Magic Grits

This is The Drive with Josh Graham Podcast.

Three internet sensations, guys! Tune into The Drive weekday afternoons, 3 to 7 on WSJS. And we're on Monday Drive. It is WSJS, NewsTalk Sports for the Triad, where, among other things, it is officially Race Week in North Wilkesboro, NASCAR's all-star festivities returning to the old track for a second consecutive year. Also, for the first time since Florida State and Clemson literally sued the league, all the leaders from the ACC, including those two schools, will be in the same room at spring meetings that started today.

What could go wrong? You know what else? It might not seem like it, but the next couple of weeks are big for the Carolina Panthers. Today, they wrapped up rookie minicamp. There are only 29 players on the Panthers rookie minicamp roster.

That is unusually small. For those who might be unfamiliar, sometimes they have as many as 50, 45, 50, that are out there at rookie minicamp. So why the smaller group? Dave Canales says he only wants to bring in guys that could be making the team, that could make the 53-man roster.

Here was some of Dave Canales over the weekend. Yeah, really to just get a concentrated look at the guys that we are counting on, to be on our roster going forward and going to training camp, and also to just introduce them. So I think one of the things that we achieved in these last two days is to prepare them for the level of work, the intensity of the work. You know, there were some guys, some big guys out there said that yesterday, but it's a little bit of a shock, you know, the pace and the tempo.

So I think we really valued that part. An important weekend for Xavier LeGat and Jonathan Brooks, the running back, and all these other pieces that they expect to be integral parts of what they do. Trevon Wallace, the linebacker out of Kentucky, and Sanders, the tight end out of Texas. So that's the rookie minicamp piece. Two days from now, did you know the NFL schedule is going to drop in its entirety? We're already starting to see some of the matchups leaked. The first regular season game of the year will be a rematch of the AFC championship. It'll be the Chiefs dropping the banner at Arrowhead against the Baltimore Ravens. For Carolina, all eyes are going to be on when Patrick Mahomes comes to town. Remember, because AFC opponents only face the Panthers every four years, thus rotate home and away every eight years, the Panthers haven't played the Kansas City Chiefs at Bank of America Stadium since, in the waning moments of a game, Marcus Peters punched out a football of Kelvin Benjamin, if memory serves, to set up a game-winning field goal.

That was in 2016, which means Patrick Mahomes has never played at Bank of America Stadium before. When will the Germany game be? Who will the Germany game be against?

Carolina is going to play a game in Germany this season. But more importantly than that, even though we know the opponents already, just need the dates and when these games are going to happen, your schedule can add an extra win or loss, maybe two, to your end of year result. That's how much your schedule matters. How many primetime games?

How many rest disparities? If you get a bye, is the team you're playing coming off that bye also having extended rest? How many teams do you play coming off of a bye week?

How many teams do you get who are coming off a bye? These things matter. When do you play certain road games? You can't tell me there's not a difference between playing at Green Bay or at Chicago in September versus playing that game in December or early January.

These things matter. And we're going to learn what the schedule is on Wednesday. And then a week from now, the vets are going to be back. That might not sound like a big deal to you either, but it's going to be the first time this year, the first time this season, that the whole roster is together. Rookies and veterans. Off-season workouts. It's so easy to overlook them when you're a team, when you root for a team that's really good. The Chiefs, you root for a team like the Eagles.

You root for one of the best teams in the sport, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Green Bay Packers. But when you're a team breaking in a new head coach, off-season workouts are a big deal. And when you're a team that has a lot of roster turnover like Carolina has, off-season workouts, the first time you're together as a team, that's a big deal. So this all happens in a really concentrated period of time. The next week in change.

So it is a big week in change that might not seem like it until you dig into the details. OnX at WSJS radio if you want in, that's where we're streaming video. In addition to YouTube and Twitch, Will Dalton is the executive producer of this show, taking your calls at 336-777-1600. If you're going to call us up, let's make it a good one. First call of the week. WD, we've got in addition to Mike Maniscalco joining us to talk canes later this hour, we have Tom Walter, Wake baseball coach going to drop by. Do you see what the Deacs did this weekend?

Very big weekend for them. I don't know, sweeping the number two team in the nation. Clemson, little old clamp. Little old clamp riding the Roy bus. They're now number four.

Maybe sue the ACC about that. Getting swept over the weekend. Number four in the latest D1 poll after being swept by the Deacs. The Deacs up from number 13 to number eight in that poll. We'll have Tom Walter on.

He'll join us around 5.30. But speaking of Mike Maniscalco's canes, 20 years ago, a New York team blew a three games to nothing lead in the playoffs. And in the 30 for 30 that was created about it. WD's just mad. He knew what team I was talking about. Blowing a three games to nothing lead 20 years ago from New York that he might root for.

Just wanted to stop all that while he could. But in the 30 for 30, four days in October about the Red Sox coming back. Kevin Millar was walking around the baseball diamond telling Dan Shaughnessy and anybody else who would listen, put us out of our misery tonight. New York, if you're going to win this series, win tonight's game. But don't let us win this game.

Put us out of our misery now. Don't let us win tonight. Word to the New York Rangers. If you're going to win the series, you better win tonight. You better not let the Carolina Hurricanes win tonight's game five. I was at game four. There were a lot of Ranger fans there. A lot of Canes fans selling their tickets in the lower bowl and we get it.

It felt like you were going to a funeral. Carolina won the game. You already see the optimism from some saying, oh, can we do it? Can we do it?

Can we do it? I'm not there yet. It's not a series yet. The Canes got one. They need to win four. They won on their home ice. They need to win twice at MSG. However, if Carolina wins tonight at MSG, that changes everything.

The pressure really mounts on New York and the doubt really sets in. If Carolina wins this game, because, as you know, game six is back at PNC Arena. There's a travel day between game five and game six. Kind of crazy, but we've had three different changes of venue in the series so far.

No travel days. Not between games one and two and games three and four. Not between games three and four and tonight's game five.

But there will be a travel day. The game six is not until Thursday night at PNC Arena, which will allow the Rangers a lot of time and the New York media a lot of time to talk about what happened in the previous two games, if they're in fact still playing. Here's the hot take I have. This is as far as I'm willing to go. If Carolina wins tonight, I'm guaranteeing a game seven. Guaranteeing a game seven back at Madison Square Garden. And as Kevin Millar said back in that documentary 20 years ago, in game seven, anything can happen. In game seven, anything can happen. And can you imagine the sphincters tightening how palpable that'll be at me? How palpable that'll be at Madison Square Garden if it's a game seven and you had blown a three games to nothing lead?

Whoa. If any team is capable of winning four straight, it's these canes. They've been better in five on five. Just listen to what Vegas says. If you trust them, if you trust anything that comes out of the sports betting world, you should know that including tonight, Carolina has been favored in every single game of this series.

That's right. New York is going to give Carolina its best shot tonight. New York's at home. Carolina is still favored to win tonight. So here's what you should expect. Just like every single other game in this series, you should expect another one goal pressure cooker that could go either way. Am I picking the game?

I don't know. Should I? Yeah, you probably will by the end of the day.

Fine, I'll pick it now. 3-2 New York. Send me that cash out, family.

I'm just not there yet. And some seem to believe in the reverse jinx. So to make those people happy, we'll give them something. But tonight, going to be another tight game. It's going to be a painful one to sit through if you're a Canes fan. But if the Canes win tonight, I think we're going 7.

And anything can happen in 7. So once again, memo to Peter Laviolette and the New York Rangers. If you're going to win this series, win tonight. Put Carolina out of its misery.

Because if you don't, you best watch out. Standing on business. This weekend was the final home series of the season for Wake Forest Baseball, but given its sweep of Top 5 Clemson, the Deacs pretty much locked up a regional site being held in Winston-Salem. They're up to number 7 in the Baseball America poll, number 8 in the D1 Baseball poll, and now being joined by Wake Forest coach Tom Walter. How important are you willing to say this weekend was for your team? I mean, coming off of, you know, we lost two out of three at Notre Dame two weeks ago. And we had a, you know, we had a team meeting and talked about that. And we had a tough week.

We were in the middle of final exams. And, you know, we had a double midweek after that with Liberty, or with App State and High Point, two really good ball clubs. And then we had the weekend series with Western. Then we had the North Carolina A&T game and then Clemson. So we had this stretch of, you know, what is that, six, seven, eight, nine games that were really going to tell the tale for our season. And fortunately for us, we won all nine. And it's put us back in the equation to be a host.

I wouldn't say we've locked up a host site by any stretch. We've still got to go play good baseball, you know, at NC State next weekend. But we've certainly put ourselves back in that conversation.

I'm glad you brought up the midweek games that were, you had the battle through, and you brought up Notre Dame as well. Now that this regular season is about to come to a close, what's been the biggest difference between coaching this group versus coaching a year ago? Well, I mean, a year ago, you know, quite honestly, that we were just better than the teams we played.

Most of them. Not all, you know, and we didn't really run into much adversity last year. You know, last year we were kind of good all year long. You know, we had Rhett Louder every Friday night.

He won, you know, so you're going in every weekend series one and oh. And, you know, sometimes you win the next two, sometimes you split the next two. But, you know, that's a pretty good situation to be in. And this year, you know, didn't start out that way. You know, we ran into some adversity and some trouble. So the one thing I like about this team as opposed to last year's team is we're a little more battle tested than last year's team where we've had to kind of battle through some injuries and battle through some adversity. And we've had some guys that have not always performed along the way that were supposed to perform along the way.

And then hopefully we've come out the other side of that. We're playing our best baseball when it matters most. Wake Forest coach Tom Walter that is with us here.

You got your home finale tomorrow. Then you're at NC State, NC State 17th in the D1 baseball poll today. So to your point, a lot of baseball left to be played. The ACC baseball tournament, we know how good.

This league is. But going back to Friday night, Chase Burns struck out 16. He now has the single season strikeout record that Rhett Louder set last year. And we still have one more regular season start from him and the postseason to go to put that in perspective. I don't think anyone nationally has more than 130 strikeouts. And he's got over 150.

It's crazy. Given what we just saw from Paul Skeens making his MLB debut over the weekend, is Burns the type of guy who you see elevating quickly once he's in the pros? Oh, for sure. I mean, Burns is the kind of guy, quite honestly.

And you've seen this in the past, Josh. Like you'll see somebody like Chase Burns, you know, get called up. If he's with a playoff team, it depends on who drafts them. But if somebody drafts them in there in the playoff hunt, you could see him getting called up like September 1st and being a late add to the roster and maybe helping them in a playoff surge and pitching out of the bullpen, you know, right away. Because he's, you know, he's got four real pitches. I mean, and again, he carries, you know, 100 mile an hour, you know, fastball for 100, 105 pitches. He's got a 90 mile an hour slider.

That's a wipeout slider. He's got a good curveball and a change up. So, you know, again, if drafted by the right team, it wouldn't be out of the question that they would kind of hurry them to the big leagues this summer and have them, you know, post September 1st for a run. Where is the biggest jump he's made in his game? Where would you say your pitch lab and all your team at Wake Forest has worked the most with him to elevate? Well, first and foremost, how he moves. You know, again, he's such a great athlete, but he didn't really understand how to rotate. And once he got here and got in the lab and started to better understand, you know, what a sound and repeatable delivery looks like, you know, and it took a couple of months. I mean, it wasn't day one that it really clicked for him. I mean, I remember it was in December and he was playing long toss out there with Moose and Moose came to me and he's like, Chase Burns, he gets it. He gets it.

He's kind of figured out that if I do this, if I rotate this way, if I do this with my back knee, then this is what happens. And it started, it was kind of just kind of one of that aha moment. And it's kind of really snowballed from there. Tom Walter with us here. You should know Friday night we're out doing our show at the Charlotte Convention Center. There's a large Wake Forest contingent there to support Ron Wellman, to support Randolph Childress that were going into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. And the first thing Ron said when he took the stage is, just so everybody knows, Wake Forest for Clemson too. Since Ron hired you and you overlapped a number of years with Ron Wellman, just how far would you have to go without risking overstatement and talking about the impact he's had at Wake Forest? I can't even begin to describe it. And Ron, we used to be known as little old Wake Forest.

You know what I mean? A little small school that was kind of, they were a nice school, they competed, but they weren't really serious contenders in a lot of things. And Ron, the first thing Ron did was hire great coaches. And the second thing he did was build great facilities. And if you have great facilities and great coaches, you can do magical things. You look at what Dave Clausen has done here with our football program. Steve Forbes is doing with the basketball program. You look at field hockey with Jen Averill and Bobby Moose in soccer and both our golf teams, both our tennis teams.

I mean, our track teams, we win in all our sports here. And Ron Wellman started that. And John Curry, our current AD deserves a lot of credit for taking that baton and running with it. We've gotten so much better in the last few years under John's leadership, things like fan experience and social media and our video content, our branding, all those things that are kind of right in John Curry's wheelhouse, we've kind of grown with.

And it's just really in mental health and nutrition, things like that, that John Curry's kind of fostered along. So it's been fun to work under both Ron and John, who are two of the best ever in their respective profession. One of the things I love about college baseball is you have these coaches that have been around for such a long time and have been so loyal to their schools. Read a story today, Ryan McGee wrote about Gary Gilmore at Coastal Carolina, who's won a national championship, of course, had one of the legendary runs a few years ago. Mark Scaff in this state comes to mind, Elliott Ava at NC State.

You're starting to reach that territory. You mentioned how special it is just to be associated with all these coaches that have been at Wake. Do you view yourself as a Wake Forest lifer, Tom Walter?

Yeah, I hope so, as if they want me. But yeah, I mean, it's funny because maybe a year or two ago, Josh, I was looking around a head coaches meeting and I was like, man, Tony DeLuise, the women's soccer coach, has been here longer than me. And Jen Averill, the field hockey coach, has been here longer than me.

But I'm third on the totem pole as far as seniority goes. And it surprised me. I was like, is that like, I was looking around going, is that real?

Like, when did that happen? And then this past summer, I was throwing out the first pitch at a Cincinnati Reds game. And I saw a picture of an old guy on the video board. And I was like, who's that old guy standing next to me? I said, wait a minute, that's me. I'm that old guy. And I'm like, so, you know, it all makes when you see yourself on the video board and you're like, man, I'm old.

And then it starts to make a little more sense. Tom Walter with us here. We learned last time we visited that you are a Taylor Swift dad.

That's something that we've learned. Now let's cross into movies. Because Will Dalton, it's a weekly bit. We have coaches across the state who text us movies that he needs to watch. Sean Clark always has 80s comedies. There's a Duke assistant coach that's constantly peppering like, you know, artsy fartsy type of movies. He watched Taxi Driver last night for the first time, which is exciting. What are some of the movies you've watched most often? Like, if you think this one has been on my TV more than any other in my life, what comes to mind? Probably the one I stopped, you know, when you're clicking through the channels and I see the one movie that I stop at every time my family makes fun of me for is My Cousin Vinny. Wow. Have you seen My Cousin Vinny?

No, I don't think we've done that. Ah, the grits. The grits. If that thing is on, yeah, are those magic grits? Did you buy those same grits from the same guy who sold Jack his beanstalk beans?

He does like that movie. Look at that. That's incredible. Just look at these couple of youths. My Cousin Vinny, so your family makes fun of you for that?

They make fun of me because it seems like every time they're at the house for Thanksgiving or whatever and I'm clicking around and I stop on it, they're like, Dad, we're like again with the My Cousin Vinny? That's outstanding. That's exactly what we're looking for. And of course, Will hasn't seen it, but there you go. Will, that's shame on you, Will. Listen, there's a lot of shame on me for these movies. I'm used to it. This is an educational process though.

People believe there should still be education in college athletics. This is education from Tom Walter to Will Dalton that we could maybe help him out in this regard. Coach, really do appreciate the work that you do with all the youths that you coach at Wake Forest and best of luck this weekend and also tomorrow's game that people could still go out to at the couch. Thanks so much for the time. Thanks, Josh. Appreciate you. Now comes the moment you have all been waiting for.

All right, whenever you're ready. This is The Drive with Josh Crayer. Fourth point out here. How long until you buy a house out here at Quail Hollow? I must say I do go on Zillow quite a lot and look at some of the properties around here. Rory's just like all of us, checking some of the properties off Quail Hollow.

Eh, like Norman, this seems pretty nice. Winning the Wells Fargo championship for a fourth time. His first when he was 20 years old.

His fourth at 35 years old. Rory McIlroy, the king of Charlotte this weekend. You can almost forget given how good he can look when he's on that he hasn't won a major championship in 10 years. He has this long major championship drought. But when you start to look ahead at some of the major championships in front of us, that drought, it's going to end sometime.

And in all likelihood, it's going to happen sometime over the next 12 months. Rory McIlroy is going to win one of the next five major championships. One of the next five major championships. Rory will win.

Let's start with Quail Hollow. That's where next year's PGA championship is going to be. If he doesn't get any of the next four, if he doesn't win until next May, how fitting would it be for Rory to end this major championship drought and to do it at a place he's already won four times? That was a great moment yesterday.

Here was Rory after the round talking to Amanda Balianes of CBS speaking about Charlotte. I feel like these people have sort of watched me grow up, you know, from winning here as a 20 year old to, you know, being the ripe old age of 35 now. You know, they've sort of seen my progression throughout my career and, you know, I've been lucky enough to win here four times.

And yeah, the support that I get here is absolutely amazing. It's one of my favorite stops of the year and can't wait to keep coming back and see how many I can get. Don't count out Rory this week, though. The PGA Championship, Valhalla, in Louisville, Rory McIlroy has the second best odds at 7-1. Only trailing Scottie Scheffler's 4-1.

Send me that cash out, fam. Scottie had the kid, by the way. So, he will be playing in the PGA Championship. Don't count out Rory this week. Don't count out Rory this week. Do you know Rory's last major win?

I don't. Ten years ago, 2014, it was the PGA Championship and it was at Valhalla. The last time the PGA was at Valhalla, Rory McIlroy won the tournament.

So, of course, you should not write him off. And then you got the Open Championship and the Masters. He's due... It's hard to figure out which of those two tournaments he's more due to win. He's come so close to Augusta. Hard to imagine anyone coming closer. And in the Open Championship, or the British, he's finished tied for six or better in six of his last eight Open Championship starts. This year, it's going to be in Scotland. Rory's major championship drought.

It's going to end sometime over the next 12 months. He will win one of the next five major championships. Boy, was he good yesterday. It was between him and Xander Shoffele. And then he just... Once he took the lead from Shoffele, he pulled away. And there are few guys in the sport that are more fun to watch.

That are more fun to watch when they're on than Rory McIlroy is. And he was on yesterday. Mike Maniscalco, voice of the Canes, Bally Sports.

He'll be here ten minutes from now. The Canes facing elimination again tonight against the Rangers. Game five.

7 o'clock puck drop at Madison Square Garden. You know who else calls Madison Square Garden home? The New York Knicks.

They do. When they left MSG a few days ago, they were up 2-0 on the Pacers. Now their game five is tomorrow night at MSG and the series is tied against Indiana now. The Nuggets-T-Wolf series.

We buried the Nuggets a week ago when they fell behind two games to nothing. And they were blown out in game two. Now that series is knotted up two games apiece. Two games apiece. Both those series have completely flipped.

And they are two totally different kinds of series. At the heart of the Knicks series are injuries for New York. They lost Oji Ananobi.

Didn't play the last couple of games. That really hurts because he brings an interior presence and a team that really needs an interior presence right now is New York. Remember right before the playoffs began they lost Julius Randle the rest of the way. Then Mitchell Robinson got hurt and Bogdanovich went down in the first round.

So they just need warm bodies who can play in the interior because Precious Ochoa, all due respect, isn't really getting the job done. As a result, Indiana won game three closely. Andrew Nimhard, who we gave out in Best Bets on Friday, hit the most important shot of the game, hit the three from the left wing. And then Indiana cruised yesterday. So that series is tied. Two games apiece. Again, game five is tomorrow night at MSG. The Wolves series is a totally different deal. The Wolves have flat out blown this. Don't feel that way about the Knicks. The Knicks, they got hurt.

They went on the road. It's not a series until a team wins a road game, am I right? Minnesota won the first two games in Denver, including a 30-point win without Rudy Gobert, the Defensive Player of the Year. And you're going to lose both your following games with Gobert in the lineup at home?

At home! You couldn't win one of these two. Now, we get it. They're the champs. Respect to them. Respect to them. It is amazing how quiet the Jokic, the Jokic haters got in just a few days.

Got pretty quiet pretty fast. But it does feel a lot different than the other series, even though they're both knotted up at two games apiece. Both of these delivered. Is there a second round series that's better than these two? Knicks, Pacers, Nuggets, T-Wolves? You could make the argument about Mav's OKC. That series could be, is it already tied at two or is tonight game four?

Let's let's check this out. Because your Cavaliers won a game at the Boston Celtics. Oh, I know. And they have a chance to tie up that series tonight on their home court. Dallas leads us two to one. Okay, so there's a chance after tonight. I don't remember the last time this happened. Where all four conference semifinals are even at two games apiece going to game five. All four.

By the way, when you take your pick in any of those series, which is the best series, when you say Minnesota has blown it, Minnesota. Do you mean they're done or they've just blown up to this point? Oh, they've blown it. I as you think they're done at this point. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't say that.

OK, I was just checking. What happens next is anybody's guess. I have no clue. Well, it's like they won two there and then Denver won two there. So they're capable of doing it.

I have no clue what happens in either of these series. No, but you saw it. And Edwards though, he said he was he was excited about this. Like, come on. Bring it on. I have no doubt he feels that way. Going over 40 yesterday, but he still lost the game. They did.

So you need more than just one guy to do that. And I don't know about the Knicks health. So how are you going to forecast that series in any real way? If you don't know who's healthy? That's a tough one. I think as somebody who picked the Nuggets to face the Celtics in the finals. Oh, Josh, you went chalk.

Chalk generally the right way to go sometimes. Look at the Wells Fargo championship over there. Wells Fargo championship over the weekend. Rory and Xander Shoffley had the best two odds. We said don't get cute. Don't ever think it.

But we did give one long shot pick. You remember that? Oh, I'm not good with golf names.

What was it? B.H. on. Benny Hahn. B.H. on. Benny. You know where he finished? No. Third.

So that top 20 or I think it was a top 10 ticket cashed. Just saying. So send me that cash out, family. I'm struggling to have a read on much of what's happening here. A lot of Yankees love in this YouTube chat. Love that. Probably Duke fans as well.

It's generally how that works. Before we get to Mike Maniscalco, voice of the Canes, Valley Sports ahead of Game 5 tonight. There is big NBA draft news. You have the combine that's going on.

So five weeks after they met in the national championship game, you have Zayden. You have a lot of players that are going to win this game. You have a lot of players that are going to win this game. You have a lot of players that are going to win this game.

Zach Eady and Donovan Klingen sharing the floor. The biggest story from the NBA draft is going to be Bronny James. He might not be a first round draft pick. Odds are he's going to be taken in round two.

But how that relates to his dad and whether or not he can figure out a play to play with his son. That'll be a story for a draft that needs a lot of stories. The Charlotte Hornets not getting a break from the lottery balls. Big surprise there.

They're picking six. So there's your brief NBA run through as we now welcome in. The voice of the Canes, Valley Sports.

It's Mike Maniscalco who joins us now. Mike, let's start with our guy, W.D. The last time you were with us, you brought up Paul Newman's name and W.D. 's response.

W.D., what was your response? It's the salad dressing guy. The salad dressing guy, which really bummed you out. You should be happy to know that with another New York series in mind, he's got Taxi Driver this week. That'll cheer him up. And I'm sure that makes you happy. Yeah, I mean, that's such a positive movie.

I'm sure that Will's just going to absolutely love it. Jodie Foster, by the way, great in it. Do you know who Jodie Foster is, Will?

Yes, I do. She's a big girl. We're already ahead today, so I'll take that as a W. He doesn't know who Cybill Shepherd is. It's a great rom-com.

I mean, just the story of love between old Travis Bickle and Cybill Shepherd in this movie. Oh, yeah. Good times.

So let me ask you this. How much differently will you feel about this series if Carolina wins tonight? The same way I felt after the first three games.

Nothing has honestly changed. The way that they've played, again, when you have two good teams, Josh, and I know that, trust me, having done what you've done for Eons, there's always, well, there's a grand disaster if one team is ahead of another team. But we have two really good teams.

The margins are slim. So you don't have to be a rocket scientist to take a look and figure out, well, how did the Rangers get a 3-0 lead? They were plus five in the special teams. The Canes were minus five. Well, how did Carolina then turn around and win game number four?

They were plus one in the special teams. The Rangers were minus one. When you have good teams and the games are close, it's whoever wins those little tiny battles that all of a sudden become a really big deal when you get to the playoffs because it's not like playing Columbus. It's not like playing Anaheim. I don't want to do the Roy Williamson. I know that you and Roy have got a great history. You're not playing Slippery Rock, right? You know, when you're playing the bottom teams, the margins aren't that big.

You can get away with whatever you want. You could get away with a bad period or a couple of bad minutes of five-on-five play in the playoffs against the best teams. I don't know why does everybody lose their mind and seem to think that when you get in the playoffs, these teams are, well, the Rangers aren't that good. They had the best record in the regular season. They've got one of the best goal attenders. They've got a great coach. Everybody in Carolina should know that. Who knows how to win this time of year? And Peter LaViolette, so that was the difference.

I haven't felt different at all. And if they win tonight, again, it comes down to it's just one game. And that's how this team has approached the regular season now for the last six years under Rob Brind'Amour. They don't look ahead to the game after that. They don't look ahead three games down. They look at, all right, we win this game. We got to win the next one. And that's the situation that they're in.

I mean, that's just the pure honesty of what they have to do. There's not, you can't win game seven because you win game five. You can get to game seven because you have to win game five, but it doesn't mean you're going to win it.

So my thought, my opinion changes zero based on if they win tonight or not. Mike Maniscalco with us here, looking at some of the reports from Madison Square Garden. Freddy Anderson was in the starter's crease at pregame warm-up or pregame skate. Came off the ice first, generally an indicator that he'll be the starter. Rob Brind'Amour said, as Rod can only put it, maybe when asked if he will go. It would surprise me if it was Freddy.

What do you think is the calculus? What do you think is the thinking if it is, in fact, Freddy Anderson tonight? Because that they feel that he's the guy who can win the series for them.

I mean, that's what it comes down to. I've said this all along, Josh, and I know that it sounds like this is a team mouthpiece when I say it, but truly this year with goaltending, and I mean, honestly, the entire tenure of when the Carolina Hurricanes have gone on this renaissance the last six years, there were games where I'll go back to the Peter Mrazek, Curtis McElhaney era, where you're like, oh, well, you got to play Peter Mrazek tonight. And they would play Curtis McElhaney. And that would turn out to be the play this year. The rotation that they put together when Frederick Anderson came back after his health situation with the blood clotting issue, you were sitting there going, well, you know, when it comes to the playoffs, are you going to give it to one guy? Or now it's like, you know, you could never win with a rotation. And now everybody's clamoring that it should be a rotation.

So here's the answer. Whatever they do in that they think about it, they know what their reasoning is behind it. Sadly, they do not call me and ask me what I would do with the goaltending situation.

I would give them my opinion. I honestly, after game four, thought that this would be Piotr Kochekov's game, even though you get the win with Frederick Anderson. I just think that, all right, let's go back to what got you here in the regular season. But they believe if they're going to win this series, it's going to be on Freddie Anderson's back.

So you give him the opportunity to go win in New York and you go from there. So at least that's what it looks. We did hear maybe we didn't get a definitive answer. Yeah, I'm with you on the Piotr front.

I thought it was going to be Piotr. But then once we saw those headlines start to appear earlier today, one thought I had was, well, for the first time this series, if Carolina wins tonight, you're going to have an extra travel day. You didn't have that after games one and two.

You didn't have it after games three and four. That probably factors into this, too, because I don't think people really take into account the fatigue aspect when it comes to goaltending in a series. No, it does.

I mean, it really does. But, you know, it's funny, we're talking about fatigue with Frederick Anderson. Yet everybody always says you have to have one goaltender, you have to have one goaltender and you ride that goaltender until the end of the line. So, you know, there's this Piotr Lavey getting questions about going to Jonathan Quick. I mean, he did win the Comms Smythe in 2012, 12 years ago with L.A.

I mean, you played seven in a row with Igor. So just, you know, devil's advocate here. A little quid pro quo. I love it.

Oh, by the way, that's a good movie for you, too, Will. Devil's Advocate. You know what?

Didn't we put that on a poll? He didn't know what it was. And then people got mad at me when I told him that Al Pacino was Satan. The entire chat got mad at me saying that was like a big reveal. I thought that was the marketing of the movie. That was the marketing of the movie. Who yelled at you for that? Josh, usually I'm the first one to yell at you.

You should point me in the right direction of who to yell at for that. That was the whole marketing of the movie. Devil's advocate. That's what I thought. Like, people were like, you just threw away the biggest spoiler in the movie. I did? No, no, no. It's not like you told him Rosebud is the sled and that Darth is Luke's father, which by the way, are probably news to Will right now.

Oh, had no clue. So there we go. We're learning things today. Do you have on the way out, do you have any movies that you'd like to throw at Will Dalton that you would just be either really proud of him to watch or ashamed that he had not seen?

Well, Jaws, right? I mean, we're getting to the summer. We have done that. We did that last summer. Yes, Die Hard. Have we done that?

I think I remember one time we were on here on that list. Have you done Die Hard? I think we did.

Okay. We did do Die Hard. See, this is like a test. I feel like this is more a test of me.

It's like, you do this every week, Josh. Have you thrown these movies at them? Do you want me to go classics or do you want me to go like some of the newer, more refined ones?

Because I do have a classic now. People, for me, when I bring this up, they kind of shake their head. But this was when I knew The Rock was going to become a superstar. The Rundown. Whoa!

And Sean William Scott. I can't say that I've heard of that. Oh, my God. Phenomenal.

Well... I was thinking Walking Tall by Accident. Sorry. I got those two mixed up.

No, Walking Tall was fine. But no, The Rundown. The Rundown is the movie. So there's The Rundown. That's the recent movie, right?

And then if you wanted to go classic category, what would be the classic category to throw it at? On the Waterfront. On the Waterfront. Any idea? Not a clue. Well... Do you know who Brando is, right? From Godfather, right? Hey, okay. Will, have you ever heard the line, I could have been a somebody, I could have been a contender?

No, I don't know that one. See? But this is progress, Mike. It is progress.

We got to celebrate progress. Like, we haven't gotten the color of money or to any of the Paul Newman movies, actually. The Hustler? Cars. Paul Newman's a car. We're not doing this again. No, no.

I love you, Cars. All right, no, no. Let me go back. Please. Graham actually, Will, has put you on the right path here. He has. Watch The Hustler.

All right. Which you'll be bored at for whatever reason, but it's an unbelievable character study. Paul Newman is phenomenal. Jackie Gleason steals the movie in his, I think, 20 minutes on screen, if that.

Also a very young George C. Scott. Then watch The Color of Money, because I know there were a lot of people who were like, well, I don't get it. I'm like, it's the sequel.

It was like 30 years later. Well, yeah, that's the whole point. Yeah, it's a double feature. That's it. We can do a double feature. A double feature.

Mike Maniscalco, just seeing you puts a big smile on my face. I was trying to think of a good movie quote, but I can't come up with one in the moment. So I'll just say.

That one works. I mean, it'd be lost on Will anyway. Half your audience who's mad at you for giving away with the plot line already was given away in the movie trailer of The Devil's Advocate. So all I'll say is, well, bye. I want you to know it's over.