OverDrive - Biron on the Maple Leafs' chase to extend, the goaltending showdown between Woll and Bobrovsky and Skinner's bounce back in Edmonton

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

TSN Hockey Analyst Martin Biron joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Maple Leafs chasing to extend the series against the Panthers, the goaltending battle between Joseph Woll and Sergei Bobrovsky in the series, Anthony Stolarz's injury timeline, Stuart Skinner leading the crease for the Oilers, the optimism for the Maple Leafs and more.

. with VIP weekend passes and camping plus $500 cash to spend on merch. Don't call it a phase. Enter daily at iHerbRadio.ca. Here's our main man Marty Baran. Ah yes Marty, what is happening? Where are you guys? I'm like coming in, it's going to be fun in studio, boom! We're cruising around now. I'll tell you this, it took me 3 hours and 45 minutes from Buffalo to Toronto to the studios

Usually it's about two so the traffic is insane Luckily, you don't have to deal with it today. Yes. Well long weekend and you get weather like this Oh, like it is such a different city. I'm sure Buffalo is the same way. There's cows on the highway right now If you're stuck in traffic for 10 minutes that's big like here it took me an hour to go like fifteen kilometers that's that's all that it was it's sick and it is sickening there's so many people and the weather of the long weekend people are moving

you know and again a lot of it is for like four or five months you just stuck inside and you're like you have no will to leave and now it's beautiful like i gotta get out i gotta go somewhere and unfortunately it's when you were trying to move through the city but you made it i made it and i was entertained by you guys and by uh... you know your little uh... trying to put a uh... docu series together as the leaves come back at

old dog was talking about it was weird taping for the uh... for sports center so i think you guys are onto something yes well maybe you can help us funded marty you got a lot of money if you want to pitch in man you can get a percentage of this uh... well we're worse i may not be able to go back to buffalo if i fund aid docu series on the lease they won't let me back at the peace bridge i wouldn't blame them either yeah that would be a tough explanation i am a big contributor into a puff piece for the leaves when they finally get to the

conference final you know that that one is kinda tough to sell but uh... let's talk about the goaltending here we've been waiting for you to get into this because we've been talking a lot about the core for all that joseph wall a great game for other than that you know he's been at best. What would you say? Okay, just okay

Like where's where's where's your head at with wall because it was an overlooked story in game five because it was about everything else Meanwhile, he gave up a couple bad goals and got pulled didn't play well. He didn't play well So we're we're what is your level of concern or expectation for him to say I'm not concerned. I'm pretty comfortable I think in game two he was excellent and playing the wild comes in please game two and he was fantastic they win in game three couple of bad balance the marsh and you know overtime goal goes off riley a couple

rally puts one in the first goal and by and bark of goal i'd look that's gonna happen i think he was excellent in game four and game five the first like the first period if it's not for Joel They're probably down three nothing. Yeah, and then yes, he gave up a terrible goal to Mikala, right? I mean, it's a it's a bad look but that made it for nothing Anybody believed that the Leafs were gonna come back when they were down three nothing

No, the Leafs were not playing good at all. That game was over. So whatever happened after the BoQiz goal, I have no issues. I mean, he wasn't good, but I'm not concerned. But Joe Wall is not going to go in and win you a game, I don't think in Florida. But he's also not going to lose you a game. He hasn't lost you any games so far. He's not going to lose you game six. Anyway, I don't anticipate him to play in a way that's going to lose you the game. So you got to find a way to win it somewhere else. And that somewhere else, while it goes back to Matthews, it goes back to Marner, goes back to the power play, it goes back to helping him out in the first period. They had four shots in the first period in game four and six in game five. How, as a goalie and noodles, I don't know if you ever did,

but I looked at the shot clock a lot. Maybe it was to help my confidence. Yeah, I made 12 saves, like that was good. But if I see my team with two or three shots, 15 minutes into the first period, I'm like, come on guys, like do something. Like that has to change, and I think that's gonna help Joel Wall if they show up in the first period.

So Marty, what do you see in Bob? You know, as I think Bob's gotten stronger as the series has gone on, what are you seeing in him? I think he's aggressive and we've seen the poke check. He's got the athleticism to to back it up. If he misses the poke check, he'll be able to recover. And you're right. Like what what I saw in Bob in the Tampa series was he was average.

He was OK. I didn't think Vasilev saw in Bob in the Tampa series was, eh, he was average. He was okay. I didn't think Vasilevsky was great in the losses. And I think Bob was needed to be spectacular. The last two games, Bob was spectacular. And that is the biggest difference why now Florida is up three, two. And we saw what the Leafs were trying to do early in the first two games. High shot screens Bobrowski likes to go low noodles you know like when there's a screen you can

do two things Henrik Lundqvist used to always try to look high try to look above the screen Bobrowski likes to go low get some screen and get some high shots that's how Marner scored the game winning goal what was it game two like it was a bad goal but it's because he couldn't track it because he likes to go low. Well I'm curious, you know, if the game plan on a goalie can get to a point where, you know, he compensates and then if the other team doesn't realize he's compensating, then all of a sudden it turns into an advantage for the goalie. And what I mean by that is you mentioned, you know, shooting high on him and early in the series they were going glove hand

and trying to go bar down consistently and then the other night i think it was game four matthews had an opportunity to get a puck off quick and he stopped and he tried to pick his spot he tried to pick the corner and bob just had his glove waiting for it. Basically to me I read it like Bob knew what he was trying to do It was like Bob saying I know what your game plan is and I know you've exposed me But I'm not gonna allow you to do it anymore Do you think the Leafs can continue to try to try to expose what they thought was available to them the first two or three? Games or do they have to adjust on Bob here? No, I think they have to continue to expose that but But when you explain the Matthews, you know, play in game four, you're right.

It was a great glove save by Bobrowski. But Matthews, the fact that he stopped, wait, wait, and then shot too late. Bobrowski is going to read it. Bobrowski is going to be in position. Remember the movie Bull Durham when they say, don't think, just throw. Like, that's what the Leafs have to do. Every time they stop the puck. They give Bob the time to be able to get in the position

and see it clearly. At times you gotta just let it rip. And look, maybe you're gonna hit him in the chest a couple of times, but you're going to get that look when you are not going to think and it's gonna be in the net. I think of what Dallas has been able to do against Connor Hellebuck. Look at Grandlin, he gets the hat-trick. He's not even looking in the net uh... i'd think of what dallas has been able to do against connor hell about but a grandlyne he gets the hat trick is not even looking at the net is not thinking is just shooting right away

and that made a difference so i think that's the biggest thing if you're matthews and you stop the park your you're not gonna score if you let it go right away now things are going to open up with marty perron so you so you look at last night, Hellebuck, he played really well. Like, didn't stand on his head necessarily,

wasn't like they threw 50, 60 shots at him, but he did everything he was supposed to and played really, really well. Noodle, you referenced it early on, Ottinger was on his game, and then all of a sudden it got a little bit leaky, he ends up giving up a few last night the um... that goaltending

battle now going on the road when you consider hellebuck's history on the road these playoffs alone it's been crazy can't win he can't perform do you think there's anything he can take from his performance at home last night in applied on the road or is this a completely blank slate because clearly the road splits are so substantial I actually think Connor Helba can take a lot of what he did in game three and four in Dallas I thought game three he was really good it's two two there's a goal that went in that should never have counted that was a kick that was not a propelling of the puck into the net

like that rule book is there for a reason and the league missed on it and then a minute later ranting and walked in and he's like hey you're going to let me walk in I'll pick a corner I actually thought Connor Hellebuck was pretty good up until that point and then the wheels fell off for the whole team and in game four he was pretty good too look it was 2-1 and hot injure was much better but it's not like Halibuck was bad and so I think you got to look at it and say St. Louis was one thing he got pulled in three straight road games and he was really bad on the road but against the Dallas Stars he's not shown me that he has been bad has he been as good as

Ottenger in those two games in Dallas? No. But I think he can build off of that. And the shutout last game was probably the step for him to say, now I'm going to go in Dallas and I'm going to show them that I can do it on the road. So I'm still hopeful for the Winnipeg Jets and Connor Helbach that they can bring that back to Winnipeg for game seven. Speaking of which, sticking with Goaltenders, what did you make of the comeback of Stuart Skinner? I mean, considering where he was and Pickard comes in the injury and then his last couple games, even McDavid getting chippy about it in the media, what do you make of that whole

situation? Well, I think the Orlers love him, right? They love him. He's a great teammate. He's been there, took him to the finals last year game seven everything and he's battled through adversity in the last few years and you know some bad performances early in the season has come back and the team really likes to play for him but he's got to make saves and he's made obviously all the saves in the last two games but even in game three when he came in and and the last I felt, okay, well, he played good enough.

Good enough to say he gave his team a chance to win. So for me, that's one. And Nudos, I tell goalies this all the time. You're gonna get an opportunity. When you get to that level, you play college, juniors, you're pro, you're gonna get an opportunity. You have to be ready for that opportunity. And Coach Knobloch said,

we're gonna need Sui at some point in this series, maybe the next. And I think that Stuart Skinner was working extremely hard in practice, getting his game where he wanted it to be, so that if he had that opportunity, he was ready for it. And you gotta really give him credit for being ready

and making a difference. And now, I mean, Calvin Pickard is not going to be ready for round three for the conference finals. So to me, it looks like it's Seward Skinner for the long run here because Pickard is dealing with an injury that I think is going to take him longer to recover. So I think Skinner really showed a lot of people what hard work can do. And if it was regular regular season we wouldn't worry about it. He you know didn't play for three or four games he's gonna work on his game and come back but it's the playoffs so it's a little bit more important at that point. Yeah it's pretty wild like when you consider

Pickard somewhat mysteriously leaves when he's on a heater and now he's hurt and I think we know what happened I know but they're not announcing anything. The crazy thing you know Brian, sorry to interrupt, is nobody's talking about that. He got run over like run into by hurdle and I think he hurt his knee and like that's not a you know a three-day thing like that. You know if that could be weeks. Yeah. Well, he somehow got up. He couldn't even get up and and I'm surprised he finished the game. I mean, that's the thing. And obviously the next day, maybe there's some swelling and all of that.

You look into it. I don't think this is going to be like a 10 day, like you're not on the, you know, on the sideline for 10 days. I think it's longer than that. Yeah. That's wild. And then when you consider Anthony Stoller, it's the same thing. Stoller's, you you know halfway through game one

They're in the lead everyone. Everything's amazing and and he's just gone and that conversation just doesn't even happen anymore I don't believe he even took the trip he didn't down to Florida So it's like this guy he's not even close and I know in Toronto people are pointing a finger at Sam Bennett in the collision But I'll tell you this and I've been in that that position that shot by Reinhardt earlier in that game one That set the wheels in motion I think that he was already a little dinged up by taking that one right in the bullseye The mass came up and if you look at his face after there was a little bit of twitty birds that were flying around him And then he got hit by Bennett and that was the end of it. Yeah that was a pull that doesn't happen much.

I like you get like a slap shot famous one Wendell Clark on Curtis Joseph remember we yeah yeah and Kujo was rattled like he went for a skate was like whoa like that was a bomb. I remember getting as a day no chair a shot right in the forehead and it was like the mighty ducks you know when they have that camera on the puck yeah it felt like this like everybody's in the way and then everybody parted away. The puck came in, hit me right in the forehead. It split my mask. Like the paint job has a clear coat on it.

And it was like a spider web of cracks through the clear coating. That's how hard Zdeno Char hit me. But again, I say this and noodles, I don't know how your mask were, but I always thought the biggest thing when it came to mask was the fit. Make sure it fits properly. It's snug, it's tight, and look, we can talk about it, but I look at Anthony Stolar's all season. I don't like the fit of his mask.

It reminds me a lot of Mike Smith early in his career when he was with Tampa. It looks like it doesn't fit, like it's too small, the back plate is far back. There's something there that you have to consider moving forward. Wow, you remember Duane Rolison's mask? He had that pro mask. It looked like spy versus spy. It was like a cone. It was so weird.

Some of these, and Brian, I know we're getting goalie nerd here, but these masks, like you have to be able to withstand a 100 mile an hour slap shot. Like you can get hit in the butt and you're right. I think he was buzzed earlier on on the Reinhardt shot. It hit him right on the button. I got knocked out one time, same thing, got hit on the button and puked and all of that stuff. But it is the mask the way it fits because most of these masks aren't supposed to absorb

a straight on shot, they're supposed to deflect off. And the fit is so important. And you know, if you've got a big head, you've got to get a big mask, you know? And some of these guys now are six six, and six seven, like giant buckets on them. Like always, I'm sure, no different than players. Like players have a comfort

They want the elbow pads they've had since they were 15 They want you know, there's certain things and like you got to adjust Yeah, but anyway, we'll see. What do you so what are you thinking for tonight Marty? Like if would you would you be surprised if the Leafs found a way to win? No, I wouldn't be surprised I like the way that I'm writing the story is the Leafs going to win game six and then they're going to come back home for game seven and uh... the pressure in the intensity is going to be

times a hundred right i mean a game seven at home uh... against the defending champs so and that's the way i'm writing the story i don't know what would happen in game seven i think for does a better team yet they got more experience but i think the leaves get would happen in game seven. I think Florida is a better team Yeah, they got more experience But I think the Leafs get it done in game six and we're gonna have something to to do on Sunday night And it's gonna be in this beautiful, you know holiday weekend in Canada. It's gonna be a game seven Sunday night at in Toronto. I love it. Can't wait for that traffic will be amazing for that one to get down on sunday a lot of people are going to cut their trip short to the estate that they will

one hundred percent i'm already will catch on the panel tonight thanks for doing this one as some guys have a good one you to their years marty barron joining us here are tsn hockey analyst this may i radio celebrates asian heritage month discover powerful stories and vibrant cultures, and unforgettable music. From inspiring podcasts to playlists that span East, South, Southeast, and West Asian artists.

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