Rinkside with Carolina Hurricanes Player Jordan Martinook

Host Melissa Wistehuff takes “What’s Up, Wake” on a rink trip to Invisalign Arena, the Carolina Hurricanes’ practice facility, for a conversation with Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook. He discusses watching the Olympics (and rooting for Canada), his pick for a Hurricanes siren guest (Sylvester Stallone), and how he describes the team’s passionate, unexpectedly electric fan base and playoff tailgating. Martinook talks about recharging off the ice with his wife and three kids, what he watches at home, and his love of restaurants, including favorites from Scott Crawford. He shares an ideal Raleigh food day, dream alternate careers, reality-show survival picks among teammates, perspectives on hockey fights and dental care, his walkout song choice, memorable moments at Lenovo Center, and a perfect family day in Raleigh. 

01:01 Show Welcome and Setup 
01:36 Rink Trip Introduction 
02:19 Olympics Allegiances 
03:43 Who Sounds the Siren 
04:23 Canes Fans and Tailgates 
05:37 Family Life Recharge 
06:58 Kids' Movies and TV 
08:34 Foodie Life at Home 
09:30 Best Food Cities on the Road 
11:05 Scott Crawford and Favorites 
13:04 Perfect Raleigh Food Day 
14:30 Dream Job and Reality TV 
16:27 Fights and Dentist Talk 
18:22 Walkout Song and Big Moments 
20:03 Perfect Raleigh Family Day 
21:02 Thanks and Sign Off 

Creators and Guests

Host

Melissa

Host of What's Up, Wake + social media manager + writer + travel editor

Guest

Jordan Martinook

Jordan Martinook Martinook with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2022, battling with Evgeny Kuznetsov of the Washington Capitals Born July 25, 1992 (age 33) Brandon, Manitoba, Canada Height 6 ft 0 in (183 cm) Weight 202 lb (92 kg; 14 st 6 lb) Position Left wing Shoots Left NHL team Former teams Carolina Hurricanes Arizona Coyotes NHL draft 58th overall, 2012 Phoenix Coyotes Playing career 2012–present Jordan Martinook (born July 25, 1992) is a Canadian professional ice hockey player who is a left winger and alternate captain for the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected by the Phoenix Coyotes in the second round (58th overall) of the 2012 NHL entry draft.

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What’s Up, Wake covers the people, places, restaurants, and events of Wake County, North Carolina. Through conversations with local personalities from business owners to town staff and influencers to volunteers, we’ll take a closer look at what makes Wake County an outstanding place to live. Presented by Cherokee Media Group, the publishers of local lifestyle magazines Cary Magazine, Wake Living, and Main & Broad, What’s Up, Wake covers news and happenings in Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and Wake Forest.

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Hi there and welcome to What's Up Wake Spend Your Day is the only way. Take a break. With what Up Wake. What Up? Wake presented by the publishers of Kerry Magazine, wake Living and Maine, and Broad. What's up? Wake covers the people, places, restaurants, and events. Essentially, all the cool stuff and great news of Wake County.

I'm your host, Melissa Wi H. Join me as we find out what's up, wake.

It is time to sound the siren I've taken. What's up? Wake on a field trip, or should I say rink trip to Invisalign Arena, the Carolina Hurricanes Practice facility. I was lucky enough to score a chance to get to know one of the team's most dynamic players since arriving in Raleigh in 2018. Kax have known him for being the heart.

Feet of the team's personality, who fires up fans with his contagious energy that can be felt from the stands all the way down to the ice. So get ready for some stories, some laughs and a behind the scenes look at life on and off the ice with Jordan Martin, this is so cool. No pun intended, because we are freezing in here.

Um, I've got to start with the obvious. We are celebrating the fact that your teammates are bringing home a gold, a silver, and a bronze from this year's Olympic games, which is mind blowing, truly. Mm-hmm. My question though is how do you handle watching not only your teammates going head to head on the ice and who, who do you pull for, but you're Canadian, you've built your life here in the United States and your career here.

Are you torn in two when you're watching USA go against Canada? No, not at all. Really? Yeah. I'm born in Canada. I pull for Canada, so, oh no. Yeah. Oh, I hope Slavo, I hope it ideal situation would've been Slavo was plus two, had maybe a couple of cysts and we won three. Two would've been ideal. Oh no. Um. We're gonna cut that out, guy.

Well, I just, your, your allegiance lies to where you're from. I get it. Yeah. From Canada. I gotta pull for Canada. I know. I get it, know a few more guys on Canada that I, I like, so Yeah. Yeah. But it is pretty remarkable that we are getting to bring home so much hardware. Yeah. No, I told my son, I'm like, it's pretty cool.

You're gonna be able to see a gold, uh, silver and a bronze car. Yeah. I've never, I've never seen a, a metal in real life. So that's, that's quite something. Yeah. You're gonna have to come back when they're here. I would love to do that. Okay, so the hurricanes is kind of known for the siren before each game.

If you could choose anybody in the world to come and sound the siren, who would you choose? Hmm. Well, you gotta have somebody that's really strong, I would say. I have heard that. It's kind of hard to crank that thing.

I am gonna go with like Sylvester Stallone. Ooh. I think that'd be a cool one. Okay. Yeah. And he's strong enough. I think he can, yeah. Think he's the rf. I know he is getting up there in age, but he's still, still got it going on. Yeah, I think that'd be a cool one. That's a very good one. I did not expect that answer for sure.

How would you describe the Hurricane's fan base for somebody who's never been to Raleigh for a game? Uh, it's electric and passionate and, uh. It's, I think, I think un not underappreciated, but under, people don't understand how crazy they can get. Probably unexpected. Unexpected. Yeah. That's a great word.

Yeah. Yeah. So, um, I, I just remember my first ever playoffs. Playoffs here. Um, and you're coming to the rink at 4 15, 4 30 for your seven o'clock game, and the parking lot is completely full. People are Oh yeah. Tail tailgating. Tail, yeah. Yeah. I had never ever seen that before. And something really not to the extent, like obviously I've seen, I, I knew football cold in Canada.

Yeah. I knew football. Yeah, you can't tailgate in Canada, but I knew like football tailgated and then showing up. They still did it during the regular season, but playoffs was just incredible to see the parking lot full and. Just kind of energizes you before you even step foot on the ice. And then once you get out there and, and they make that building loud.

Yeah. It, it's deafening, uh, a lot of the times. Um, so they're, they're incredible. So speaking of energy, you, you have come to be known as the teams hype man. You bring the energy to the locker room from what I hear anyway. Yeah. But off the ice, how do you recharge? Uh. I got three kids. So there isn't much. Uh, no, there's not recharging.

No. You probably, this is probably more calm than your home life. Yeah. I, we just went through like almost 20 days of no school with breaks and vacation, so Oh yeah. Snow days. Yeah. Uh, yeah, snow days and kids being sick. So today, first day back to school, me and my wife were kind of, it was like, what's going?

On's going? Yeah, what's going on here? There, the house. Nobody's screaming, nobody's fighting. And, um, no, it's, I, I do. Like when you, this is, especially this year with the Olympics, it's been a lot of, it's just you, it's been a lot, um, with games. Feels like every other night and you're practicing, you're meeting and then, um, it is nice to get home and, and just relax.

And I, I say that my house is crazy, which it is, but it's the perfect kind of crazy, it's, yeah. Um, that mellows me out and, um, sometimes gets my blood boiling a little bit when I gotta, uh, talk to the. Be a parent, but, uh, yeah, that's, that's the best place for, for, uh, most of us family or fam guys with kids and families.

It's, it's the best part of it. You mentioned s Sylvester Stallone. Do you, do you watch tv? Do you binge tv? Uh, I, I watch, I watch a lot of, watch a lot of kids movies. Oh. Know, I've felt like my daughter's into high school musical. I think I've watched it about 50 times in about the past three months. How old is she?

She's gonna be five. Oh yeah, she's four. Four. Turning five. She's. Turning 15. Yeah. She's dancing and she changes about six times a day and wears makeup. So she is, uh, yeah. And then the, yeah, it's just a lot of kids, kids stuff and yeah. Enjoy it though. This is really the highlight of your life. I've got older teenagers now, and what I wouldn't give to go back to those ages, I'm telling you it's, yeah, you hear that a lot.

You feel like you're, you feel like you're in it. I know. Yeah. Right now you feel like, yeah, but, uh, you'll, you'll miss it. You really will. What is something that your fans would be surprised to learn about you? Oh boy. Um, I feel like I'm pretty much an open book that they've seen a lot of things for me. Um, oh,

chase, I've stumped you. You I've stumped me. Um. I don't, I don't, um, I will say that I have read that you, when you interact with your fans, you're very genuine and, and open. So that's pretty cool to see that you don't have anything that would stump people. Yeah. But, um, you are what you are. I know. I'd, I'm all I'll think about that way we're going on it.

Yeah. Uncomfortable. We'll come back to it. Okay. Ous that you are the team's foodie. Yeah. So do you cook for your family at home or do you prefer to go out or get takeout? I would prefer to go out if I could. Obviously it's, we get a date night once every couple weeks. Mm-hmm. But, um. My wife's, my wife cooks a lot, and uh, I love her for it.

She's, she's good. She's obviously improved over the time of our, our relationship. You do? Yeah. Um, I like, I like to grill like I do steaks and, um. I have a Traeger here, which I'm not in love with, but it's, it's, I'm growing, it's growing on me. But you're the grill master. All right. Yeah, I do, I do the grilling, so, yeah.

Um, but yeah, I'd, I, if I could go out every night, I would just to experience new, new restaurants and stuff like that. I obviously love, have an incredible job for being able to go around the country and try different restaurants, but, um. Nothing beats a, a night in with the family and sitting around the table.

That's, yeah, that's a good, that's a good night. So speaking of traveling, is there another NHL city that you always look forward to going to because they have good restaurants? Uh, yeah, obviously New York is probably number one. Um, just kind of whatever you're in the mood for and there's probably a hundred different.

Different types of whatever cuisine you want. I think LA's a cool one and Vegas has a lot of the, the fancier kind of chain restaurants that we, we grow to lake that we see around. So, um, those are probably the three, three Toronto, like some, some Canadian cities. Okay. Yeah. The big, the big cities are always, usually have really good food.

Well, well look who's exercising again? Good choice. Eating right too. Another good choice. Fish, fruit and veggies are my friends. Oatmeal is good for me as is. Staying away from saturated fats. Ugh, they don't call it shortening for nothing. I mean, look at ya. You've lost weight, you pack on track. You look amazing.

And thanks to you, I'm looking pretty good myself. Wake med, heart and vascular. Your heart. Your choice.

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I've heard that you were friends with Scott Crawford. He, yes. Yeah. Yeah. I, I. No, I wouldn't say as tight with him as best. Your best, well just call it you're very best friends. Uh, just his, his group, like I've, I've kind of known, uh, like his head of my culinary for five, six years, their head of beverage for five or six years.

And just growing those relationships. Um, I've kind of got to know a lot of the people there, which. You go, I go in there and it's like, I'm, I'm, I've always tell my wife, it's like, oh, it feels like we're home. Oh, yeah. They treat me like, uh, like a king. And I I love, love that. Who wouldn't wanna go? Every restaurant that they have is, uh, is uh, probably at the top of my list here in Raleigh.

So if Scott were to create a, a, a signature Jordan Martin Hook, signature dish. What would you want it to be? Well, he's had some signature dishes that, um, that I've had at all, all of the restaurants. Um, the Caesar salad at Bro Datto is probably my favorite in. May, maybe the world. I, I think it's, it's phenomenal.

And that's a salad fit for a cane. Yeah. The, the way he does, the way they do it is just remarkable. Um, I've had some of the best pastas in my life at Broo and at Crawford and Sons. They'll be, they'll just bring one out and it'll be like, oh, this is, we're gonna maybe think about putting this on the menu and it'll just blow your mind.

Yeah. I'm like, yeah, that needs to go on yesterday. So. Oh yeah. Um, yeah, he's, so you can put your name on anything. The beef cor guitar at Crawford and Sons in the Bone Marrow is. They're, they do it right? Every, every restaurant. They got some special things. So, um, if I, I, I would have to sit here for a day to kind of curate the perfect menu from all those restaurants, but yeah.

Yeah. Um, and then I, yeah, I like, I kind of like everything. Let's say you want to build the Ideal Food Day in Raleigh. Where would you go for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then if you're still hungry, dessert. Um. Okay. Breakfast. I love a good bagel. Um, obviously I, I think bench, I like bench warmers just because I like going to the food halls and I think that's a cool little spot down there at the transfer food hall.

So, uh, maybe grab a bagel at bench warmers. Um, I like how you say it, bagel, that's Canadian. Is that how Canadians say it? Okay. Okay. My Canadian bagel. Yes. Yeah. Then lunch. Um. Lunch. I lo I just went to sushi mom for lunch, which was pretty, oh, I haven't been there. Um, so my, that was a great lunch. Um, and then right now I gotta go dinner at Broo.

Okay. And then dessert, you gotta have the, the vanilla back when the day they have a gelato machine that I've found out is from Italy, and they have a vanilla with, they put olive oil and salt on it and, oh. They have always have a rotating flavor. And the pistachio that they had was, you get 'em swirled up.

This is at roto. Yeah. They don't have, it's, they don't have pistachio. Well maybe they do right now, but I They would for you. Yeah. They would pull off a pistachio for you. But they have rotating a one rotating flavor. Vanilla always stays, but it's, uh, that's the best. If you had to take a one year break from hockey and try a different career, what would you want to do?

Um. Other than be a food critic, any, any job in the world, I would like to be a singer. Really. I'm not a very good singer, but I did sing for a Nickelback concert once. You can check that out. No way. Uh, I sang one song and I think if I go on tour, you remember Rockstar by Nickelback. If I go on tour with a, with a band, like a really big one and do that for a year, I think that'd be pretty cool.

That would be pretty cool. Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna, or an actor. I'm gonna, I'm gonna get you on a little bit of with like Rob Cooper. But yeah, I will say that, uh, I think you could probably pull off being an actor. Okay. I'm gonna get you in a little bit of trouble. Okay. Who on your team would survive the longest on a reality show like Survivor?

And who would be voted off first? Last, the longest, I think would be, uh. Shane go beer. Just 'cause he watches lot of reality cv. Okay. And he can talk and manipulate a little bit. So I would say, hey, he would probably last the longest, voted off early, I think would be a. Taylor Hall just 'cause he is kind of a space cadet and I think he would just get himself, get himself in some bad situation.

Yeah, probably. I love Halsey though. He is one of my, my good buddies, so hopefully he doesn't watch this. He'll be mad at me. Don't tag him. He'll probably get you back. He'll get you back somehow. What is the most normal guy hobby? You do golf? Maybe. Would that be a hobby? Normal guy? I feel like a lot of guys golf, but does that translate well being a hockey player and a golf player?

Well, I, it's terrible at golf. Are you Okay? Um, so it doesn't translate, sounds like, yeah. We've got to talk about the most fun part of hockey, which is of course, the fights. Are they as fun to participate in as they are to watch from the dance? Oh, if you win. Yeah, there is fun, fun to participate in. But what is considered winning?

I mean, it just looks like a bunch of like, well, if you, if you, if you hit win more than he, it's you, I think it's considered a win. But, uh. Uh, a the after effect always is your, your hands. The f your fingers are always like sore and your hands are sore. So even through, through the gloves and everything, well, you take your gloves off.

That's Oh, that's true. It's better. You're talking about real fighting if you're, if you're really serious Yeah. You take that, the gripping and, uh, all that, it's hand. Plus your hands are frozen, so that makes it worse though. My hands are terrible right now. I'm like, can barely hold this paper. Yeah. Okay, so an unfortunate side effect of all the fights.

Of course, I'm thinking about the, the guy, uh, Jack Hughes, his famous picture that's come out of the Olympics where he is missing a tooth, blood coming out of his mouth. So I've gotta ask this question and hopefully you're, you've got a good sense of humor, but. How often do you go to the dentist? Every year.

And do you have a dentist, like on staff or just good insurance? Well, we have good insurance. And there's dentists on staff. Are they really on staff? Well, they're our team dentists, the team. Okay. They're there every game. Um, I go to the dentist twice a year for cleanings. Okay. And maybe if I got a chip here or there, but Okay.

I got all my teeth, so wear some boot. Oh no. Knock on. Knock on some what? Yeah. Um, but yeah, um, wear mouth guard and. Just trying this way. Well, it seems that the, the helmet only covers like above the mouth. Yeah. You would think it would go down a little bit more to kind of prevent those things. Yeah. That's the, when you become, when you get higher in hockey, the, you just lose that and it's, it gets shorter and shorter.

Oh, great. Okay. So speaking of music, if hockey had a walkout song like baseball players do, what would your song be? Uh, animals by Nickelback. Okay, so you're obviously a big Nickelback fan. Yeah. Maybe they'll bring you on tour. Oh, you never know. We're putting it out in the universe. Did one song that's probably good.

You got fired immediately it sounds like. Yeah. Is there one moment at Lenovo that really stands out to you and, and still gives you chills no matter how long time has passed? Uh, I think there's probably two. I would say that my first, my first season here when we clinch playoffs and um, it was, uh, just when it said hurricanes of.

Whatever qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs. I just remember how loud that building was. Ah. Um, and just that was my first time in the playoffs and just something that I'll always remember. And then I think the second one would be, um, I think it was the second round against the Islanders maybe two years ago.

Um, we, we were, had pulled the goalie, Aho tied it, and then eight seconds later I scored to they, that was the game winner, but it was. It happened so fast. And I remember they were so loud 'cause we tied the game and then I scored when they were still cheering and it was like, PanAm, pano, ugh. Can't say that word right now.

Say it. Yeah. Can't say that word, but everybody understands what I mean. Um, hey, I can pick on you because I, I get picked on from my southern accent. Yeah. So, so those were two that obviously stand out to me. They're pretty special. I would say those are definitely special. Okay. Finally. What is your perfect day in Raleigh with your family, with your wife and kids?

What, what would you do? Um, probably go, I know prob maybe to the, uh, the art music. Oh yeah. We like to go walking in there with our dog and, um, I feel like we've had like a couple pick, like when it's, when the weather turns and, or if early fall, late, late spring when the weather's really nice. Uh, they have like the singing swings there that my kids love.

Yeah. Yeah. Usually pick up some lunch and go eat, eat in the grass. And, um, and then we have a great backyard that we like to play in and, um, that's, I I, we kind of a homebody, so we like to stay home and, um, maybe watch a movie and have, have dinner and. And shutter down. Maybe some Togo from Broo. Yeah. Well they don't do.

Togo may use sometimes. Uh, they would for you for, I've got was a little team from Crawford in some before. So I cannot thank you enough for doing this with us today. It, it has been so exciting and just, just being in this environment is so exciting. So thank you so much for having us. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Thanks for listening to What's Up. Wake with Melissa Wister Huff, presented by the publishers of Care Magazine. Wake Living and Main and Broad. Follow them on social media at Care Magazine, NC at MB magazine, nc and at Wake Living Magazine. Visit each magazine's [e-mail]. Main and broad mag.com.

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