How many periods, out of 7, does Luke feel they win?

We were all at PNC Arena very late last night and that's okay. This is something we will tell our kids.

Something maybe our kids will tell, I don't know, their grandparents. There were a lot of kids like 10-ish years old in the in the crowd last night still awake in the sixth inning. I kept looking down going, look at the time. Look at the time. I mean, normally when I, the game started seven o'clock, I usually trudge out of the arena to get to my car after doing the postgame show and then the podcast and all of the things that go along with it. Usually walk out of there about 1130.

Yeah, right. Cookout is still open. Yes, Cookout was not open. It was not when I left last night. That's how you know it was late. I don't know. I don't think Luke Ticock could have gone past the Cookout that was open.

He joins us every Friday. Was there an available Cookout to you? There's no all-night diners. Gosh, I was hungry when the game was over. What's up? Got to be honest. I actually gave it a thought driving past the Waffle House on the way to my house. I looked, I looked in and the lights were on and I thought if there was ever, but, uh, but you know, that just meant I was going to get to bed later.

And, you know, we all, we all need our rest. I think there were probably 12,000 people left in the building at the end. And then, and then in six months, 120,000 people will say they were there. Right. But, uh, yeah, no, they, they weren't all headed to Cookout. That's for sure. Uh, the way I think about this game, and maybe this is just self-medication, I don't know. I think Carolina won one period. They played seven full periods. Carolina was the better team in one of them.

And yet it took seven periods to decide it. I can, I can spin that into being a positive. Well, I mean, I think, you know, the, the, the big positive for me, if you're looking for positive is the hurricane's power play against the Panthers penalty kill was supposed to be a huge advantage for them. And it was, um, you know, the flip side to that obviously is you win the special teams battle. Um, I mean, as good as Bobrowski was, I think Anderson actually had to make harder saves in the overtime. Oh yeah.

He was busier. Yeah. I think you can say the goaltending battle, you know, you fought that to withdraw. Uh, you've got to score an even strength.

I mean, you just, you just can't, can't win that way. And it's interesting that, you know, the hurricane tied up in the third on an early power play goal. There's no penalties called the rest of the period and they played their best period because they can roll four lines and get going. So there's a bit of a paradox here that the hurricanes have to reckon with. They play their best hockey when few penalties are called and they can get all four lines going and build momentum. We saw that in the Islander series, especially, but their biggest advantage against the Panthers is going to be on the power play.

And that's, I think that's not a philosophical dilemma as much as it's an identity dilemma. The thing that you do best is not necessarily what's going to win you the series, uh, is, which is going to be, you know, grinding teams down at five on five, the way they did in the third, the flip side to that, to spin it again forward is if they score a goal in the third, we're not having this conversation right now. And they certainly have their chances and Bob Rovski was terrific. So, uh, you know, there's, there's a lot going on there and they're going to have to score it even strength to win the series.

They know that we all know that, uh, the fact that they didn't, and we're still in a game for a hundred and whatever minutes, you know, certainly is, is, is, is a positive if you're looking for one. Um, and, and the fact that look in the national series in 2021, it was on the road. So that's a little different, but they played back-to-back double overtime games. UC sorrows made 50 saves in each.

They lost both. And they ended up winning that series in six games in overtime. So, you know, there is a lot of hockey left. It's, it's different.

Adam, the no two, when you and I were both there, it's a right wing said lost game three and no two. There's a lot of 40 year olds on that team are going to wake up feeling 40 years old. This is different. Both of these teams are younger. The Panthers don't have 22 hall of famers on the ice. Like the readily did no two. Uh, so it's not totally comparable in that way. Um, that, that game decided the series.

I don't know that this one does, but the hurricanes are going to have to work hard to make sure that's the case. Yeah. We just talked to Brett Heddigan a little bit ago about, and he, he went through all, we went through all the hall of favors that were on that team.

It was absolutely remarkable. Luke, the cock is joining us. All right. So in my opinion, I put this in the podcast.

I have not yet talked about it. I would start on Toronto in game two on home ice. Freddie made 57 saves the workload, especially in the overtimes was not overwhelming, but I mean, heavy, less, less turnaround before tomorrow. I know they won't skate today, but I would go Ronta and go back to Freddie on the road if I had to. Yeah.

And there's, there's no mystery of this. Robert was open about that just now when we spoke with him, he's considering it. And he, as he said, you have to, you know, Anderson was out there the whole game and, you know, has, has dealt with some injury issues during this post season. So I would actually, at this point, I think be surprised if Ronta doesn't play his only loss at home this year is that sort of hard lock, hard luck game five loss to the Islanders. He should be rested and ready and healthy and, and fit. And he's a guy who excels at sort of coming in cold and playing well.

So I think that makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't have said that if it were a double overtime game, but you know, under the circumstances and, and maybe, you know, that can be an advantage for the hurricane. They've got a guy they can go to here. They don't have to put a 34 year old goalie out there after playing four overtimes and hope he can steal them another game. And I think, I think in the end, that's sort of the big picture for the hurricanes here. They knew, but Rob, he was going to steal a game at some point in the series. He's playing too well, not too. And you hope the six day break after the leaf series cools them off, but it didn't. Um, so you hope that that third period was the game he was going to steal.

And now you can, you know, get down to his toes and, and, and, you know, score some five on five goals and get that out of the way. Um, he was going to win a game in the series. The hurricanes have to make sure that that was the game, but they have on Toronto, they can go to the Panthers are not going to go to Alex line.

Someone said, just tweeted at me. Well, the Panthers are going to, aren't going to take out Bob Roski. And I wanted to reply with the Steph Curry tweet. Like there's always somebody on Twitter arguing something like Steph Curry can't. I was told Steph Curry can't shoot like, yeah, the Panthers are not pulling Bob Ross. No, uh, that's that, but it's, that's a discussion they can't have. It's a discussion the hurricanes can't have.

Yeah. It's, it's one of the, and rod likes, I mean, this is what they've done all year. They have rolled two gold tenders all year. Freddie is clearly the number one when all things are equal, but he didn't play seven straight games at any point during the regular season. He has started every game since the start of the devil series. Uh, I fully expect actually since the end of the alley, he started game six of the islanders series. So he started now, uh, what, seven games in a row. He's not going to start an eighth.

I assume that we will see Ronta. Um, Carolina really played their game just in the third. Um, their game should expose Florida's decor. That's where I mean, to me, even though they, they weren't necessarily bad for those other periods, I thought they played the game that Florida would rather play. I thought Carolina played it. Okay. But they didn't get a chance really other than the third period to make Mark stall, turn around, turn his back to make rod go good as turn his back to the ice and take advantage of the fact that they've only got three top flight, top four defensemen.

Yeah. And, and, and, you know, rod, Brendan Moore doesn't like necessarily to play the matchup game at time. He wants to roll his lines, rolls pairings. I think he's got to look at doing more of that in game two. There was a lot of Jack Drury and the fourth line out against rack to do this.

And we know this because due to seem to make it a point to pound jury space every chance he got. I mean, poor Jack Drury has just taken an absolute beating in this post these, some of that is going to be him learning to protect himself. Some of that, it seems targeting the young kid, but you know, I think he's got to make more of a concerted effort to get a ho and the Kokie Emmy line, which was good, especially in the third period, get those guys out against Goudes, get them out against Mark stall. And, and, you know, use instead of trying to go with his fourth line against Eric stall and his third pairing against Goudes or, or their second bearing, you know, try to find opportunities, especially on like offensive zone face-offs or, or, you know, situations where you're going to be breaking the puck out and coming up the ice with speed, find ways to get that, get those matches.

That's something that's in his nature and he won't be able to do it when the series moves to Florida. But I think in game two, they got to do a better job of finding those opportunities and maximizing them coaches and GMs and owners love to tell you, Oh, match-ups don't matter that much. They matter only a couple of times over the course of a hundred game season, blah, blah, blah. But those are the kinds of games where match-ups do matter and, and getting the right match-up matters and all of that. So, you know, I think they have to make a concerted effort to take advantage of those match-ups when they can.

All right. Let me, let me just move to a different topic real quick for you, since the only other thing worth talking about this whole week has been the pending demise. And I say this facetiously of the ACC coming out of Amelia Island. What are your thoughts on where we are as a league after all the bloviating from, we'll just say the Florida States of the world, cause that's been the most public. The single stupidest off-season topic of conversation we've ever had in the ACC. Like let's say Florida state finds a way out. Where are they going to go?

Right. Nobody wants them. The SEC is not looking to expand. The big 10's not looking to expand. Nobody's team. Nobody wants to negotiate a TV deal in this market.

Nobody wants to go to market. That's what we're seeing with the PAC 12. Uh, you know, the, the big 12, all that, like, like this is a terrible time as everyone's wringing their hands over HBO max and Warner brothers discovery and all that terrible time to take your rights to market.

So why would anyone want to do that by choice? And two, if the grant or rights were breakable, somebody would have broken it by now. And, and if you want to form a break off league, and these are all things, by the way that I mentioned last May, uh, this is nothing new here. Uh, these are all things that you could have talked about over the last year and weeks, uh, ever since USC and UCLA left the big that announced they were leaving the PAC 12. Uh, and this, this is all just, it's so dumb. And, and, and by the way, the magnificent seven is the stupidest possible nickname for a bunch of schools that leaked the story so they can whine about it during the AD meetings. Like, yeah, you guys want to break off and form your own conference. God speed, man. Good luck with that.

Like, like who's going to miss you at this point? Like, and then we're going to spend waste all this time in Amelia Island talking about unequal revenue distribution. You're just robbing Peter to pay Paul.

How does it help the AC? If you make BC less competitive by giving them less money on top of which AG, the fact that the ACC has a financial disadvantage has not yet turned into a competitive disadvantage. Last I checked, there was an ACC team in the final four and the ACC has been amply represented in the, in the, um, the CFP.

And I didn't at last check. It doesn't look to me like Clemson running out of lazy rivers in their football center. Everybody's still swimming around in money like Scrooge McDuck. It's just incredibly stupid. There are much bigger problems like growing the ACC revenue pot rather than arguing about how to split it up differently or the future of college athletics at large.

These are all things that we need to be talking about. Not should Clemson get more money in BC, get less. If you really feel that way, kick BC out of the league and split it 14 ways instead of 15 because that's the one solution that makes sense. That's what I believe the magnificent seven.

And when that term came out, I said, that's not the adjective I would use. Uh, but the magnificent seven, that's basically what the end game is trimming the fat from the league. But as I've pointed out, inventory is what creates revenue for the networks. And when you get rid of more than half of your conference, just about, you are scaling back the inventory that they can sell because conference games, even bad conference games are better than your mediocre because they, it ain't like they're going to get rid of half the league and then go out and schedule the top half of the SEC.

Because that's not the way they would want to do it because your records would stink as a result of all of that. Um, you know, new revenue coming in. I have no problem giving more of that to the schools that earn it, not just Florida state. If you, if you do well in post-season play and you earn money based on it, I got no problem giving that revenue more of that revenue to those schools because that's not taking revenue from Boston college. But if I were the ACC, I would absolutely create revenue streams that grow your financial pie, establish a weekly Friday night football game, be different than the other leagues, sell advertising on uniforms. I don't care. I, nobody should care if the leagues can make, if the ACC can make more money doing it, do it.

You don't compare yourselves financially to other leagues because that's stupid. Yeah. I mean, and, and, you know, on top of everything else, when you get down to it, the ACC is hiring companies with names as dumb as this conversation, fish bait solutions to grow their revenue pie, let them go to work and make more revenue for you and, you know, go crazy with it.

Uh, it's, it's, instead of wasting your time, I, and the idea on top of all this, that it's Florida state that is whining the loudest is just laughable because other than Miami, nobody's done more to hurt the ACC from a revenue perspective than Florida state being terrible at football for a generation. Yeah. And when they went to market the last time, only Clemson was good. That's it.

Yep. And actually maybe to an extent, Louisville was still coming off the Lamar Jackson high, but you know, Louisville is a big college area, but ultimately Clemson was the national program. No Florida state, no Miami Virginia tech's been on walkabout for the last decade.

So when the ACC football brands, if they were all good at the same time, then maybe the contract would have looked a lot better. All right, Luke, I will see you, uh, napping on the seventh floor, the old seventh floor tomorrow at eight. You got, I'm glad you referred to it as the seventh floor. Warm is my heart. I did that for you.

Warm is my heart. I know you did, man. I appreciate it. Thanks, man. I'll talk to you later. Luke, the cock of the news and observer.