Jordan Staal

... monstrous man.

And you always wish like, man, if he could play angry all the time, what would he, what would he be? And I, I don't even know that he was angry in that moment, but, um, the fact that he stood up and did it and then pretty much won the scrap on home ice and kinda triggered this whole thing, and then the Cup Final that he had and everything.

Another guy you're happy for.

Obviously, he's won before.

Um, but you know, uh, the thing that struck me about Jordan when he came was, you know, they were in a bad, they were in a bad spot, you know, after the, you know, after the Cup win and not going to the playoffs and-

Yeah.

Like, Dave Andreychuk was still in front of the net winning battles on the power play right to the end, and Jordan Staal is still gonna be, in his very last NHL game, you know, winning face-offs and checking top players and things like that.

Mm-hmm

... you know, Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams and Dean Smith and, you know, just on and on.

Um, you know, Jim Valvano, obviously.

Um, and to me, it, it's almost like that.

There's not another team in professional sports I can think of that instead of it being about the star player, about the players, um, it's a little bit more about the coach, and, uh, it's a really interesting dynamic, and it fits this, uh, this community, this fan base, which is a meld of all those teams.

You know, tho- those people don't find a whole lot to cheer about together.

Um [laughs] usually they're at odds, and, um, the Hurricanes kind of brings them all together.

Mm-hmm.

... that's the ultimate kinda Roddy Brind'Amour scenario, eh?

Yeah.

And I mean, you know, I, I think getting the chance to play in the Olympics was really big for him.

Um, a lot of times you'd say, "Hey, I don't want my players going.

There's a chance of injury.

There's," you know, all that kind of stuff.

Uh, but it was good for Freddie.

Maybe almost, almost 60 seasons, Corey [laughs]