OverDrive - Corrado on Canada eyeing the gold medal, McDavid levelling up and USA's tournament outlook

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

TSN Hockey Analyst Frank Corrado joined OverDrive to discuss Canada's roster construction going into the quarterfinals against Czechia, Connor McDavid's leadership for the roster, the disparity between European head coaches to North American, Sweden's roster and how they will match up against Sweden and more.

With corporate traveler, you get a dedicated travel expert and 24-7 support. So business travel feels effortless. Big meetings land. Business grows. With corporate traveler, the booking is just the start. Search corporate traveler today. Joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Here's our good friend Frankie Corrado, a little roundtable.

What's happening, Frankie? Yeah. What's up? How are we doing? We're doing well. Well, it's good to have you. And, you know, obviously, you've been watching. all of the hockey and on the men's side, what do you make of the news that appears to be almost

confirmed that we're going to get USA Sweden in the quarters? And the Americans will clearly be a heavy favorite, but do you think Sweden's got a chance at possibly upsetting them in the quarterfinals? Yes, yes, they do, but there's a lot of weird stuff happening with Sweden, but it feels like all the weird stuff that happens, they've seemed to overcome it, like they've had some some shoddy goal-tending at times. There's some weird roster decisions like Phil Forsberg's hardly playing at times. OEL's not really playing

at times. Yes, for Brad's a healthy scratch. But, I mean, the Swedish team is this. It can be really good in net. It has an unbelievable blue line. And you have speedy, creative wingers. Where they lack is down the middle of the ice. Like, that's where you're going to find a way

to expose the Swedish team. And what are the Americans? The Americans are solid in net, just as good of a blue line and really solid down the middle of the ice. So if it comes to a USA Sweet and USA wins, it feels like where they're going to win that game is down the middle. That's where the pace, U.S. can drive the pace a little bit more and have Sweden chasing the game.

Frankie, if you could give the U.S. and the Canadians some truth serum, who do you think wants the other one punted more and just says we don't want to deal with them, period? Do you think it would be the Canadians or the Americans? No, it's the Americans. The Americans would say we don't want anything to do with Canada. When you see the way McDavid is playing right now, like a guy possessed, and we know how good McDavid is, and he's clearly taken his game to another level to the point where guys on his own bench

are saying, hey, nice hit, Tom Wilson, except it was McDavid who made the hit. I think that's where the U.S. said, I don't know, like this guy might have unleashed something, that we didn't know was there. Like if your team Canada, you look at the American team and you say, there's no surprises. We know exactly what they are, right? Like a very good team. Big team.

They want to try and check us. Everyone's been trying to check those Canadian players, the best guys, their entire lives, their entire careers. And they found a way to score and overcome it and be the best at every single level. So I don't think that scares them. But when you see the best in the world achieve a different level, I think that's what would spook the Americans a little bit and say, we didn't know this guy had this much more, and does that drive everyone along a little bit more?

Now, with that being said, don't you guys feel like Team Canada has to clean up a little bit of some of the stuff they're doing with the Pock, like at around offensive blue lines? And it feels like there have been some times where it's a little like. Oh, Frankie, see you later. Press the button. Frankie just said, see you later. I love that that audio. Leon is known as porch or something?

It sounds like he's by a creek or something. Can you hear the water in the background? I love that how it just like cut out. Like that's the first time I've ever seen it like drop live on air and it make that noise. It's like this guy is out of here. He's got a beautiful office in his house and he's just like, let me go down by the creek and sit by the tree. Listen, he's got twin young girls. you have no idea what probably this guy is dealing with that.

But my thing is he was just about to criticize Team Canada. I know. We had something great. And all of a sudden like something, but he turned out. Okay, let's head back down to a van down by the river. A van down by the river. All right. Well, if Frankie can't come on, it's all good because we'll see what happens.

But I just think he was about to say, like, Team Canada does have to clean up some stuff. If there has been a little bit of sloppy. They're just good enough to get by. And that's what bothers me about it is they haven't seen a good opponent yet. It's nipicking. Yeah, I mean, Czech is, again, they've already played check yet, so they're going to play them again. And Jackie, I think, Frankie, you've seen some of the comments.

They've had fun with it. Like NACHA said, hey, we threw the first game because we knew we couldn't beat him twice in a row, which is a great line. You know, I've seen some people right and be like, you better jump on that. Dude, he's joking. Like, he knows Canada's Canada. Everyone knows it. What about people jumping on the handshakes?

They were like, You guys better show this on overdrive, how the Americans, by the way, the guy was 30 feet up in the air, and he was sticking his hand down, and the Americans couldn't even see the guy, and then the Canadians were all slapping the guy's hand, and it was like, you guys better show this. I also think the guy had a team Canada jersey on,

so why you high-fiving the guy with the team Canada jersey on? He might have. It was so silly, and then the other thing that I find comical is that people are getting all over Matthew Kachuk for chirping Leon Drysidal saying is always the bridesmaid. Like, what do you want him to say? Hey, buddy, great job out there. Really happy to be playing against you.

It's the Kachucks. That's what they do. This is the Olympics. Whether you're winning or losing your chirping guys. Like, let's get real here. Yeah, that's how they operate. I mean, I do think Brady, Brady's much more subdued. Noodles, you would know more than us, clearly.

Yeah. Brady has to tone it down a little bit. But Matthew can say it because he's got two cup rings. Brady's played six playoff games in his career. So Brady can't. Fair enough. It was awkward a little bit because Brady's laughing and he's like, I can't really chirp because that's dry.

He knows it's his brother. All he's doing is when little brother or I guess big brother is starting a fight, he's there to finish it because he's eight feet tall. That's what it is. Like Matthew's the one at the bar picking the fight, and then the brother comes in and stuffs people in the garbage cans. That's the way I see it. with Brady is that's, you know, that's how the two of them are wired.

You're right. Brady was in the background with a smile on his face. I didn't hear him. He didn't say a word. Yeah. You can't say anything, though. No. Matthew, Matthew can say whatever he wants, literally.

Any game, any time, he can say whatever he wants. He has earned that right. And quite honestly, like, even if he hasn't, who cares? We always want more personality. We want a little more flavor to these things. If a hot mic catches a guy. guy chirping a little bit. It's great. It's great for business.

And you know what? Like, I guess my worry with the hot mics and all, like, hearing these things is that, like, people aren't ready to, like, understand what actually gets said on the ice. Dude, they don't understand, Frankie. Yeah, they don't understand, man. They don't understand it. Every guy that hated all the comments from Matthew Kuch, you look at his nerdy profile, and it's, like, executive and it's very, like, they're just,

nerds. They don't know what the hell is going on. It's a different world, man. It's not like, let's say HR, HR would be called 45 times a game based on everything that gets said. That's fair. That's fair. Frankie, I wanted to go back and, you know, get your take on, you know, the coaching in Europe and the Swedish coach, maybe, you know, benching or, you know, healthy scratching guys. And, you know, to me, I think there's, you know, something different. Maybe they're trying to outthink or outsmart everybody. What do you make of some of these European coaches and all of that? No, it's a good question, noodle.

So I played almost two years in Europe before my career finished. My first year I played for Moto, right, in Sweden, legendary program. I had three head coaches that year. Three head coaches, you know why? Some of the stuff that goes on there is bananas. They can tell you we want to do this, but they can't tell you why they want to do it. And that's where in a tournament like this, you know, Canada and USA have such a significant advantage

as far as how players are being deployed, how they're managing ice time, what kind of line combinations you have. Like it's crazy stuff. Like the year I played in Sweden, we had three different coaches with three different like D zones, neutral zones, whatever you want to call it. It's like, how can there be this many different ways to play in one season?

And then when I went to the KHL, it was just like, we do this because we do this. Well, why do we do it? Just because we've decided that's what we're going to do. So, you know, some of the stuff that's going on in this tournament, and, you know, Craig was talking about it. I heard you guys talking about it earlier. It's, you know, you have to know how to handle certain NHL players.

It's why we see sometimes coaches get a start in the NHL and they stubbed their toe because they've never had to handle the star guys before. This is all the star guys combined on one teams. It's not, you know, you need to have experience with that. And I think some of the European teams, they're showing that they don't have that kind of experience managing those types of players. If I was the star players of a team like Sweden, I would say for the next Olympics, we're not stepping foot on that ice unless we get an NHL coach or somebody capable. We're not having a bozo clown show out there in the Olympics, the biggest sporting event in the world. You don't get a quality coach from the NHL, we're not going.

Or some kind of protest. Why is there no European coaches? Why is there no European coaches in the NHL right now, right? Like, there's plenty of them. Look, all these leagues, there's teams that are good every single year. Why is no one hired any of these guys? You know what? It's just something about it.

And something might change because if Team Sweden loses the team USA, they'll have a hockey summit going, what the hell's going on here? Like, to me, that's a team that probably should be in the medal rounds. And if they don't, if they end up losing, one of them's going, home. I think there'll be, they'll be hard looking at how the coaching was, how the preparation, all that type of stuff too, right? Well, and don't you find this interesting? So it feels like Team USA has picked their team, and they've sat around the boardroom, and they've simulated games, how to play Canada, right?

Like, who's going on the ice when McDavid's out there? How are we killing a penalty when Canada's top unit? How are we doing things with the goalie pulled for or against? Like, if, feels like everything they've done is to prepare for Canada. Now they've got the Swedes. What happens if you lose to Sweden and you don't even get a chance at Canada? Like, do you regret how you picked your team a little bit? Like, that's what I would be worried about. That's what the summit would be for the Americans if they lose to Sweden.

Well, again, it looks like Kyle Conner's on the outside looking in for Mike Sullivan. Again? Yeah, it looks like he's going to be the 13th, 14th, Ford, and may not even dress. 40 goals score. Sorry. Well, they didn't have Caulfield. They didn't have Jason Robertson there. You know, you got to have J.T. Miller.

Got to have Vinny Trocheck out there playing. Got to have these guys. And, you know, that's Bill Guerr. But obviously, Sullivan factors in. You know, just like we know Cooper had a really loud voice for this Canadian team. Sullivan clearly had a loud voice himself. Yeah. But Sullivan's, uh, Hayes, he must have thought there's no way in hell after I embarrassed this guy once.

That'll ever have to do it again. And now he finds himself doing it again at the last. Olympics? That is crazy-ass stuff. We'll see what happens as of tomorrow, but based on lines today, it looks like Connor could be the odd man out. Well, I mean, you look at the Canadian side, they're going to get Chekia, and you

mentioned McDavid and how well he's playing. The Crosby line's been really good. You know, McKinnon's been good, but he's been banged up a little bit. That line hasn't been as good. You know, Suzuki is trying to find his way a little bit. Hagel's been okay. But if you look at McDavid and Sid,

who do you think, because you're asking a lot, they're both playing at a level that is absolutely absurd, especially when you consider Sid's age. Which one is more likely to have another gear, in your opinion? Now that we're in to the elimination round, McDavid or Sid? Well, I think McDavid hit his gear. Like, he hit it already.

Like, does he have another one? If he's in sixth, does he have seventh to go to? That would be the question around McDavid. David. I think Sid has another one that we've actually seen before. Like, we've seen it on the cup runs. We've seen it with the golden goal. Like, Sid has a track record of saying, I'm here. I'm in fifth. I can get to sixth. And so that would lead me down down that road. But it will be interesting, you know, if and when they do get the Americans. Like how, yeah, you're going to, you're going to match up

McDavid as hard as you can. But man, you want to go, if you want to, if you want to really go hard matchup shutdown line on McDavid, you're going to open up, you're going to open up a lot for Crosby, it feels like. So that would be, you know, that's the luxury that you have

if your team Canada. I think it's crazy how McDavid has come into this tournament and said, everything that you thought I was, I'm actually a little bit more. And now here it is. So, I mean,

they've both had another level in the past. I think Crosby has another one that he can go to for sure. Yeah, I think what's scariest they've, they both might. Like I think McDavid, as good as he's been, there's a chance. He goes, all right, last week was the tune-up.

Now it's go-time. And he's not going to play 25 minutes, although he might. In the gold medal game, they might just, Cooper might say, I've got to play him more. Open the door and push him out. Yes. But if it's 18, 19 minutes, it might be insane the way he plays those minutes. But that's the crazy thing right now. Hayes about the way McDavid is getting deployed is he doesn't have to play 25.

So the 18 or 17 minutes that he is playing, it's just he's so fresh and he's so ready to go. He doesn't have to pace himself at any point in this game. It's as soon as he gets on the ice, it's full throttle. You roll your lines and he's back on and he's like raring to go on the ice, which is different than what he does in Edmonton. I mean, he still puts together quality shifts clearly, but man, it's like every single time he's on the ice. Frankie, just one quick question before we get you out of here. Are you on your known-ness porch?

It's not my non-ness porch. It's my kids' known-n-n-n-n-nose porch. So, yeah, we're at N-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-S for dinner right now, and the kids are inside just causing a ruckus, so that's why I'm outside doing the head. Okay, that makes sense. We can accept that. We can accept that.

All right, well, say hello to everyone for us. I'm pretty sure. There's a guy, if you guys listen the first up, Rob from Woodbridge, I'm looking at his house right now. I'm literally, he's probably watching the show, and he's like, I know where this guy is right now,

and I'm looking at Rob from Woodbridge's house. They had to Rob for us, please. And the whole crew. We appreciate it. Thanks, buddy. Yeah. Okay, boys. We'll talk soon.

There is. Frankie Corrado joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. It's time the Toyota in the 2025 Prius, go up to 72 kilometers on battery alone, then seamlessly switch to hybrid mode. Check it out of Maple Toyota right near Canada's Wonderland in the Maple Auto Mall. I'm Dylan Playfair. And I'm Tyler Smith.

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