OverDrive - Duthie on Canada's 4 Nations Face-Off outlook, Crosby's career excellence and the goaltending in the country

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

TSN Host James Duthie joined OverDrive to discuss Canada's roster at the 4 Nations Face-Off, the matchup against Sweden, the construction of the team, Connor McDavid's stance in the tournament, Sidney Crosby's greatness, the players on the hockey Mount Rushmore in the NHL, Jordan Binnington's starting for the team, Canada's goaltending stance and more

We're back on Kidsplained. Today's breaking story, what's missing in schools? Let's go live to a classroom to find out about the lack of school supplies. Thanks Kate. We always seem to be out of paper and pencils and we don't have enough textbooks. Ugh, it's like trying to do math without numbers. What we need is more investment in schools, right Jamal? That's right Kate. It's hard to learn without the basics. Want to help support students? Go to knowmore.ca. That's K-N-O-W-M-O-R-E.ca. A message from the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association.

Well, it's only naturally welcoming former weatherman back in Ottawa back in the day. James Duthie, the host of many things here at TSN. What's going on with the meteorological forecast, James? I never did the weather. Oh, I should know that. I consider myself your biographer. Come on dude, you gotta know he was a weatherman if you're gonna say welcome in the weather. I actually did the weather one night. Actually my mom did the weather one night. I'll make this short story very quickly but this is this is how old I am, the old tape days. And JJ Clark, the weatherman, used to tape the late weather at 6 o'clock so we could go home

when nothing was going on with the weather. And they erased the tape. So I was in the newsroom and the anchor called me and said, James, you've got to get me the weather off like the ticker because they erased the tape and I've got to do the weather in two minutes. And I didn't know how to work the ticker back in the day. So do you remember like the cable channels in your city used to run like a... remember there was a channel that like ran the news just in scrolling font and on the bottom it would run across the bottom of the

screen the weather? That's old man. Yeah. We're talking 1992 or something. I called my mom and I said mom you need to turn on Skyline cable and give me the weather and she's like why it's wrong Jamie? What's going on? And I said mom you need to turn on skyline cable and give me the weather and she's like why it's wrong She changed Amy what's more and I said you just need to get me the weather now mom and she's like, okay It says 14 degrees. How was your night at work mom? I need the weather right now So my mom gave me the weather and I relayed the weather to the anchor person who read the weather So that was the night my mom did the weather there you go

I'll because some guy was lazy and wanted to tape it at six o'clock exactly. Well I don't know how the weather is in Montreal probably not as bad as it is here in Toronto at least with the precipitation but at least they have the big four nations faceoff kickoff tonight with the Canadians and the Swedes what is your level of anticipation and excitement for this tournament? I was you know in the in the months leading up I was kind of blah a little bit but I'm pumped I'm really I'm like everybody else I just I'm pumped to see how they play together and you know it's the one thing I think is the most interesting is how it's it's the shortest tournament ever,

basically. We talk about the Olympics as a short tournament. This is super short. And whether they can click fast. I did a little research for you guys. I was very impressed by ODogg's charting over the last few months on NHL games. So, ODogg, I did a little charting on 2010 and 2014, the last two best on best, because I just remembered Canada kind of starting slow

in both of them. So 2010, they play Norway the worst team in the tournament the first game, they win 8-0. By the way, Crosby to Aguila, the first goal, so there's a little little bookmark there. Nice. Iggy gets a hat-. Second game they lose sorry they win 3-2 over Switzerland in a shootout remember that? Really poor effort Crosby has to score in the shootout for them to win. Yes. So they were sketchy then they lose to the US 5-3 in the next game and that's when the country was in a minor panic and it was after that game that on the bus ride over to Canada House Babcock tells Luongo that it's his tournament and that he's going in for Brodeur and they kind of righted the ship from there they had that great

quarterfinal game against the Russians and go on to win the gold but you know kind of a shaky shaky start 2014 they played Norway in the first game 3 to 1 iffy iffy kind of performance Shay Weber Jamie Ben drew dowdy with the goals cruise over Austria was a crappy team then the rest of the way they beat Finland 2 to 1 in OT in the last round Robin game dowdy gets both goals they beat Latvia 2 to 1 in the quarters remember that Shay Weber has to score with seven minutes left to be Latvia and then one nothing over the US and they beat the Swedes three nothing so that's just a long-winded way of saying that in both those tournaments it

took Canada sort of three or four games to really get going and in this tournament they don't have three or four games to really get going and so I think that's the great equalizer for for Sweden tonight and so let me ask you this Jimmy if you were if we were gonna pull off a stunt on Sports Center tonight and tape it like your buddy did with the weather What would be your slam dunk tape Sports Center hit that you think is gonna happen tonight? That's a good one I Don't you see I think you lead it off by a dog they won six to what happened happened like no crisis yeah probably

i'd say well i was sketchy at times but you know mcdavid mckinnon come through in the end and on the last but i would be my best bet because i don't think it's going to be i don't think it's going to be lopsided because that's just not the way these canadian teams have worked starting off a tournament against a good team like Sweden. I think it'll probably be a closer game than we anticipate. So Jimmy, that's what we were talking about yesterday.

I brought it up in the last segment before you came on. Are we not giving Sweden and Finland enough love or respect of them being capable of, in a short tournament, with guys who have grown grown up together played together on many teams and stuff A chance in this tournament. Yeah, I think particularly the the Finns I mean, I think people given the Swedes a chance they're just the Americans and the Canadians obviously deserve to be the favorites because of their rosters, but Just because of what I said, you know If they're if a team like that 2010 team that was loaded and you know,

is beating Slovakia 3-2 on a late goal or whatever, I think Luongo made a great save on Demetri with like 15 seconds left to preserve that win. That just shows you that, I think we get, we all fall in love with staring at this roster and going, Oh my god, this is unbelievable. But I think particularly with Finland as we find out, you know, the World Juniors almost every year when the roster is far inferior for the most part to Canada will have 17 first round draft picks on there, Finland will have two and you know, what will happen? I mean this year they beat them, but for the most part the Finns know how to play in a short tournament like this and know how to play together. So yes, I think that Finland could easily beat the Americans or the Canadians.

I think all of these games are going to be closer than we expect. Having said that, now it will be 8-1 tonight and they'll look like an idiot. James Duthey, our guest. We were talking about how guys like Matthew Kachuk and Jake Sanderson, Crosby, Doughty talked about the importance of them being at this tournament. And I think with guys like Crosby and Doughty in particular, they're the elder statesmen. They've been there before. They've won gold at the biggest stage for Canada. But the younger guys, I hone in on the Americans and the Canadians who are now the top players in the NHL, the Mathews and the Eichel and the Kachuk boys and of course McKinnon and McCarr and Connor McDavid.

I think there's an increased importance for these guys because they're representing their country at the biggest stage against their opposing best for the first time. And I think that's why it means just a little bit more than we perhaps thought it might when this tournament was first announced. It is crazy, like, to see some of these guys in the uniforms and know that they haven't done it since they were world juniors or whatever. I mean, the odd world championship, they get knocked out for a lot of these guys, but yeah, I think you're right. And, you know, I wondered a few months ago if the effort level was, you know, just because, look at the all, the cup is, the playoffs are a couple of months away,

and you know, you don't want to get hurt, definitely the playoffs, is there going to be a, is it going to be halfway between an Olympics and an All-Star game, kind of in the middle? But I think you're probably right, AK, because of those guys who've never done this before, they're going to be, they're going to be super pumped, no matter That it's a made-up tournament with a made-up trophy Jimmy where do you think Sid standing is gonna be when he's wrapped up as international and total career like is he gonna be up there with the highest regard of the

The Gretzky's and Mario's with all that he's why I think he's won every championship available hasn't he like the world juniors? Olympics like he's won. I think he's won every championship available hasn't he? Like the World Juniors, Olympics, like he's gonna be like gods of, one of the greats of Canadian hockey, no? Well I think we're, I'm not trying to give away Trey, I don't, Mike Lane will get mad at me if I say this, but some of our, somewhere along the way, maybe Trade Center, I think we're doing a, like a Mount Rushmore of hockey Where you're gonna have to pick your is there four on Mount Rushmore? There's four right until pros be zon this hill Do you radical Trump knocks off and just makes a giant head of himself, but um Yeah, so does he make you know is he the fourth best player

He's probably not the fourth best player of all time, because of what you said oh, I think just in stature Maybe he belongs on there I mean you're gonna have to get some more arguments with Gordie howe or somebody like that But I just think the way the guy is revered by everyone and you're seeing it with all these Canadian players playing with them that maybe I Think he will be I think he's top five player all time and the way he's gonna sit like a swear word To say that Sidney Crosby, and I don't want to be disrespectful here Like is it okay to say that Sidney Crosby was a better player than Gordie Howe like is that allowed like yeah

I think you can say it is It is allowed, though, but what will happen is you get people that are old enough to have watched Gordie Howe or old enough to watch Bobby Orr. Yeah, that's a fair point, Jamie. Maybe people that have watched both say, no, he wasn't or no, he isn't. It's hard to... Impossible to compare. It is.

I have a tough time going from generation to generation as well because I talk to people that were old enough to watch Bobby Orr. To me Bobby Orr was like McDavid in today's world skating around everybody. It was a video game where people back then didn't skate as well so all of a sudden Bobby Orr would be going end to end. I look at it. I have a tough time. What I feel like we should be doing is having a cutoff and going, okay, it was Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe up to this date.

And then from this date on, it is these players. Yeah, but you know what people are like, Jamie. They want like go conversations and all-time greats. I know the one guy that knows all eras and he has a great perspective on all the different players and you guys know exactly who I'm talking about. Quizmaster, no. Oh yeah.

Because he's biased. That's the problem. The Quizmaster, if he doesn't like your answer, he will change it or he'll find a way to talk you into changing it just for the argument's sake and that's the thing. He has his bias and they'll never change. that's why I feel like behind this Mount Rushmore There's a steerer, you know who standing there behind the curtain

I guarantee you maybe he wants to be on it quiz the quiz master would have bellovo on there cuz that's always been his Boy, why is it my he loves to Montreal? I just I feel like a goalie should I feel Dominic Kassage should be on there I think Dominic Kassick was the greatest goaltender has ever played this game Now people will say Ken Dryden they're gonna say Patrick Wadden Marty Perdue you name it But I just look at it from you know Hasek was the best like this guy was been winning hearts and stuff I believe when he went seven business. Yeah Seven business seven business. I don't want to misspeak you know a k

it's something like that yes do get it to look at our he's on it he's on it will get the exact stats that she here's a brought this thing up which of michael and kill me for uh... i would put gretzky mario bobby or in cross be on mine and and Crosby would you could probably argue I don't it's hard pretty hard to argue the other three but you're right okay well we're gonna knock off in 10 years when the other guy that's gonna go on there but he could be I mean it depends what

I don't know if he only let's say doesn't win a cop or what you're right like I could i think cross the mcdavid to better layered in rosby but what goes into your mount rushmore this is dark this gets into like the mvp debates again right is to what's your definition of what should be on there but i just think because what you mention off the top of the way people revere cross be in this country in around hockey in the respect he has that for now he's getting chiseled up there in my book.

Six Vezinas for Dominic Haschek according to Jayme. I asked hearts too, do you have any hearts? He definitely has hearts there there's no denying it but you think Crosby of course the moment we remember more so than any in 2010 in Vancouver he was actually the MVP of the tournament in 2016 as well the World Cup of Hockey or whatever they called it. I don't think anyone remembers that because that tournament was a little iffy, but wouldn't it be an incredibly fitting, not going to call it end because I think he's still very likely to be on the Olympic team next year, Sid, but if he was just to dominate this tournament,

win MVP, lead Canada, can you think of a better storyline than that, James? Yeah, that would be awesome. I don't think it's going to happen. I kind of wonder if Makar, if this is his moment, only because look, he did it a couple years ago when they won the Coppin. He was amazing. But he still has that Colorado, West Coast, you know, everybody in the East doesn't get to see him as much as they should. If he is clearly the best player on the ice, which I think

he has the potential to be, then this might be the one where we leave the tournament and go, oh man, maybe it's an actual question as to whether he's right there with McDavid as the best player in the game. Jimmy, do you remember him in Buffalo at the World Juniors? He'd scored every shift and the coaching staff was like, we can't trust the kid. He's a bit of a wild horse out there. And I was like, what the hell? He scores every time he's on the ice.

Didn't he start as the seventh defenseman or something? Yeah, he was. And they put him out sporadically. And every time they put him out there, he scored a goal. And they were like, oh, he can't trust this kid. He's crazy out there. And all he did was score goals. The next year, he's winning awards in the Stanley he did was score goals. The next year he's

winning awards in the Stanley Cup I'm like man they might have had that one wrong in Buffalo. The other thing though is just like the whole goaltending thing which I know you talked about to death is like I think it gets really real tonight like I think I saw I was watching Sports Center this morning and you know they put up a font of Bennington's numbers and then you put it next to Hellebuck's numbers, and that is it's a little bit terrifying yeah, I've been anything so what like 13 and 20 with like an 897 save percentage and then Hellebuck is some ludicrous number he's got almost as many shutouts as that and that's the part where I

Think it's you know maybe it won't maybe it won't play into it because it's only a few games and the defense is really good and Canada outscores the other guys, but statistically that is a bit of a terrifying comparison. I think we are, I mean, everybody, it's not the elephant in the room, it literally is the storyline heading into this because, you know, if somehow the goaltending for Canada

doesn't hold up, it's not only going to be a crease crisis. We have to have a summit. What's going on? There's no goaltenders coming up. To me, where I think at Logan Thompson, who's 27 years old and should be up for a Vesna, he's just not there. And I'm not sure if I'm believing the stories online saying that the coaching

staff didn't like him or whatever, it was difficult. Bottom line is they didn't choose Logan Thompson, who is arguably been one of the best goaltenders on the planet this year. Well, Jamie, the biggest part about it is as a country, we are so used to Marty Brodeur and... Kerry Price. Roberto Alongo and Kerry Price and... Patrick Wa. Grant Feuer, Patrick Wa. Yeah, no, he's... We're so used, much like the center ice position, it's almost like we're used to the best guy

at that position is a Canadian. Yeah. And it's just not that now. It's actually not close to that. It hasn't been for a while I the only defense I have of that is the goal tenning has been good enough to win cups And if you look at I think it's six or seven out of the last ten cup winners are Canadian bull tenders So, you know, they're doing the job. They're just it they don't come with the brand recognition. They just don't come you're right It's not Marty Bader. It's not Roberto Luongo, it's not Carey Price.

What you're getting is Aiden Hill. You're getting, you know, is Brayden Holtby into Matt Murray into Darcy Kemper into Aiden Hill. Like you're getting guys that are winning cups and being productive and being very good goalies. They're just not superstar brands like the other guys. And that's just the reality of it to be honest yeah they're coming though i mean this is probably a bad time to say this after they

skunk up the world juniors and canada lost in the quarters but that carter george and ivan kovac and a couple of other guys there is a there is a wave that is probably the best wave of junior goalies come into the nhl within the next few years from Canada. But it's such a crack. It's such a crack. It's such a crack. No way in hell you know that. It's called World Junior Prep O. Look at the chart.

Remember the binder I had in front of me in the World Juniors when you would show up with a little tiny, not even a notepad. Bob and I had like binders 400 pages and oh just go up. There was this guy, I was with this guy at the world juniors and some guy tweeted, look at the difference between Bob and James and Cheryl's notes and then oh dog's notes and then this guy doesn't defend me. He writes the guy back and goes he doesn't even have anything not even a piece of paper It's all up there. It's all up there

You know what you're doing Yeah, he could have said they're all on his iPad anything. He goes. There's nothing actually there Yeah, so that's what's making that's a cut some nuts. You took that as a negative. That's a compliment to you Yeah, the fact that you don't need I need all the stuff in front of me You're you have just this unlimited source of information in your brain. You're like an Elon Musk type character. The wealth of knowledge. I mean, Jimmy, I brought it up too and I want your opinion on it. Is there anybody who could turn their season season around turn their career around in this tournament that you know might have a Renaissance kind of kind of thing I

brought up one name I'll throw in that's Eric Carlson who's you know yeah so that's that's a really good name I mean dropped off most of the guys on here have pretty good like there's not a lot of guys on here who haven't or having garbage seasons right because that's that's lot of guys on here having her having garbage seasons right because that's that's why they're on this all of these teams as you look at that's the best example right there probably uh...

what about a jordan what if that that you can't send i was just gonna say what jordan bennington stands on his head and i miss a layup you're missing a layup what if mitch barners the best player in the tournament i don't think i would shock us with that that shock us? I know but it's a big stage it'll be a playoff type environment and he can say everybody calm down I know how to perform under these circumstances so just take a lap and I'm gonna bring it again in the playoffs. I would say Mark Stone and

that sounds like a dumb answer too because Mark Stone's a star in the league but I think a lot of people have forgotten. Same deal, plays in Vegas, hurt so much over the last few years that I think that maybe we've forgotten how great he can be when he's healthy, and maybe he has a chance to be spectacular in a tournament like this, playing with McKinnon and Crosby. I mean, look at your Sens team, Jimmy.

Like, if they had Mark Stone still there with those young kids What it's not my you're from Ottawa But if they could have and not everything works out when you keep the band together But if Carlson stayed and Nick Paul stayed and mark stone stayed Who now knows what kind of team you'd have there the most embarrassing Ted part of that tenure? who now knows what kind of team you have there the most you're embarrassing take part of that tenure uh... was when dorian came up on the day that mark stone was traded and said

this is one of the i don't know i'm miss quoting here so i don't know that i had strong they got brandstrom from mark stone and he said this is what one of the greatest days in franchise history something like i said probably terribly misquoting but it was something along those lines and that's just well Bradstrum and everybody knew at the time Bradstrum wasn't that great a prospect yeah I mean he you know on the back end you want trees not shrubs and he's a smaller guy right like the one

thing I will say though the Eric Carlson trade that's Stutzla that's Josh Norris that was a good trade that was a really good trade. Like you look at what they got out of that whole trade as far as picks if you follow the trail of picks and prospects they got out of that pretty impressive. I think that's part of the core of their team. I do believe Stootsla is it Ridley Gregg with one of the picks too, like I can't remember, but that one draft, he had three first rounders and he took Stootsla, Sanderson and Ridley Gregg. And all three of them aligned for the trade. That's a hell of a trade, I don't care. Who cares about the guy that's in the Federal League?

That's a good trade. That was a great trade. James, great to see you. Thank you for coming in. It must be pleasant being back from New Orleans, entering this snow hellscape that we have here in southern Ontario. So, welcome home. It's going to be a night. It will. Drive safe.

Yeah. We should do a live show on the commute home. A long show. Oh, you're coming in, right? Are you coming in at some point? Yeah. Yeah. I'm leaving here, here my house at six o'clock to get there for eight I'll bring I'll bring the stuff that I got for you from the Super Bowl I'll bring it in you better have something for stuff yeah I just you better have something I didn't get a different size this year it's a large and you better have something I didn't get anywhere near that store

nowhere near I came in late oh i came in midway through the week i would have gotten your hoodie uh... you i i was surprised i didn't get the uh... annual tax that i get every year a k that says give me the hoodie the jail and hurts is wearing right now at his press conference i'm not saying to wait to see the stunt i pull when i get to montreal i'm gonna go see if i know any of the trainers for Team Canada,

and I want a duffel bag loaded full of, like, large stuff. Like, gimme it all. Hoodies, workout stuff, shorts, everything. A sweatsuit, a hat, all of it. Stuff it in a bag. What player would be your size now? Like, are you in a... Like a Brandon Hangel. Colton Pareko type size... size where we got here i think means said i'm a large up top

i'm a large t-shirt you know how it's probably next like he's got the biggest ass in from same frame everything same frame say guys and i i say everything couple athletes jeff o'neill and sydney cross be james thanks for coming thanks buddy that's james dot the from t s n