OverDrive - Giordano on the Maple Leafs not leading up to expectation, the playoff decline and approaching the season ending

Episode Date: May 20, 2025

Longtime NHL Defenseman Mark Giordano joined OverDrive to discuss the Maple Leafs' series elimination against the Panthers, what led to the downfall in the game, the mindset of the group with the deficit, the ending of the season for the team, Mitch Marner and John Tavares' perspective of next choices and more.

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That's why Bell believes that whatever you talk about, just talk. I'm so glad you called, man. Even if you don't know you're up from town. It's up. Florida, Carolina. Here's our boy Mark Cheeradano how you doing? Geo guys? How's it going? Yeah, you're the perfect guy to ask and have on today because I'd like to ask you just out of the game And you were in that dressing room After what you witnessed watching

Like how is how would you assess it because the assessment hasn't been great from us because it was a tough watch but how do you assess what you watched on Sunday night? Yeah so obviously oh man obviously game five was was just a really bad game and the boys took a lot of heat a lot of heat and then went to Florida and after game six it was was like, okay, that's the hurdle they had to get over. And that's how I felt about it. I thought they're going to come out with a really strong game.

But I think for me, what shocked me the most was the start was the 24 attempts to nothing in the first 10 minutes. I thought they looked really tight, really tentative. And then I did think, oh, like I did think the last 10 minutes of the first, like you get two breakaways, you get some chances, you get some life. And I honestly, going into the second period, I didn't see it coming. I thought they were going to take over a little bit. I thought, okay, now they're like, we stayed in this game.

We finally got through like through a little hurdle here, a little hurdle there, but I really just felt like when Jones scored that goal and then they scored one right after, it was like, it was like, oh no, it's happening again. It felt like that's how the mindset of the team was, is like, it's really going to happen again. And it's unfortunate. I mean, it ended up 6-1, but I'm just like, man, if they could have got a breakaway goal or, you know, they didn't get scored on twice in a row, but it just, it just steamrolled and snowballed. And it was like, it just felt like it was like, oh no, it's going to happen again. And they couldn't stop. Like Florida was super

aggressive. Like Seth Jones, I think gets lost in all this He had a game of his life like he was all over it scored the goal He scored another one that got this allowed he had a I think a key assist on one of them Like he was just all over it But yeah, it just caught me off guard that it was like, you know The first the first ten minutes of the game caught me off guard for sure so basically what you're saying is they were in it and then they ultimately got

crushed and caved in and it wasn't even close so when you talk about heat after game five and obviously heat after game seven would you say any of that criticism would be unfair or taken too far or are people just not uh... no i think i think the way they lost the criticism is not unfair. The guys know that deep down, everyone knows it. The messages in the media, you're going to protect yourself and your teammates, but guys

know it's just at the end of the day, you just got to be like, listen, we screwed that one and it is what it is. You know the criticisms coming now, I think, for all the players. It was just one of those moments where it was like they were just caught saying, oh man, here we go again and it just snowballed and snowballed and it got worse and worse. Game five was bad and that was right up there too but I mean the guys know what's coming from the media the guys know what's coming from the fans and I just think I think you know a lot of people get frustrated

with their their responses in the media but they're just trying to protect themselves and each other at the end of the day right? Yeah Gio I'm curious you know if you ever were in a scenario in your career where you reflected on what was going on, like during an intermission, like I'm guessing every intermission is kind of similar, guys have their routines, right? Some guys take everything off, some guys stay in their equipment, some guys go and get treatment, some guys tape their stick, whatever they do. But like, would you ever be in a scenario where you'd look back and think like what happened in that first intermission like how did how

did they escape feel like okay it's all good and then play 20 minutes where they just get caved in and it's over like at any point in your career do you did you have any of those kind of reflecting moments where like what happened in the room in between periods yeah like usually what would have been going on in there they would have been like K boys like usually what would have been going on in there with they would have been like, hey boys, like, we have we have not been at our best. Let's go out and get going, get our feet moving,

get our bodies going. That's all the things. All the, all those things would have been said, like let's get going. We got lucky to get out of that period, zero, zero, whatever you want to call it. But what happened was Florida came out even more aggressive. It seemed like, like Seth Jones is up, up in the play on that two on one.

He's playing forward. Basically there are Florida's just pressing, pressing and they scored. And when they scored, I just, it wasn't even the first goal. It was the second one for me where they've been bang bang. And it was just like, you could see the guys. I think the state of their mind went from we're in this game we're still tight stick with it to oh no we're gonna lose again like we're gonna we're not gonna get through this again and and I think it just snowballed

from that point on so at what point you know you're watching it you obviously know the that group at what point could anything have been done? In an alternate universe, after that second goal or even the third, like, you know, O was talking about in the four o'clock hour, it's rare that a head coach has to have a meltdown on the bench in a game seven. Like you know it's... I don't know if it ever happened before. Well, I mean, yeah, we'd have to look back on tapes, but I've,

and you could see the frustration with chief cause he was yelling at the bench, Mitch Marner's yelling at the bench. Like, um, in an alternate universe, is there something that could have been said or done on the bench or maybe a play that you would have liked to see that could have stopped ablating or maybe jarred the momentum? Yeah, I'll be honest with you, Nuno, the thing that I've been thinking about, like watching that series unfold, I thought Toronto obviously was really good at the start of this series, but I think Florida turned into super aggressive, like more aggressive than usual down the walls,

and the one thing I kept saying was like, how many times did the puck get stuffed on the wall and turned over or like the D man down in Florida was, was pinching the winger off and he couldn't even have, he didn't even have time to make a play. Like I was thinking though, one adjustment maybe I would have been trying to preach is let's get some like high flips through the middle or you got to make the play through the middle and try and hold their D in between the dots. Their D were up in the play all the time in the neutral zone. They're stepping up outside of the dots and cutting those passes up those direct passes. Like I would have been either high off the glass and get it

behind their D somehow or like high flips, high flips. But I mean, it's easy to say now looking back. So going into game seven, the Leafs would have been like, okay, game five, the coaching staff, the lead, the players would all been like gates. Game five was a one-off. We came back, got back to our game and game six. We played well. We shut them out. We, we didn't give them much.

We had a great start. Like they would have been like, game five was a one-off Okay, the series has been tight either way now. Here we go. We're gonna get them again in game seven We're gonna play the exact same way and get them and what happened was Florida just in my opinion played a great game and Once they got to the again, I'll keep saying it once they got those couple goals and the Leafs are behind It's not like Florida said, okay okay we're gonna lay off and start playing defense here they went they went almost the other way and play more

aggressive and before you know it it was it was game over pretty quick right absolutely with Mark Giordano Gio you would have done these locker cleanouts you know a lot every year of your career and by the time you get to Toronto you're a veteran guy you know you would have spoken you did speak with the media but I'm curious when you were you know when you're the captain in Calgary when you're winning a Norris when you're the man in Calgary and you know okay the season's over I'm walking into this media presser how did you prepare? Oh they're the worst yeah they're the worst yeah they're the worst. Yeah, they're the worst. Yeah. They're the worst. Yeah. I mean, you know,

you just feel like you're walking in there and you're, you're thinking about, you know, what am I, how am I going to say all the right things and, and show appreciation and show, you know, show that you're devastated and all that without like coming across as, you know, and I don't know, I don't know how to say it, but yeah, you're just going, those days are the worst. You really don't have, like in Calgary, I remember the one year we finished first in the conference and we lost in five games to Colorado.

And it was like, we all came in the room and like you almost can't even look each other in the face because you feel so, like you let your buddies down, you let each other down so much. so I can imagine what the guys are feeling yeah I've been through it a lot in my career too unfortunately like it's it's it's a brutal day when you come in and because you know they they had a great year they had they had the formula they thought that was gonna lead them to the next next level and I really do it sucks for these guys because I really do believe for a lot of

this season it was it was the right formula they were playing different hockey they're playing more defensive and you know now the way they lost in game seven being a lopsided game 6-1 it's gonna it's gonna come down on them and they know that they know what's coming everyone knows what's coming but it doesn't change the fact that you walk in there and it's a brutal day. With Mark Giordano, so we got it you know there's a couple of big UFAs coming up obviously we know Marner, Tavares, when you were in their situation when your contract was up you know how would how would you play out you know the next two

weeks like if you were in their role and you know you're trying to determine what your future is going to be you're trying to figure out how the team feels maybe what could be available to you on july 1st like what is the process that you would go through if you were if you were a free agent yeah well the the thing is is first you have to decide whether you want to stay, right? Like you talk to your family and you feel the fits right for you, the situation's right for you. But the biggest thing for me too, whenever I see high end players like Johnny and Mitch get the free agency, you know that there's a lot of people pushing the, I don't know if the agents are pushing

or other people like family members or friends and all people around you, like you've already played your last game of the season. So either way, it's not changing. It's not changing your contract when July 1st comes along. So a lot of guys will say, I just want to see what's out there, right? Either way. And I never really got to this point in my career. I was always a guy who I liked having the stability and signing and having a contract,

you know, a contract in place before I got the free agency. But yeah, for sure, you know, it's hard, it's going to be hard on the Leafs because they're two quality players who are a lot of teams are going to want want and we'll see it's you gotta you gotta have both the one from the guy to come back and the team's got to want to resign the guy as well yeah yeah we're gonna have a lot of that over the next two months I mean in geo to you look at how noisy the market is I mean you heard I don't know if you you saw the comments of Matthew Kachuk or Brad Marchand or Paul Maurice and, you know, saying how noisy the market was.

I mean, you look at what happened in game seven, there was certainly disappointment. How do you deal with that? Like how do you, if you're a player, how do you, you know, how do you process all of that and, you know, head that into the off season and trying to reset coming back next year even better or trying to build off of what you did this year? Well, you can't look at it like everyone's out to get you all the time. No one's out to get anyone. I think for me personally, I played in Toronto and I played in Calgary, which is another

great Canadian market. Nobody's out to get you. The media though in Toronto and the fans in Toronto are really in tune to how the game of hockey is played and how like the little things. And I mean, if you, if you blow it, you blow it, you gotta, you gotta know people are going to come down on you a little bit, but that comes with the territory. I'll tell you what though, if you win, if you win in Toronto or you win in Calgary, you win in the Canadian market, you're like, you're king of that city. So it goes both ways. You got to just, nobody's out to get anybody though. You just got to, you got to know that as a player. Nobody's trying to come down on anyone

harder than anyone else. It's just, you know, there's more media here, there's more coverage. Fans know the game more than other fans in other cities and that's not a knock on anyone but that's how it is as far as like Chucky and Marshy and I don't know what they said but like I take everything Chucky says there's a little green it's all with the boys at this but I'll go look at the comments yeah that's that's Marcian and Kachad they Kachad, they're punking. They're punking. Keep it the same.

You guys are great. It's just a tough market because next year we're going to come in here and punch your face in it. Exactly. They know exactly what they're doing, man. Exactly. I'd like to know what they were saying during the series to the boys. Not after they beat you, you know what I mean?

Exactly. Exactly. All right, Gio. well, we always appreciate you doing this, buddy, enjoy the rest of the playoffs. We'll have you on before it comes to an end. Thanks for doing this. Okay, boys, have a good one. There he is, Mark Giordano. The biggest songs in the world.

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