Justin Williams is going into the Canes HOF

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Visit our website for details. Governor of the Carolina Hurricanes joining us here on the Adam Gold show as we talk about your Hall of Famer, the going into the Hurricanes Hall of Fame. We sat down with him a couple of weeks ago and I found this to be hysterical. My first question to him was, it's a good thing that Tom Dundon didn't own the Hurricanes when you were thinking about signing here as a free agent because it likely wouldn't have happened.

And he laughed because apparently you guys had talked about it. So yeah, I told him I was wrong, by the way. I would have been wrong, but yeah, I wouldn't have done it. Because I mean, at 38 years old, you know, not that it was enormous money, but it was a substantial outlay of salary of, you know, a percentage of your salary cap. Why did you why did you say that you would have been wrong at that point?

Well, you know, obviously he's a different there's not many like him. So I hard to know that when they're not on your team, right? Maybe obviously the people that run the Hurricanes knew better than I would have known. But the I think the main thing is just where the team was at the time.

That's not how I would, you know, right? I don't know that that first year before rod. They were really ready to go yet. I don't think they had enough talent. So adding somebody to make you just a little better, but not be great. Like I want to be great.

And average is no good for me. So that's why I would have done it. But yeah, he's I would have been wrong. In retrospect, is there a lesson there that there are intangibles that you can't see on a stat sheet and an analytics, you know, report that have value that sometimes are just hard to uncover? Yeah, you know, obviously rod puts you up to that question, but nobody has put me up to that.

I know these are my own thoughts. No, I believe in that stuff. Like I believe that culture and leadership and a big part of what we want to do, you know, a big part of having rod here. And some of the things we did early was to get that feeling the right feeling, whatever that is, you know, whether it's culture, leadership and tangibles, I don't know.

I don't know that there's one way to describe it, but you just know when when you have it, and I don't think they had it when I got here. And I think since rod got here, we've had it. And then there's some pieces in and out that help or, you know, add or detract from that. And Willie, guys like Willie, and I remember, I feel this way about burns, like, those guys can take a good situation or a great situation and still make it better.

And that's, that's pretty unique. Tom Dundon is joining us here, Justin Williams heading into the Hurricanes Hall of Fame. And it's funny because when I sat down with him, I felt I didn't want to make it, you know, so much about, you know, the connection between Justin and rod. But there is a sameness to them, whether you know whenever they were teammates, and rod said it was the easiest decision he ever made his first real one to name him the captain Why do you think they meshed so well in so many different ways? You know, since you know them, and you know, a lot of people around here do. They're, they're just two people that for whatever reason, draw people in, you know, when you're around them. Everybody feels good. There's no negativity. It's, it's, it creates this positive situation for all anyone who's around them. And that, you know, then you put two of those together, you know, you get twice as much of it, I guess because, you know, you can't, you can't teach what those two have, that's just sort of innate in their personalities.

And so, yeah, it seems pretty obvious that you put those two together, it's twice as good. Yeah, you know, because I don't think you can separate the two when rod became the head coach. He talked about a culture change when Justin Williams returned, and this predates your buying the team when he returned I had, I sat down with him for about 15 or 20 minutes. And we talked about, you know, restoring the franchise to what it used to be as a winning a winning culture and getting fans in the stands because, and I know when you when you took over. There weren't a lot of full nights there were very few full nights at PNC arena but Justin remembers oh six and oh nine. And he also remembered how hard even though he wasn't necessarily here at the end of oh nine. When he was a visiting player he knew how long it took before the fans went away.

So he knew that that was here. And they had a, they had a, like a joint vision for what this thing could be. You just how much did you think they they needed and leaned on each other for them.

I don't know, I never thought about it that way. You know, I think, I think it's sort of inevitable right once rod took over and Willie was doing it and we had good players right. So there was a good core and then you added a big part of the problem was some of the good players were younger.

There's a little bit of a culture issue I think. Uh, goaltending wasn't probably where it needed to be that first year Willie was here. And, and so, yes, you know, I think it all changed pretty quickly because, you know, when you spend the extra money, so the bottom of the roster actually wins each night instead of loses. And then, you know, everybody starts expecting the win.

You know, I've talked about it. I think that what I saw when I first got here. Before I bought the team and I was watching it, it seemed like they were just waiting for something bad to happen. And now it feels like we're waiting for something good to happen.

And I don't know how much credit goes to Willie and rod, but I think a lot, but also, you know, more talent helps there too. Yeah. I keep telling the same story. I was asked about it last night. Uh, cause I don't have a lot of personal stories about Williams, but I do have a one where it was a game.

This is you are already, uh, fully entrenched in, uh, in ownership. And it's a, it was a game against Tampa in the, in the spring of his either late February or early March of 19. And it was a three, one lead that became a four, three overtime loss.

I think that that was the score line. And I anticipated because I had seen it before going into the locker room. Hey, we played great.

That's, that's, that's a great team over there. We proved we can play. And when I got into the locker room, there was nothing but anger and it was all led by Williams. And I thought that that was the sign that the expectations had been completely flipped. That just being good, wasn't going to be enough. And I thought that was entirely led by Williams. Maybe I'm the only one who remembers it as vividly as that. But I've told that story about a hundred different times. Cause I thought for me, that was the turning point.

I don't know exactly when it was, but yeah, I think, I think he's got a unique, um, way of being, of having expectations and being frustrated without it being negative. And that's hard to do, right? It's easy to say, you know, what's wrong with everybody. Why are we doing better? Blame people. And we're, we're rod and willing.

These guys are really good as they don't blame anybody. Um, but it's clear that it's not okay. And yeah, I don't know when it happened. I felt like it happened pretty quick, like kind of halfway through that first year where you just stopped expecting that you were surprised when bad stuff happened. And that was what was so hard this year, right? When we went through that three or four weeks for like every, everything that could go wrong went wrong. And it was confusing because I'm not used to that.

I don't expect it. I, you know, you just, we couldn't stop it. Yeah. And by the way, the bar has been raised so high that fans have not, they do not know how to process this.

And I deal directly with fans, whether it's here on the show or, uh, on the podcast that we do after every game. And I'm telling you, they did not know how to deal with it. They also don't know how to deal with the greatest power play we've ever seen. Well, let me, I'll tell you how we weren't as bad. We're unlucky. And now we're lucky. The power play is getting a little lucky and when we're losing, we're getting a little unlucky. So there's, I wish it was, I wish more to us than that. They, they have to score a power play goal in every game now, uh, seven in a row or something.

It's some insane, uh, insane, insane number. Uh, Tom Dundon, the owner of the hurricanes is joining us here real quick. Cause I asked Justin this cause Rod's not going to coach forever as much as we would like him to coach forever. Um, I asked Justin if he would be interested in, you know, stepping into that role at some point.

And he was like, Nope. Um, what, what do you think is the best role for Justin in an organization? I think he's doing it, you know, like he's, he played so long and he's got teenage kids and, um, other interests and so on Willie's living his best life for sure. Um, Hey, he don't want to work the way these guys work.

I, as far as I could tell, I think he's doing just fine. That's exactly what he told me. He knows how hard Rod, how many hours Rod grinds, uh, every day it would hurt his golf game. That's the problem.

It would hurt your whole life. I mean, the amount these people work, Rod and the whole staff, it's, you never see anything like it. So yeah, Willie, Willie's not ready for that. All right. Couple of quick things. Uh, first of all, congratulations. You're now a restaurant owner. Uh, what are the, uh, what are the plans for backyard bistro?

And by the way, uh, I think the food is, uh, is pretty doggone good. So what is, uh, what is the plans for backyard bistro? Um, I don't know. We're still trying to figure it out.

And right now it's staying the same. You know, obviously you'll, I assume, you know, there'll be some little tweaks here or there with the sports gambling coming. Hopefully we can add that in there. Um, but I agree. The food, when I went there, when we're looking at doing it, I went there and went back the next day because the brisket or whatever they call it. It's unbelievable. Um, so yeah, I don't know. We're figuring it out as we go. Uh, they've got, you know, a good staff and they do a good job and, you know, we'll see based on what happens with the, with the sports book stuff, what we add there versus somewhere else. And I don't know.

What do you think we should do? Uh, well, first of all, uh, I used to go there a lot. They, uh, they're big sports fans. They set up a wiffle ball, uh, like court out in the back that looked just like Fenway park. Uh, so that was a, that was a very cool thing. I think you should put a, a top golf, uh, hitting bay and a golf simulator in there and, uh, definitely do something like that. That is by the way, where I watched tiger woods, win the masters in 2019, uh, on that, was it, was it, was it, I think a Sunday, but they moved it to the morning because of bad weather coming in and you guys had a hockey game or something that night.

So I watched it all right there. Uh, so very fond memories of it, but yes, put a top golf simulator in there. Okay. Maybe in the arena, we're thinking about when we renovate the arena is just finding the space. A couple, a bunch of arenas have done that, but we'll see. Oh, well, uh, we'll hang the outside.

Well, that's, that is true. Uh, how close are we to, uh, to the whole top golf thing coming? Um, you, the one in Durham. Oh, we have, we have one in Durham.

I don't get out much. Yeah. There's one about to open.

Okay. Well then the answer is where it's about to happen. I got to get the date.

I got to come out for that. So I'll find out the date. It's been, it hasn't been the easiest process. Um, but yeah, it's about to open up. I thought it would have supposed to been open a long time ago, but I won't bore you with the details.

The wheels of government move slowly, uh, real, real fast. You, you talked about, uh, sports book fanatics. It was announced today. Uh, fanatics will be a partner with Carolina hurricanes.

Uh, why, why did you go that route? And what can you tell us about what's next? Yeah. I mean, look, they have a huge database and they're going to do this fan cash where, you know, you do the rewards, whether you want to buy trading cards or merchandise or gamble, you know, it sort of makes it to where it's not just about the betting. It's about, you know, you can, you can interact in their ecosystem and we can help grow. We can help grow it. And then, you know, if you place a bet and get a reward or buy a T shirt, maybe your wife, you use it.

It doesn't matter. So I kind of liked the fact that they're, they're, um, coming about this a little more holistic view. And then, you know, I'm friends with the guy that runs it and the person that runs the sports gambling was ran fan dual.

So they were just a good fit for us. I thank you very much for your time. Uh, I will, uh, look forward to seeing you this weekend. It should be a blast when Justin, I know he's got his speech prepared.

He's probably going to have to hone it down, but, uh, I think he'll be okay. All right, bud. Have a good weekend. This mother's day, treat mom to healthy, glowing skin with OCEA's limited edition skincare sets. OCEA has been making clean seaweed infused products for nearly 30 years. Their advanced eye care duo brightens and firm skin around your eyes while the golden glow body trio nourishes and smooth skin all over. They both come in giftable boxes with savings up to $46 in free shipping for a limited time. Go to OCEAMalibu.com and use code mom for 10% off your first order site wide.