OverDrive - Ferraro on the Maple Leafs and Oilers' tough seasons, Bedard, Celebrini and Schaefer in the spotlight and the league style

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

ESPN Hockey Analyst Ray Ferraro joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the NHL, Mikko Rantanen's hit on Alexander Romanov and Patrick Roy's response, Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini's incredible season and the Olympics shot, the quality of the teams, the Maple Leafs and Oilers' overall performances and more.

Can my Wi-Fi connect all my family's smart stuff I want? Let's see. There's the smart TVs, five smartphones, laptops and tablets, smart speakers, smart vacuum. Huh, what else? A smart toaster. It was a gift. Smart salt shaker. Yeah, that's a real thing.

And a smart nine-speed cheese grater. Okay, I made that one up. All the tech, one connection. Yeah, this Wi-Fi can. Switch to Wi-Fi 7 on Bell Pure Fiber, Canada's fastest internet awarded by Ukla. Visit bell.com to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Here's Ray Ferraro from ESPN, our cricket insider.

Are you aware of that? That's me. Are you aware of that, Ray, that a cricket match? You know how much I hate to agree with you. It really pisses me off. But you are correct. A cricket test, I believe, is the term, can go on for two or three days. I don't know if they bring picnic lunches or what they're doing there.

Diapers. But like, in the, in, North America, we're sour if a hockey game gets over $2.15. We're like, are you kidding me? Let's roll this thing along. We were pissed last night with overtime. No kidding. Oh, hey, can that ever throw a cramp into the day?

Yeah. You know, like overtime, really. Where's the Cricket Summit trying to get a pitch clock going or a bowl line? Cricket Summit. They're going to bring. Hey, by the way, two things. Drake's told me yesterday on our podcast that you guys were. you know, you were taking over the, the intermissions.

And I had this worry that it was just you three, but I saw Dothie was there too, right? Duffy was running the whole operation. Yes. Okay. Well, that's, that gives some comfort to the viewer, for sure. The second thing is I hear this story about this fisherman friend stuff and how, you know, how, like, noodles is such a, like, because he's a good teammate. and he brings Dregs like a box of fishermen friends. And he says he brings them and he puts them on the table and oh, crushes the bag.

Yeah, I do. Through one game, I crushed the whole bag. So I'm so disliked, because as we all know, Dregs is a bit of a smart ass. And I'm like, Dregs, I cannot believe you're missing this opportunity. Like he should have sprinkled some hot paprika sauce on those fishermen friends or something. So the first time that you pop one in, it's like fire. Like, I can't believe he's missed that all. I'm so disappointed.

The payback would be a bitch for Dregs because he's almost choked to death on air before. So I could just, I could mix him up a little concoction that will choke him out immediately. Yeah, keep in mind, Ray, there has been some incidents on the panel. You're right. Like Dregs is choked out a few times. Oh, had the, what was that? The steak sandwich. I had to give him the hymlich on the panel.

Dude, Bobby Mac for years, Bobby Mac for years, he would tell me he's like, I really like the steak sandwich and the calf with not regular fries. What is the other fries? Like curly fries or something? No, sweet potato fries. So we got a steak sandwich and sweet potato fries. So I don't have much time. I go wheel up there and I grab one.

I take two bites. Bobby's not even on the panel. It was me, Jamie, and Pooley. And I take one bite, and it was the part of the crusty part of the bun. and the steak, and it lodged in my throat. And I looked at Pooley, and I was like, and he punches me in the back. That was Pooley's resolution.

Old school punch in the back, and I'm like, no way, man. And Nootles grabs me, and I was a monster at the time. And this guy tries to give me the heimlich. And if it didn't work, I'm a goner, man. I puked out this thing. I shot at 30 feet in the air, a piece of steak and bread, and I was so rattled. I had to go home. Noodles saved my life.

Out of boy, noodles. So, noodles, this is all on you. This is all on you. All of this. So you know, this is on you now. All I remember is that I looked up because the weirdest thing is I was eating Swiss L.A. And Ebbinton and Buffalo were playing on, like, some screen over there.

So I was watching. I wasn't paying attention. And then Pooley gives him the death shot. You're not supposed to. punch somebody in the back when they're choking, he gives him the death shot. That lages it even more in his throat. So I turn him around, I give him the Heinleck, he spits it out, and I just looked at, or I think it was Rennie, and I go, did you guys get that on film?

But I saw the jib was facing the other way, because I wanted video evidence that I saved his life. And I patted him on the back and sat back down. But, yeah, I mean, it was quite traumatic. I think O'Haddened or something. I did. I was rattle. I was cry.

I was a mess. By the way, Pooley didn't stop eating while he was punching. He was taking a bite, and then he punched and was not even faced. That's a veteran in the room. He's like, yeah, I got to get my food in here, man. That's a hell of a story, man. That would have been great on video. Have you tried that sandwich since?

Or is it RIP? Never. Never. I'll never have a steak sandwich as long as I have. I guarantee you, it was like the gristle that you bit into. That's what it. The gristle probably expanded in your throat. I think that was the bun.

It was a real solid part of the bun that choked me. If you didn't help me, Jamie, I was gone. Don't you think maybe this is a question about the cafeteria? Maybe that bread had been there 10 days, 12 days. Probably. The niner diner has always fresh great food. Well, the gravy boss retired, I think. Yes, they haven't seen them in years.

It's disappointing. Well, that could have been a bad scene. And, you know, I guess as we segue into, it could have been a bad seed, Miko Ranton in on Romanov last night, that hit. That was gnarly. And Patrick Waugh was going crazy last night. And I kind of, I'm curious how you guys feel like to see your coach, I'm sure Romanov has an appreciation for that passion. But I believe they have it on tape, him saying, like, hey, you're not going to finish the game. Yeah, you're not getting out of the next game alive when we play it down the road.

That's a tough one. And what do you make of this play, Ray, and Patrick Waugh's response to rant on them? Well, I can see why the Islanders are furious. I can see why Raw is. It happens so fast. And, I mean, when you slow it down and you look at Mayfield gets a stick into his feet and there's Waugh losing his mind. But, like, maybe you think about it a little bit differently.

But when a guy is chasing the defenseman back to the boards, Like I do think it's it's got to be on the forward to make sure where your stick is. Because once he gets tripped up, you're totally out of control. Once he, you know, Mayfield's stick is in his feet. Now we, you know, half toe picks a bit. He's already ready to finish the check. And now his arms go out, his stick goes out. And man, any time, I mean, we've all, you know, seen it multiple times.

somebody hits the boards like that, it makes you catch your breath, right? Yeah. I don't know that there's, I think it's all on rant in it. I think he's got to do a better job of trying to protect the play, but I see why it happened. Like, I don't think it's a suspension. I don't, I, I, I just think it's a terrible thing that happens in a game that's going so fast. He's, he's literally going, they're going 20 miles an hour still. I know, but Ray, him, the idea of just him pushing him from behind,

you don't think that's any type of suspension? Well, I don't think there will be one. I think they probably already announced there. There isn't. I hate that play, oh, I hate it. So do I. I think that, like, where he's going to push, why wouldn't you take a step to the inside and use your shoulder?

Like if you're trying to bump them off the pocket. But because that, to me, that's a way safer play. this is man this is this is exactly why they got rid of icing touch up icing is because the d has no chance if if there's a stumble or a little push or a knockoff balance there's no chance for those guys and uh man i i i haven't heard but it looks like roman off's okay and that's probably a really lucky thing yeah big time and yeah you mentioned it's a fast game and we've been talking about how it's a young man's game and what a night last night

Bard scores three, Celebrini matches them, scores three. The two of them are both top five and points. It's like McKinnon, McDavid, Bedard, Celebrini, Leo Carlson. You know, like those three are all in the West. They're all, like everyone knows

the two of them. I don't know how many people in Canada know Carlson. But this debate's ongoing constantly and it will be for the next couple of months. You know, how do you keep these two kids off the Olympic team? where do you where do you stand on this um i i i guess the same as other players that are going to get left off or selected is that you're not picking the the 14 best forward you're picking the 14 best that make a roster right you still you still do need a couple of penalty killers you you

you do need somebody to protect the lead um the players that get picked on this team we've got to all realize they're not going to play the same minutes and roles that they have on their own team. So if you take Bardard and, I mean, he's, you know, he plays every power play. He, you know, he plays 18 to 20 minutes a night. That's not going to happen on Canada. So if it doesn't happen, can you see him as an effective player? Same with Celebrini. What if Celabrini becomes a 12-minute guy? Can he be that? Can he be effective. I'm at the point though with these young guys. I think they're better than they've ever been. I think they're more savvy to play in important games than the players before them. I don't

think age should matter. If they're in your vision for what your team is, I think they should be on the team. And that'll get into like guys that were on the team last year, we're going to get shoved out. Some of them are. And are you going to report, like, is Tom Wilson going to be in that mix in a in a in a rink that's actually if they ever if my countryman ever build the rank it's going to be smaller and um like would wilson be a guy that you would have on that team um because he wasn't he wasn't there of course last time is connect me on that team right now no i mean they've already named braden point to the team is he got 10 points like there's some right there's some things they've got to look at as they piece this all together and i don't know how

How crazy is it about Matthew Schaefer? I don't know if you guys have had a chance to see him live. The guy is like, he's amazing. And you're like, is there eight better defensemen than him? Or is there eight better that fit in the mix? I think it's going to be really hard when they get in December. That's where I was going to go, Ray. Like you're around the game, you're ice level.

The game has changed a lot. one of our you know it's only 20 games but observations I said it and I didn't want to be you know negative about the league but there's been a lot of like bad hockey games so far this season like just we I don't know if the product has I don't know if it's watered down if it's just early on no training camps compressed schedules guys are tired their minds aren't into it but there's been a lot of games where you're like gone this is just nonsense

or bad, you know, bad, bad execution of plays. Like, I don't know how you feel about it, but that's been my observation of the first 20 games. There's been some good hockey, but some really poor hockey as well. Well, there's no practice time. There's, you know, I think the Canucks just finished 20 games in 38 days. Maybe it's a part of the reason they're at the bottom of the league and goals against. They're like, they give up chances all over the place.

the goal of the other night, last night, in overtime, like, what is St. Louis doing? Like, they get three guys standing, shaking Tavares' hand. Yeah. And you're like, somebody should probably notice, hey, wait a minute, if I can touch my teammates, this is probably a bad place. But I think they're just, it appears to me anyway that they're just totally worn out, that guys make mental mistakes. like they're not even like the games are they lack zip they like every once in a while we get

a really good game and you're like whoa that was really great but way too many noodles like you mentioned i was in ottawa saturday night and the kings were playing ottawa yeah halfway literally halfway that second commercial at the 10 minute mark the shots were 6 6 and i said to john kelly who i was doing the game with i go is it bad that I can literally remember 10 of the 12 shots. Like, it's ridiculous. Like, that's a beautiful move at the end by Kneelander. But there's a St. Louis guy.

Two of them come to Tavares, and the third guy goes and stands behind the goal line. In the corner. I'm not really sure what he thinks is going on there, but they had that corner pretty well covered. And I'm with you. Like, is it watered down? Probably a little bit, but man, man,

Like, it's messy so far. When I read, hey, they're thinking about expansion. I'm like, where are the players coming from? Okay. Like, that's another 45 NHL players. We're pretty, if we haven't noticed yet, there are no centers. There's about 10 teams looking for a center. Where did they all go?

And I don't think adding two teams is going to make it that easy to find them. Ray, if you had to pick, like if you were, if Edmonton and Twenton, Toronto was tossed on your lap and you were told they're both going to make the playoffs. Would you agree with that right now today? You don't have to say which one isn't or is. Would you say they're both in? Um, maybe. Yes, maybe, kind of.

I don't like either of them, really. I don't either. I think Edmonton's, I think Edmonton's going to make it. I think Toronto should make it. Yet when I look at Toronto, I'm like, they're a mess. But Edmonton is, Edmonton finds ways to, they win some games and you're like,

like they won those three overtime games in a row. Or, well, the back-to-back ones when Roslavik scored. And then they won another one late. And you're like, but it's still, like it doesn't look like they're a good team. You know, they've got some really good players. It doesn't look like they're a good team. Toronto, to me, this is their,

well, both of them, this is their worst team. in three years for for both of those teams the holes are bigger um it doesn't seem like there's solutions uh available to them um i thought uh trillivings press conference the other day was really interesting when you know too much vanilla and i mean they just put this roster together and i know what's hard but they're saying we want more snot we want more you know a harder team but that's not what they've got right now and like How do you fix it? Where do you go fix it?

And I do think both teams should make it, but I would not be surprised if one of them does not. Yeah, the way both have played. I mean, Edmonton would rely on while we do this every year, although, you know, I was reading an article on them today about underlying stats and all that, that this is different than what they've done the past two years. Like, it's particularly ugly.

Positive or negative? No, negatively. like negatively, like particularly worse. And for the Leafs, you know, I think, listen, they're suffering from injuries right now. Yeah, what you guys just said describing the league, it maybe shouldn't be the case, but they might use that as why they're going to be optimistic.

It's like, yeah, we're terrible, but everyone's terrible. You know, like it's a weird argument. Hayes, you're not wrong. So like, so I'm obviously watching the Canucks a lot. I do a bunch of their games and, you know, with Camis and, you know, with Cammy's involvement, obviously I'm paying attention, but they're four points out of the division lead. And you're like, well, how is that even possible?

Like how not just like, not just like L.A.'s leading the division. You're like, how could that be? And it's, I would save, well, I don't know, who are the favorites? Colorado. I thought Dallas was having a bad start. Then I looked at the record and I was like, ew. Yeah. They're actually, they're fine.

They're more than fine. Yeah. But Colorado has been the best team. And after that, there's a whole bunch of stuff that looks the same. I mean, some team doesn't have a defense. Some teams don't have forward. Some teams, it's a goalie. But there's not half a dozen or eight teams.

You go, man, they could all win the cup. I don't say that right now. No, I agree with you. Go ahead, No. No, I was just going to say, you know what the word comes to mind, guys? Mediocre. A lot of mediocre. Parity.

Parity. You can make an argument, you know, name me a team, you can make an argument of, you know, why they can be in it or why they can be out of it. That's, that's the, you know, like you said, you look at Vancouver's four points out, Ebenton, four points out or three points out of first place, Leafs now, or what, four or six points, whatever it is. Like, it's all, everybody's bunched out. You can make an argument positively or negatively for probably 22 teams. of going, what is this going to look like? We're 20 games in.

You got, you know, I get 75% of the games left. But that's the one thing I've noticed after 20 games. You're going, there's been no separation other than one or two teams positively and negatively. I feel bad for my flames. Like, you know, Calgary's lost again last night. Lost in Chicago. But some of these teams that, you know, Chicago's taken a step. San Jose's taken a step.

Like there's not going to be a scenario where there's a team like. like dead dead like rebuilding ugly we thought Pittsburgh was going to be like that all of a sudden they started like gangbusters so i just that's yeah i watched that chicago team last night and i was like maybe they get in somehow they play fast yeah if they can get goaltending and those guys can keep scoring who knows man their defense is ginormous enormous enormous humans that rinsel kid he is good uh Alex vlasic is really good night's been awesome to your point Oh, and goal. And there's also, remember when we were young and we hadn't failed yet?

And you just come into the league and you're like, you just, it's just, I won't say it's easy, but there's no scar tissue. There's nothing that you're not worried about failure. You just go play. And if you screw up, you get to go play again. It doesn't work that way when you get older. Anaheim, Chicago, San Jose, they're all the same. Like San Jose, or Anaheim scores goals by the buckets.

And you're like, could, like, that Dostel is really good. Like, are they in the mix? Sure they are. Right. You know what? To your point about Calgary noodles, I think last year, unfortunately changed their people's perception of them a little bit. But they're in this rebuild thing and they're going to get lots of good young players. Just maybe it won't be as quick as last year.

Maybe it's made people think it might be. Their best tact right now is to finish rate where they are. And you get one of those two or three kids at the top of the draft, and then you get another one at 32 or 33 in a really good draft, and you're like, oh, man, that's how it had that. Don't you think? That's how it's going to happen. Big time.

I agree. Right. Do you think a team like Anaheim, like, is it any chance they should go from zero to 100 where it's like we should not just try to get in, but maybe go for it with guys on their entry deals? because you know what happens after that. It's like everyone starts getting paid and then the guys go overboard. It's almost like you might as well try to make some hay.

I said earlier, I don't think age should matter anymore with some of these young guys. They're so good, so early. I do think, like, what if you get within a month of the deadline, Anaheim's got all kinds of cap space, and you're like, what if you decide, you know what? we can blow out some of these 15 draft picks we've got in our pocket and somebody somebody by that time will say you know what I'm going to sell I'm going to I'm going to move along and maybe Anaheim can cherry pick a guy that's got a year left on their contract like

not a pretty good player but a really good player like they'd be wouldn't you if you're an older forward wouldn't you go man I'd kind of be interested here yeah yeah I'd kind of be interested I'm doing the game I'm doing the game guys tomorrow Anaheim Ottawa and first thing I thought about is you know Padver Beek's been able to kind of grab some players along the way we'll call them off

the scrap heap but he you know it was Kallorn he started with Kallorn you know he got Ryan Strom and then you know now it's Chris Kreider it's Jacob Truba and then he's got a whack of young players like all of these players are this Lecombe kid like you look at it

Carlson, as McTavish got his deal done, Dostell and Net, like, these, they've got some young studs. So to raise point, you've got currency, and you can grab some more as team becomes sellers either early on in the season or near the deadline and add to your group. Ray, we got to fly, buddy. Just give me your coach of the year before we go through 20. Well, right now, honestly, I think I would. I would vote for Q.

Yeah. I would vote for Joel. Yeah. I mean, nobody really had them in this position. He's taken a team that was probably had some good momentum and has been able to, I don't know, they just have a, they look like they're a pretty good team right now. Like, I always default to the guys that outkicked their, you know, the expectations. That's, maybe that's not fair or right, but that's,

kind of a little bit of the way I look at Coach of the Year. I am happy Dave Worsowski's not going to have to trade off one of his kids in San Jose for the win. Those guys in Chicago, they look pretty organized, and Travis Green's done a hell of a job in Ottawa without their captain. Oh, by the way,

so they play hard, and that game I did the other, there was zero room. Like, Greenie's teams check and they defend, and I bet you, well, I guess the next 20 games will separate the pretenders a little bit, but I did say to him after the game, Greenie, if I have to do one more of those games

between you and L.A., I'm going to retire on the spot because nobody, no, you couldn't even say each goalie play, it was one nothing, and you're like, yeah, I don't know, I guess they were fine in there, the goalies were fine. Like, nobody made a save. Checking is bad for hockey. I like goals. Right. Let's get a hockey and a cricket summit going here and let's work this out.

Let's make this move in the direction we wanted to here. I like that. I can't buy the cricket summit. I'd like to offer some opinion. When you can hit the ball backwards, I'm like, that's still in the field of play. I'm like, I don't quite understand how that could be. No, me neither. But that's the point.

I don't get it. I don't get it either. but what can you do you live and learn all right ray great seeing you buddy as always thank you for doing this we'll do it again down the road yeah travel safe guys and we'll uh we'll see you soon eh you got it there is our good buddy ray for our ESPN hockey analyst joining us here on the maple toyota hotline get in go get in and go where adventures take you in a new 2025 tacoma from maple toyota near canada's wonderland in the maple auto mall visit maple toota com It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas with IHart the Holidays.

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