OverDrive - Johnson on Canada's roster at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, Binnington starting in the crease and the matchups for the teams

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

TSN Hockey Analyst Mike Johnson joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, Canada's roster strength on the team, Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon playing on the same line, the favourites in the games, Jordan Binnington starting in net, how United States, Sweden and Finland will compete and more.

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A message from the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association. Joining us now in the Maple Toyota Hotline is Mike Johnson. Johnny, how you doing, pal? Oh, I got to tell you, I am fantastic. The fact that it's Yuru saying hello and coming out on the breaks, nothing makes me happier to let Hayes know

that others can do his job as well. That is tremendous. Well, did you like the fact that you didn't have to sit there and wait for seven minutes while he talked to us about something else and made you listen to it? Did you like that I got you in right away? You know, if you've been a guest on all of these shows,

oh, you know what it's like. You don't want to be sitting there and listening to a four minute conversation while you're just hanging out. Dude, do you know how many times I would tell the guy, the board up, I'd say, if he doesn't get me in in 30 seconds, I'm out of here. Seriously, I would tell the guy, I'm like, why did you call me? I don't need to listen to 10 minutes of the show and then you bring me in.

I like bring the guest in right away and get to the chat. So let's get to a johnny what uh... what are your thoughts on nathan mckinnon down at the four nations move over there back to center ice well i mean i i think she the but i came out yesterday with playing with him in the wing and and i know what could have happened is the question

right and walled i don't know if it was a door. Right. Well, I don't know, maybe they listened to our show and saw Frankie say, I don't know, why would you take the leading scorer in the NHL and put him out of position? I'm not sure, but I mean, maybe the simple as they want to have a couple different options that they've worked at, like not every combination is going to work. Not everything that they lay out initially will last. And so maybe going through a couple of different options beforehand so that when you get to a game if it doesn't work out the way you wanted it's not something you've never seen or talked about or tried before. So maybe it's as simple as that. Or maybe it was just the first day they wanted the two of

them together because that was you know something that both really wanted But I think it does make sense though to have not best score in the NHL Playing in his natural position and if you want them to them together I'm just put McKinnon in the middle cross me on the wing and mark stolen the wing that you can have the three guys But I would want Nate McKinnon in this natural spot Going in the usual patterns on the ice where he goes to generate speed, to take the puck, to create the way he does. So I guess I was a little bit surprised yesterday when he was on the wing and I guess I wouldn't be surprised if he finds himself in the center a little bit as well.

Well isn't it just natural you feel like a lot of these coaches overthink things? And you know, John Cooper is a master at you know deception that type of stuff Frankie was pointing out. He's called a few games of Tampa. I just called a few games of Tampa last week You know he always finds extra shift for guys He always try and move stuff around so when you're moving guys around for different types of shifts I think he's the type of guy that wants to play a little bit possum with the the media to me It's you know, Sydney Crosby is a great centerman, but Nathan McKinnon is so much speed He generates speed in his own zone and then get speeding through the neutral zone

So I agree I think you know you are gonna see McKinnon up the ice The only thing that was pointed out Johnny you might be have taken a peek at this His underlying numbers are his actual numbers on the draw. He's in the 40s, I think he's 46 or something and Sid's like 52. So I mean, maybe they're overthinking it that way but it's, you know, who cares? At the end of the day... That would be an overthink if we're talking about 6% on the faceoff. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Oh, it's amazing. Like, there are moments when faceoffs matter a lot. Obviously on the power play, when're penalty-killing late in the game six on

four goalie out but you know Zita's talked about it you're right coach you look at that and say we want the better center but in there let's say they take 20 draws in in the game if you're 55 you win 11 if you're 45 you win 9 like it's two it's two neutral zone losses the difference in what you're 55, you win 11. If you're 45, you win nine. Like it's two neutral zone losses, the difference in what you're trying to do out there. So, and again, they would have plenty of options for Setterman on that team if they wanted someone else to try to step in there and take them.

So the only thing I, the only other thought though is that you know that hockey Canada, Coupe, have thought this through to every last you know you like they've been waiting on the two days of practice and then again for months and months and months so i can't imagine other than injury and maybe cross the injury of some of you with it

why they would be the or not have already sort of outline what they were going to do in a couple days and the sort of free that i think whatever is going on is all about be part of a massive plan. Johnny, how do you think Coop is going to run the bench? Like what kind of rhythm is it? You think it's going to be like just pretty simple stuff? A lot of McDavid, a lot of McKinnon, and then the other guys are going to have to find a way to contribute, whether it be penalty kill or not a lot of ice time like you you want to get those top guys cooking don't you? Yeah yeah I mean I think you know the home games oh they'll try to open those other the first two lines up offensively but if you're gonna have point or Sorelli hang around like I also think that when

you go up against Team USA and like one of those two guys might get a little bit of Austin Matthews you know like they also might sort of have defensive focus on those two bottom lines but yeah like someone upfront oh is gonna play eight minutes like that is the reality a player was used to playing 22 is gonna get eight and won't complain about it because it's Team Canada but again a group will have this all laid out depending on the rhythm of the game they will roll four lines over the bench if it's going well, as soon as the games get tight or if they're not playing well or if they're losing, then it gets shorter and you

see more McDavid, more McKinnon, the guys you're going to count on to be the best players of the tournament. I was thinking about this the other day, Johnny, because if you were going to go McDavid, first line, McKinnon, second line, and we knew the US had a number one matchup line, that they were going to hard match against those guys, wouldn't that be kind of telling as far as who the US views as more dangerous?

But I guess if you were to look at it, you're either going to get Eichel, you're going to get Matthews, you could get Trotsek. I mean, if any of those guys are going over the boards, is there that much disparity between those three guys as far as who's going to be checking the best players? No, all can do pretty good defensively, you're right. But I think you'll see, would you rather have, I don't even know who's going to be the number one pair, would it be Wurenski and McEvoy's either number one pair on defense? I wonder if that's the

preferred matchup over and have been in favor. I don't know. It's picture of poison on both ends. I do think that Eichel and Matthews will be relied on to be scorers and I think you know Miller and his line will be sort of energy physical and Trochek will be face faceoff and penalty kills and defensive stuff so even if it doesn't play out that way at least symbolically if you get a Miller or trochek I think that's sort of an acknowledgement that they're more concerned about defense against that line as opposed to if they go up you know Ike or Matthews and just let them play straight up when they're they're willing to go for some offense against

offense but it's it's interesting Frankie, but it's in such a short term It's so short that it's gonna be hard to really read too much into game over game because they'll be figured out in the fly But what works and what doesn't with little time to react and sort through things so Johnny are we I Don't know how to phrase this are we just Are we, I don't know how to phrase this, are we just expecting that it's going to be Canada or the US and that's it? Because are we almost looking at it like the Super Bowl where it's like, yeah, the homes are going to 3-P.

I think it's complete disrespect to the other two teams. That's what I'm saying though. That's what I'm bringing up. Is there any chance in your mind, because I think on paper, who would be the weakest? Would it be Finland because of their defense core, like, banged up and all that? That's a Fin D core by NHL standards. Well, yeah, Matt and Paolo, who has 16 NHL games, has been invited. You know, they're banged up.

But at the end of the day, is there any chance a team named other than Team Canada or Team USA could win this? Oh, for sure because it's in the murals the nature of your position right you're right you see sorrow to run off to win of course he can write and how many times that we've all covered international hockey we've all

played international hockey you the finished team who don't look at god paper coming up with a tournament and are really hard to play against right now all the. All the time. All the time. So basically to get to the final you can probably afford one loss. You can't lose two.

So Sweden obviously is excellent. They have lots of talents. They have plenty of goalscores, game breakers. Their goal-tender, Dolemarker, Gustafsson gets hot. They can do it. Finland, no doubt, doubt there the weakest roster I mean they couldn't even practice yesterday because they've got sick and coming in and injured everything else But again, if it's one game

You could just shoot them 50 to 20 didn't Canada tied Switzerland in in the Olympics, right in Vancouver Did they not well there was that? Christoph good Christoph good leftwski or whatever made it. Yeah, I was a 2-1 nothing win or something, but I think they tied Switzerland when it was Christoph Baluet or David Abish or whoever it was. So like, it can happen. Absolutely. Now, with the seven game series, I'd say it's almost impossible for Finland to win a seven

game series against Canada or US but a one-off with the nature of goaltending for sure and not the other company countries don't have pride but sort of the pride and the sort of cohesion that Finnish national teams play with all the time at every level I think that's an advantage I think there's something built in about Finnish hockey players that know how to play together for finland that canada the u.s. will be trying to figure out on the fly and it's really have a head start out there who's on the roster

in trying to do that johnny if you were going to put your mystic mike had on jordan binnington's name starting goaltender today what do you think i don't know if the choir the wording is the importance of his position, but what do you think he's like? What's his role going to have to be like? How important is Bennington going to be to the success of Canada? Well, yeah, I mean, I guess if Canada plays well, then you'd think that they don't need their goal center to be their best player to win.

Right? They just need him to be good. Don't let any shots go in that you're not supposed to. If you do that, Canada will probably have a good chance of winning most of their games, you'd think. Except against the Americans. Because I look at the American roster, and as much as I love Canada, and I love, you know, McKinnon, McDavid, McCarr, they might be the three best offensive players in the entire

tournament this year, right now in the NHL. I think the US has a better roster top to bottom. I think they might be deeper. I think their defense is probably deeper than Canada's for sure. Um, certainly a net they're better than Canada. So would the goaltender, whether it's Bittington or whether it's Hill, I think it's going to be one of those two guys, when they play the US, could the shots be 37-24 US? Does the goalie need to be able to play well enough to keep his team close in a game

that they're not maybe dominating? I think that's his role. You can't let anything squeak you in and probably against the Americans, you have to be maybe a little bit better than that and give your team a chance to win in the game where you won't control the play all the time. Like you think about 2010 and 2014 and how good those Canadian defense were, where Kerry Price was stopping 13 or 14 shots. I don't think that's happening this year. I think, you know, and those only four games, but there'll be games with a goaltender has to be good. And that tender have to be good

and that's going to be his responsibility if you start of all the players johnny that could have dropped out of this tournament like when he was not playing for the united states are big like is that is that the biggest impact of any guy that could have dropped out like haste in for finland of course is massive you know petrangelo drops over but Drew Doughty steps right in. You don't feel like you lost much. The US losing Quinten Hughes, that's got to be the biggest impact of a player not playing or potentially not playing, is it not? Maybe. I don't want to disagree that it's the biggest impact, but

I'm not sure how much of an impact it's going to have. Like Clint, he's incredible. He's a left shot offensive catalyst defenseman that was going to play a huge role for the Americans. But think of Zach Larenski, who is a different kind of player, but plays a sort of similar role, similar position. Like there are other guys available. I think to me, if Prosby or Matthews or McDavid would have not played in this tournament, it would have had a bigger

impact on how the tournament felt. Maybe not how it played out, but I think those three guys are the three sort of poster boys of the tournament in lending its seriousness, credibility, gravity and importance. And I think if Sid had come to my show and said, you know what, can't do it, I'm out. I think people would have maybe started to feel different about the tournament, not necessarily on the ice, but just sort of how the perception of it. So maybe those three guys for the perception as far as on the ice. I don't know. I mean Quintus is huge for sure, but it's not like they can't replace him. Like Acre is probably

a bigger loss to Finland than Hughes would be to the Americans. All right. So put your mystic Mike hat on. Outside of the big names that you mentioned, is there somebody that you've circled or maybe an X factor that we're overlooking, any team, any country that you're like, I could see this guy being a difference maker or this guy having a tournament and all eyes will be on him. Before you answer, Johnny, don't you guys think that it could be like the Kale-McCarr tournament? We always talk about McKay and McDavid, but there could be a good chance that it's kale mccarr where everybody goes

Oh my god, that guy's way better than than we even talk about Yeah, do we see dowdy wearing 89 today? No McCall wearing eight. How about that respect? That's respect They're giving the car he's giving the car his normal number and he's taking the the other one. I'm like wow that is that is something so good on him. Now if I'm gonna say you know Macar is obviously a like supremely talented player I'll run down. Could Braden Point who we all

everyone I say it's gonna be great but Braden Point on that team is probably not a marquee player. He's such a money player. He's so fast He might not get a power play But would it surprise me if he kind of grows in his role and has a big tournament? Not at all for the Americans The Kyle Connor with his ability to score goals in a tournament that short like could he score five goals in four games? 100% he's playing on the first line, he's gonna be on the first power play, he's gonna get a ton of service and he is a quick strike, doesn't need many

chances, doesn't need much room kind of player. I think he could be really good for Sweden. I'll say too, they're playing together right now. Jesper Braat, who I think is a tremendous player, sort of underrated, and Lucas Raymond, who if you think about his last year and a half with Detroit, how many dramatic moments he has been involved in. Late game heroics last year down the stretch, and overtime, and three on threes, and just a solid player who doesn't seem to mind the bright lights. Any of those players to me would have a great chance of being an impactful guy. And if we're going to Finland, I don't know, Artur Lekkinen back in Montreal, he's turned

into such a good player for Colorado. Could he be pretty good with Barkov on his wing? He might be a guy who steps up and has a tournament. So there will be guys. It won't always be McKinnon or McDavid or Matthews or whoever doesn't kneel and or that lead these teams There'll be other guys that have moments and that's what will be part of what makes it so fun Johnny you just mentioned the power play How would you and it looks easy from the outside if you're just a fan of hockey for the coach to say

Throw them out in the ice and go make some things happen But that's there's one puck out there and there's a lot of big boys out there who command the puck and do amazing things. You talk about McKinnon's give and go and agility out there, McDavid going 100 miles an hour and finding the open guy, Reinhardt in the bumper, Sid at the side of the net tipping in shots, deflections, and then McCarr does what he does at the back end. Where would you want things to kind of rotate around on that power play?

Well, I mean, I guess you're probably going to leave it to McKinnon and McDavid to get his own entries, which seems like a good option. You two guys, thousand miles an hour, 50 foot of gap, just get the fuck in. And I think that sometimes can be a problem when you get new players together. So that hopefully should solve itself for Canada. My concern would be a desire to be unselfish and everyone wanted to be a good guy and everyone wanted to show that, you know, they're a good teammate, especially early, all right, like overpassing.

I got a shot here, but I don't want to waste it because I got cross the other goal and I got McKinnon through the theme. But I don't want to waste it because I got Crosby on the goal line. I got McKinnon through the theme So I think not being too unselfish would be my message to the guys I think Reinhardt is a perfect no-frills player. He never wants it until he's gonna shoot it Right, he doesn't ever have to touch it until he shoots into the net. Perfect Sid I think the work you'll do along the boards and the goal line. It really is the three guys up top and the work you'll do along the boards and the goal line. It really is the three guys up top. And McCarr and McKinnon have such great chemistry.

But McDavid is a freelancer. And he often likes to play on his strong side, the left wing side. McKinnon also likes to play on his offside, the left wing side. So sorting out those two guys at the top who are gonna have the fuck more than anyone, and I'm sure they can do it.

But just, I would be sort of in tune with what they're thinking what they're doing up there making sure that they have good spacing and good options having a system while also letting them freelance that those two guys would be the two I would be sort of most attentive to because they do generally occupy the same spot on the power play on the ice. Of all the things that we're gonna see in this tournament, I think watching all these elite players put together on a power play is one of the things I'm most excited about. But Johnny, I guess would there be any concern on your end that we

get into the tournament and the whistles go away because they don't want this decided at five on four, they want to let the guys play at five on five and they're gonna be tentative to make calls? like any concern on that regard on your end no no I mean I don't think so it's all NHL referees will be whatever standard I think it'll be game seven standard the guys who play these tournaments are generally not the most you know crazy over-the-top physical chippy player so you know if McDavid buzzes through the neutral zone, he gets hooked by somebody, they should call the hook.

I don't hope not. I think the NHL is, in a good way, largely moving away from, let's just let them figure it out. Who cares what instructions are made? We won't call anything, because we don't want to be part of the story, because then immediately become part of the story so and that goes every which way like I don't think the US want to play a game where they never get in a

power play I don't think Sweden wants to play a game where they never get on the power play so that means occasionally they'll have to kill as well I don't think that's gonna be as big of a concern I don't think Johnny there's all kinds of stories from the World Championship of guys coming home at 6 in the morning and winning 5-0 the next day and it's nothing to see here. I know you know what I'm talking about. Do you think that these guys would like let their hair down a little bit and maybe enjoy Montreal or is it the the the era of cell phones and videos that they wouldn't even bother causing problems? Yeah I think it's probably a little bit more the latter. Canada plays tomorrow right Wednesday and they

don't play until Saturday and they're in Montreal. In the regular season that would be like such an advanced green night like you'd be like okay like we do whatever we want we can shake it off Thursday, have a good practice Friday and off we go on Saturday. But I do think, you know, the fact that if this group of players, there'd be so much attention, they wouldn't be able to go anywhere and even have a good time.

You know, because they'd be under, they'd be getting bothered by so many fans. No, I don't think so. Maybe if they win on the what is it next Thursday in Boston they can get after it together kind of one last time before they go back to work. But I think the nature of the players and the nature of reality, like maybe more plan to go back to their hotel room and play some video games and chop it up together than go out and stay out late at night at a bar or something. So I wouldn't think that that would be a concern, although if there's ever a night to be concerned,

it's if Canada wins 7-1 tomorrow night. And they're like, okay, we're in good shape here and we have two more, you know, three days between games. Yeah, that's my biggest situation is it's almost like the NFL, we're going to have overreaction Thursday one way or the other you know and all I could think of remember the World Cup it was that Team Europe or whatever that was like a makeshift team or what was that called was it and they were terrible yeah they were terrible early on they

ended up making the finals once they got their act together do you feel like regardless of what happens in these first couple games, there is going to be an overreaction one way or the other? Say Canada loses and the goaltenders don't play that well or the goalie doesn't play that well. Can you feel that narrative coming? Well, yeah. Yeah, I can. I can because I mean, I think this tournament basically, right, there's four teams teams everyone plays three games If it if there's all regulation games and it stays true to form someone's three and oh someone's two and one someone's one and two Someone's own tree so you can lose one game, but if Canada loses tomorrow

Then all Sweden has to do is be Finland and Canada can't catch them and then it comes down to the American game on Saturday They have to win to try to have three teams of two and one. Listen, the minor hockey parents in me is coming out with a standings board, but that's the reality. If Canada plays poorly and loses the first game, then they have to basically beat the States to stay alive. And that is gonna be a tall task,

no matter how well they're playing, just because the Americans are that good. And if they're a whole lot in the game, and I'm sure we'll go back to, the World junior team has gone two years without making the semi-finals So what's going on with the you know, Canadian hockey what's going on with the way we play any tournaments Whatever that conversation which might be overblown but as far as questions about the dominance of this team Yeah, they don't win tomorrow They people start kind of questioning like, people will start questioning why not?

Because now all of a sudden it makes it a pretty tough tournament just to get to the final. Johnny, Mini Jerry, you had more fun doing this without Hayes here. No, Mini Jerry, 92 to Hayes. Wow, 92. 92% you had more to offer. Maybe we'll pre-tape something in the future. Pro athletes only. We'll pre-tape it and we'll put it to air when Hazy comes back to host.

Hey, do you guys like my hat? You guys didn't comment on my hat. This is my Rob Lowe NHL hat. Oh, I love that. You know how Rob Lowe has an NFL hat? NHL. This is my NHL Rob Lowe hat. I love that.

You guys didn't notice this one earlier. Dude, I gotta be honest with you. My return is just a phone and my eyes can't see that far. If I had my return up on a laptop, I would see it clearly. I got this from Leo Komarov. When he went to the All-Star game that year, remember when he went to the All-Star game that year Remember uncle Leo went to the All-Star game because we didn't have anyone else he brought home All-Star hats for all the boys and I still have mine and this is my Rob Lowe NHL hat. I love it That's great. The greatest remember Leo Komarov. That's that's where the Leafs have come from like Leo Komarov

Scored I've 27, 30 goals? He was the all-star. There's one here, yeah. Johnny, they went from losing him to saying, we've got to get him back. That's where we were at. Honest to God, Leo Komaroff, I remember saying it on this show or the other shows, wherever we were, Leafs lunch. I'm like, he's a third-line winger.

People went nuts. Nuts. I was getting texts from people going, he's a third line winger and people went nuts nuts i was getting text from people going he's an all-star he's and i'm saying i'm sorry in a perfect world he's a third line left-wing but that's how you are there yeah in my work at the elite in most random all-star game participants right all he's an all-star of the guy

yes all right johnny thanks for doing this pal hey all thank you for doing this you are an inspiration any you open to that i don't be happy to sit in for a dollar time which means you have to you know give it all the time which is not exactly what you want now we've been pretty good so we might have to take a dump in the last hour and they won't have to do it uh... the last hour and they won't ask us to do it again. Perfect.

Alright, see you later, pal. Mike Johnson joined us on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Count on Maple Toyota for the right winter tire package for your Toyota. Trade in your tires, buy a new set and get $40 back. Visit mapletoyota.com. Who doesn't want new tires?