this guy an underdog? I know. Yeah, it blows me.

It still blows my mind. Like, I have no idea. You just look at him like, what, what are we doing? He has no neck.

Like, if this guy has no neck, you can't submit him. So that's taken off the table. Right? I'm with you. That's, that's great. I'm glad you had a good weekend. I'm glad everybody had a good weekend. You heard, as we started, maybe the reasoning for a lot of people's good weekend. So let's start there. For now, a full playoff year.

I have heard the nonsense, nonsense. Hurricanes can't win away from home. Well, they didn't last year, didn't. But that doesn't mean they couldn't because in 2021, they won twice away from home. They won game six in Nashville to end that series. They won game three against Tampa to make that a 2-1 series. And until Peter Mrazek went on mental walkabout, they were in control of game four in Tampa. They didn't win any of their road games against Boston and the Rangers last year.

But this is how simple and basic the media narrative can be. Hurricanes can't win on the road. How about didn't? Not can't, didn't.

And that's okay. Theoretically, you're, I mean, not really supposed to win on the road. But of course, they only lost once at home.

So why don't we spin it that way? Hurricanes are invincible at home. As it turns out, they were, they lost game seven to the Rangers. So they win games one and two against the Islanders. They were not the better team in game two, but they won. They were the better team in game one.

Okay, good. They go up game three, Islanders with a better team in game three and got the win. Of course, that was a 1-1 game deep into the third period. Could have gone any way. If the Hurricanes win a face-off, kill off that penalty, they might have very well won game three. Didn't, came back and played a really good game four. Kind of got away with the first period where they weren't the better team, but still led 1-0. Huh?

Sometimes you got to make hay, right? When when it's your time, the Islanders didn't do it. Just like the Hurricanes didn't do it in game one on on Friday night when they were the better team. So it's never been a case of the Hurricanes can't do this. But now they have a 3-1 series lead and we'll get into the game itself in a second. 3-1 series lead.

And now they need to close it out. Yes, put their foot on the necks of the Islanders and close it out. We talked about what needed to happen for Carolina to win.

I did this extensively in the Stormwatch. We talked about it last week. The Hurricanes because of who they are now, what they are now. In order for the Hurricanes to be successful in the playoffs, their best offensive players had no choice. They must score.

Through three games, Sebastian Ajo, Martine Nages, Seth Jarvis, Jesperi Kotkaniemi had combined for one goal. Terrible. It's not going to cut it. They were not good. You're not going to rely on Jesper Faust to be your leading goal scorer.

You're just not going to that's not going to happen. I'm purposely leaving Steph Nason out of the that mix even though Nason has been a good goal scorer for them. Nason to me is still depth depth scoring those four.

I mentioned at least the first three of them natures. Aho and Jarvis. They have to be the guys. They have to do the goal scoring among the forward group and no one else. Right.

Those are the top and forwards. One goal combined through three games. What happened in game for Jarvis to a whole one nature's one, huh?

Look what happens. So you needed your stars to be stars. You needed your goaltender to be good.

Huh? Aunty Rotta pretty doggone good. Here's Rod Brindamore on his now number one goaltender. I know you guys love talking about the goalies, but it's just give us a chance. Keep us in the game and that's what he's done.

Just you know all the starts so, you know, get on him. That's for sure. The only game he didn't play well in honestly game two and they won it.

Yeah. Oh, yeah game game three. He played his butt off. He was great.

Yeah, he's fantastic. He would have been the first star had they won the game. It would have been 10-1 if it were anyone else without Ronta in there.

Gosh, he was so good. Nobody zero people had Ronta even matching the other guy Elia Sorokin through four games. And I think that's the least you could say about Ronta. If you wanted to say Ronta's outplayed him. I'm here for it.

I am here for it. But at the very least he's matched the guy at the other end and the other the Elia Sorokin is great. And like last year, there were so many silly narratives. Well, if we are only had Freddy at what point is was Freddy ever going to be better than what Ronta was in the playoffs last year and you're not getting better goaltending from anybody on this roster. Then you got from Ronta through four games. So all we're sitting here wondering is how long is he not how long can he continue to play? Well, how long can he stay healthy?

Yeah, that is the only thing we are trying to figure out here. How long when does he break? There were a couple Falls during yesterday's game that I was like, oh no, no too close.

I'm I'm with you. What when what what in the first period when Zach Parise was dumped over him by Jalen Chatfield by the way a break for Carolina. You got a they got a call that probably is not golden. Not probably it's not golden interference because Chatfield knocked him into in Toronto Parise was in the crease on his own, but that's not a penalty.

What Chatfield did to Parise cause the goaltender interference got the penalty and then that got the next penalty, which will we'll talk about later. But so you need your stars to score. You need your goaltending to be good.

Don't lose special teams. Hurricanes are now 5 for 19 on the power play in the playoffs. Not that the power plays good now because it's not. But they have five power play goals. Sometimes you score goals because you have an extra guy. Yeah, sometimes sometimes it works. Sometimes you score goals because the other team knocked it in their own it.

Yeah, that happened that happened. It's one of the five power play goals, but they're 5 for 19 on the power play. The Islanders are one for 12.

They've won special teams to this point. By the way, the series is not over. And how about an unlikely hero yesterday? Mackenzie McEachern. Here's Rod. Brenda Moore on if he thought that this is a guy that could help.

Well, because I watched, you know, last few games of their season and because again, I just never knew we were short-handed. So my what if we need a guy and he just jumped off the page. So that's why I say you're in the call-up number one, but then you talk to their coach down there and I talked to Brock this morning and he's like, it's a no-brainer.

This guy will help you. So it kind of it's nice when the guy who knows him the best is like and I know he's gonna endorse his player, but he also knows we need, you know, we need help and so it was easy decision. So he draws in Derek Step on comes out of the lineup. We don't know about the status of Jack Drury for tomorrow.

Rod, Brenda Moore and company. There's a media session going on right now over at PNC Arena. So I'm sure we'll get some news as to whether or not Jack is going to play tomorrow. But either way, Mackenzie McEachern isn't coming out of the lineup.

You don't go. You don't score a goal and have an assist and the assist was better than the goal. You don't you don't get get two points in your first playoff game and with a new team and not his first playoff game. He was in the playoffs with st. Louis and then come out of the lineup. That doesn't happen.

Not here. So he's going to play tomorrow. The only question is does he play with Sebastian Ajo and Seth Jarvis again? Do I have a vote? Yes, right?

Yes, he does because he didn't look out of place. So yeah, let's do it again. And by the way, Mackenzie McEachern will join us in two hours. So if you're interested in hearing from the new guy and he did a press conference.

He was part of the postgame yesterday afternoon. But still real quick about history because I know Mike Metaskalko talked about it on balance. NHL game seven game series history 3-1 series lead 91% of the time. The team who leads 3-1 wins. I like it 91% of the time if you're if game five if try to how do you phrase this?

If you win game for and you're lying, whatever 91% of time, but that's all you really need to we don't have to boil it down any further. You know what? That means hopefully it canes win. Honestly, it means nothing. Yeah.

Yeah that too. I it baffles me why we keep leaning on these things. It means nothing. Here's if you flip a coin, what are your chances of it being heads 50 50 50 50 right 50% chance of it being heads. It could be heads a million times in a row.

It could history doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. The Hurricanes have never blown a 3-1 series lead ever every time they let a series 3-1.

They've closed it out. I haven't gone back and looked how many times that is. It's not a lot.

And it doesn't matter. Yeah game 5 is its own thing. I think the Hurricanes will treat it like it's a game 7. I think they will treat it like they have to win it. They should for two reasons one.

Why mess around? Yeah, and I'm not saying the Islanders are going to be easy. I think game 5 will be hard. Oh, yeah, it'll be harder than game for probably die.

Yeah, the Islanders. You already know what they are right back against the wall. It's going to be more of that.

So the last thing you want to do is expose yourself to another game. You've already lost two players potentially in four games. I was going to say they keep getting dirtier and dirtier each game. So but you notice that after because Matt Martin was on his BS again, you notice that after nature scored the power play goal to open the second period all the shenanigans stopped by the Islanders because they were down to nothing and they couldn't afford more power plays couldn't afford it couldn't give power plays away couldn't give opportunities for Carolina to build on the lead away. And once that stopped we saw the reason why the Islanders have been doing it because the Islanders can't skate with Carolina cannot skate with Carolina. So with all of their offensive shortcomings with all of their roster attrition the way Carolina plays is a problem for the Islanders unless the Islanders are going to literally try to break them. Yeah, and once that stopped you saw what happened for the second and third period Carolina was clearly the better team and they said out of the box and they did until very late and they killed that power play true, right but but they killed that power play and look Mackenzie McEachern scored a goal set Jarvis to so bad and I joked like you needed your stars to play and score. Yeah, and McEachern came through with with a goal and an assist.

So again close it out tomorrow. All right, let's talk a little NBA playoffs. We're going to talk to Shane Willis by the way at the bottom of the hour. So so much has been made about Dylan Brooks versus LeBron James and all of that and Dylan Brooks caught LeBron James old and LeBron's not going to get drawn and he's not going to beef down with Dylan Brooks. It almost looks like LeBron kind of thinks Dylan Brooks is adorable. That's the way it's looked to me like LeBron is like like this little puppy is cute. It's nice.

Isn't he isn't isn't this sweet? Anyway, Dylan Brooks got ejected for could have been intentional looked like he he went right to the crowns. It went right to LeBron King James crowns did and well, he got ejected from game three, but is not going to be suspended for game for and that game for is tonight. Here's Jalen Rose from ESPN.

I'm not surprised. He isn't suspended. I'm happy that they didn't take it a step further because he did get ejected and that was punishment enough for me during the game. The thing that he has to do is continue to own who he is, but don't go too far with it. And what happens is when your team plays well and you win and you do the interviews after the game you call LeBron old.

You got to be the same guy and stand on 10 toes and own it when your team loses and when you get ejected. Well, there you go. But there is a place for Dylan Brooks and players like him in the NBA as long as you are a competent player and I think Dylan Brooks has ability. So there's a route. There's room for him. There's room for an agitator in the NBA like Patrick. Beverly takes it a little too far away from the court, but there's room for Patrick. Beverly's in the game. They first of all, they add some spice and flavor to what we're watching right there.

They are it is entertainment, right? So as long as you can play a little bit, I got no problem with Dylan Brooks. You don't be dirty and I don't think I personally don't think it was entitled that he tried to whack LeBron in the in the area, but maybe maybe did maybe he was just trying to be subtle about it, but it got him ejected anyway, so it didn't work if he was trying to be subtle about it, but I still think the Lakers are going to win this series. I said at the beginning of the series that I thought the Warriors would beat the Grizzlies or rather the Kings. It's the Lakers and the Grizzlies Warriors and the Kings and Draymond Green got suspended from game 3 and that was your window Sacramento. That was your would don't blow that and they lost game 3 and then Draymond came back and off the bench was very effective played 30 minutes. So it's not like he wasn't really a starter and they survived Steph Curry calling a timeout. He didn't have and the Warriors got even in the series now both of the games in Golden State were tight and I'm guessing that game 5 will be tight in Sacramento.

Here's Green on coming off the bench. No, when I watch basketball, I'm studying and I studied their game and I saw what was working, you know, and we won, you know, so I'm a firm believer and if something isn't broke you don't fix it and our offense was rolling. We play good defensively really good defensively. So I didn't want to come back in just shake things up because I'm back like that's not right Jordan went out there.

He played well, we play well, he earned it and you know, our team earned that. Warriors are dangerous. I don't know how great they are. But like I said before, I think they win this series in seven in Sacramento in part because the Kings don't have a ton of experience. Most experience they've got is Harrison Barnes former warrior. They do have the Warriors former top assistant to Steve Kerr in Mike Brown and he talks about the lack of experience that our guys came out with a purpose tonight and gave us a chance to win, you know, and that's all you can ask for come playoff time, but we made some timely mistakes, especially in the fourth quarter. We gapped this is where our playoff and experience comes into play because you can't you can't rest out there or you can't think that you can play something a certain way and the champions aren't going to make you pay the price.

But one time we got first Stephanie hit a three just huge another time. He we gap verse clay and he hit a three which is huge and you know, you might think I was just one possession. Well those one built those six points right there not doing what we're supposed to do again, you know that shows our playoff and experience because you have to take pride in playing a certain way for 48 minutes and it ain't gonna be easy.

Yeah, it's not Barnes knows but the other guys don't the other guys really don't know what it's about and that's okay. They had a really good year. I think most of us really thought that if the Warriors were fully healthy if the Lakers were well Lakers had a bad roster at the beginning of the season. They were then they have rarely been fully healthy too, but their roster is drastically different today than it was two months ago three months ago. So but those are two of the top four teams in the Western Conference probably went healthy.

So nobody's that surprised that they are where they are. All right, a couple of things about the the East. Well, we'll do we'll get more to the east later.

I want to get a little football in here before we hit our first break and Shane Willis is coming up at the bottom of the hour. So like we're into mock draft 284.0 now. Yes, right there's thousands and thousands and thousands of mock draft.

We are now to the point where it's pretty much across the board. There are still some outliers, but it's pretty much across the board that it's going to be Bryce Young to Carolina and there was an article on in the athletic today by Bruce Feldman. It's a great college football writer, but he obviously the draft is kind of a hybrid topic at some College some Pro and Feldman, you know talk to a lot of NFL people and they they believe that this psychological test the s2 test which is has replaced the Wonderlic really did kind of highlight just how advanced Bryce Young was and then it made a made the decision for a lot of NFL evaluators. Not that there's only one team that has a chance at Bryce Young, right?

That's the Panthers. Yep, I Houston pick second if the Panthers somehow misspell his name and it says CJ Stroud. Yeah, then the pit then the Texans can take Bryce Young, but it the the s2 test really seemed to matter.

But what's interesting is that there really is starting to be no consensus now about number two. So to the point where the Texans might not even take a quarter. They need one they do but they might not even take a quarterback number two. Now, I think they will I think they definitely will if it's Bryce Young and they might take CJ Stroud, but I've seen in the last two days. I have seen a mock draft that has will Levis number two. Wow, and Anthony Richardson number two, which if I were Houston and I was going to take quarterback. That's who I take.

Here's Dan Orlovsky of ESPN. Let's touch on Houston real quick Houston years ago. You took Mario Williams at number one over Reggie Bush. Probably not the right decision. decision, although Mario had a good career not the right one the best defensive end of football is Miles Garrett. They had to pay a quarterback 230 million dollars guaranteed to make sure that they got their guy your franchise doesn't change because you take a defensive end early no matter how good they are. I take Anthony Richardson of Florida because one the physical talent is so good. He becomes top five in the NFL at any position if he matches what he should be. Whoa, top five in the NFL at any position again.

This was one of my favorite parts of last week was the conversation we had in the roundtable. If if you pick you're picking high in the draft, you're not picking high in the draft to pick safe. Yeah, just not you are picking high in the draft to hit the home run.

Is there a risk? Is there a risk there's a risk with safe to there is so you take the guy who can give you the best if again Bryce Young to me is an elite prospect and every way except the staring at what he looks like in every way. Anthony Richardson is kind of the opposite you look at him and you see all the measurables and all of the physical abilities and you go holy cow. If we could just teach that guy. Yeah, how to play this position properly. He could be a freak. That's why I would take him over CJ strap. Make sense. That's my fault.