OverDrive - Johnson on Marner's playoff masterpiece, the difference from his Maple Leafs tenure and Canadiens looking to advance

Episode Date: May 15, 2026

TSN Hockey Analyst Mike Johnson joined OverDrive to discuss Canada's opening win against Sweden, Macklin Celebrini remaining the captain with Sidney Crosby on the team, Ivar Stenberg's performance in the game, Mitch Marner leading the Golden Knights, the Canadiens looking to close against the Sabres and more.

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All right, here's Mike Johnson, our TSN hockey analyst. Where are you right now, Johnny? Okay, there you is. Where are you? Switzerland? Where are you? I am in Freiburg, Switzerland. Okay.

In my expansive hotel room. I can literally touch all the walls standing in the middle. I love it. It's not cozy to say the least. We did the first two games today. Canada played Sweden. They won. Pretty good first start, 5'3.

And then Cheyackey took care of Denmark. So, yeah, I'm back. It's 1135 here. I got three games tomorrow, so I'm happy to be. talking to you. I love it. What do you think about the know-it-all on the far right there, Johnny, who said McClint Salabrini should give Sidney Crosby the C just because of the legend that he is, and what I said exactly how it was going to play out, it played out. Tell me your thoughts. I kind of agree with Hazy B. Thank you.

It's not common sense. Dude, I know you did that on purpose, Johnny. You did it on damn purpose. Sid not being the captain is outrageous. But I think you're both right. Like I think predicting it playing out the way it did is sort of logical and you know, Sid doing the bigger thing saying I don't need it, you take it, you're giving it, you're the future, you're great, I don't want it. But also I think for until Sidney Crosby no longer is playing,

every time he plays for anybody or otherwise, he should be the captain. I think he's shown and earned that. and I think Celebrini would have had no issue I don't think he would have felt slighted in the least I think that's what you're protecting like will Celabrini feel like they're pulling the rug out from under him

or something and I don't think he would feel that at all. It's Sidney Crosby it's not you're giving it to John Tavares respectfully. Yes, exactly. Like you're giving it to Sydney Crosby and so yeah I'm with you I think they probably should have but I'm not surprised it played out this way

because this is a very sort of Canadian way to do it. So you would have seen Ivers Stenberg at the World Juniors, and now you saw today. What do you make of his game and what do you make of the fact that McKenna's not over there playing for Canada? He was really, really good. Really good. I mean, him and this Vigo Bjork, who has a K-John are both draft eligible. They were two-thirds of a first line with Lucas Raymond. They played every first power play.

They played 20 minutes, 5-on-5, and they were the best players on Sweden. against a pretty good NHL-laden team Canada. This is a really good team. A lot of good players. He's creative, strong, totally fearless and confident. Like not overwhelmed by the opposition or the moment. Stenberg, creative plays,

had a goal called back on a high stick, picked up a point, I think. Bjork as well, Hasey was also, now not related to Toronto perhaps, but really good. Any breakaways, Johnny? Did he have a stretch of the juniors in the overtime. He had like five breakaways in a row.

To win the game in overtime, he missed them all. But he was really, really good as well. I think my assertion, my evaluation remains the same, Hazy. The better player in year one and year two is likely to be Stenberg. The better

player in year three and four and five and beyond has the potential to be Gavin McKenna. And I think that's sort of how you're looking at it when you pick these guys and what your expectations should be if they play next season. So when we're talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs and Canadian content, how did the Leafs look, in your opinion?

How JT scores? How was Morgan Riley? Darnel Nurse out there, some Canadian content. How did it look early on? Tavares scored first shot of the game as he does. He's playing on the wing, which I think is almost better for him, maybe a precursor to what we might see. He picks up a sort of caram from Darnell Nurse and slams at home as he does. Yeah, he looked good, smooth and norm.

Morgan Riley was, he was okay. He got some second power play unit time. He picks up an assist on the O'Reilly goal. But you guys are going to hate this. The player of the game was Fraser Minton. Yep. I know, I'm sorry, but like he was, him, Connor Brown, and Porter Martone were like the best. shift. Dylan Cousins scored a spectacular

goal, but everyone was pretty good. The first period was excellent. Second period, Sweden was the better team, and no one looked very good. Third period was pretty solid again. Jet Greaves and Net was noodles just so-so. A couple of the goals, you probably saw you're like, I don't know if I like either one of those,

the glove and the blocker, but yeah, I mean, they're a good team. They haven't played a meaningful game in what, a month? They've been over here for a while. Some rusts there playing a solid opponent, but yeah, yeah, everyone was Everyone was pretty good. With Mike Johnson or TSN hockey analysts.

So we are putting the car before the horse, or at least I think O&I are. Noodles is probably more reasonable. We got Montreal through, all right? I think last night, Montreal winning that game, and they look good outside of the start. So if that happens, we got Colorado, Vegas, Montreal, Carolina.

Give me your rankings. I'm going to put you on a spot at midnight over there. One through four, best chance of winning the Stanley Cup. Colorado, Carolina, Montreal, Vegas. I think, and I'm pretty comfortable of that. Colorado clearly won, clearly. Like, they're very good. Carolina, Montreal is going to be a trickier series.

I know Carolina's been unbelievable. I know 12 days of rest is an advantage, but there are ways it can be a disadvantage as well. And if you are Freddie Anderson, get out of the great rhythm you were in, where you're seeing the puck as big as saucers, and it just doesn't go quite as well or if he has an off night,

mixes in a bad game or two, all of a sudden, Caulfield, the guys are scoring in the first line, Demidoff finally got one in the second line. I think Montreal can really challenge if they get through Carolina. And Vegas, yeah, I mean,

they've done well to get there, but I'm still not fully trusting their goaltender. You know, their special teams have been really good, but I would put them fourth of the bunch. But did you guys just see this? The penalty for Vegas? Yes.

100 grand and a second. But the 100 grand is one thing. Money's money. That's a lot. Second round pick. Crazy. What's your reasoning behind it, Johnny? What would cause torts in the Golden Knights to do this?

Do you have any kind of thought? Well, why this would happen? I think the rationale, they will say, oh, is that they're flying out of John Wayne Airport in Newport. There's a curfew there. 11 o'clock. So they would have said, we got to make curfew to get back to Vegas. We got to get our plane out

before a certain time. NHL is saying, we don't care. You have an obligation to the media. It's part of the deal. It's part of why the NHL gets all these huge media rights deals because they get media access. But that is a stiff, stiff penalty.

Now, they can appeal it. It would not stun me if they get it back in the end, but that is coming down heavy. And I can't imagine the organization is too pleased with Torts, if this was Torts's call that the $100 grand and the second rounder has been docked. Yeah. Well, and I'm sure they warned them, you know, like I don't know if they were tipped off

to something like this happening, but I can't imagine they would just go to this length of, you know, suspend or finding him that much money, taking away a second round pick without, you know, any warning. I mean, maybe they didn't know it was coming and maybe it warranted that type of reaction from the NHL. But Tortorella is coaching for his job. like he doesn't he's an interim head coach and now the challenge is really going to start like to put your team in this position if it was simply him to cost your team a second round

pick after winning a series and now you got to play Colorado like this could be they could be out in five games four or five games and we're going to look back on this and say what the hell was that like what happened with the john torderella vegas goal nights yesterday was thursday i think their series is starting Wednesday no matter what. So I get they want to get home Thursday night 100%. It's not a far flight. It's an hour or whatever.

But, you know, if they have to stay over, they have Friday to Wednesday. It's like five days away. It's not like they're turning it around in 36 hours. It's, yeah. I imagine, I don't know, noodles.

Like, is there a media policy handbook that teams are given? Like, you have to do this? I'm sure there is. and so you know you have to provide more time than that, but that's a tough one for tourists to swallow, because that's a steep price. And CJ tweeted out that they had been warned. So if this was Colorado doing that,

I feel like there's probably a leeway for first timers. It just seems like the league probably have some sort of battle going on here with Vegas. And that's the thing. And torts is not shy to be right in the middle of it. So I don't know. Like, Oh, keep saying, there is a story behind this that we're not privy to because that just doesn't seem like, oh, we just rushed it and whatever. I get the John Wayne airport. Same thing in San Jose.

You've got to beat the noise ordinance or you get fined. $100,000 fine. I think it's a $10,000 fine from the city of San Jose. So you probably should have just, yeah, and you wouldn't have forfeited the pitch. Keep your second round pick. Exactly. That's that second rounder. I couldn't believe it when that came across the death.

Big penalty. Johnny, as far as on the ice, we've been talking basically a lot of the day. What is your explanation? Explain to us and tell us why Mitch Barner is the best player in the playoffs playing for the Vegas Golden Knights. And when he played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, he was not that guy.

So you explained to me. I know it's nothing that we say or we do. It's impossible. because there's all these people that are like, the media, you guys ruin this guy, you ruin everything. Tell us why he is the best player on the Vegas Golden Knights and in all

of the NHL. I mean, you start with because he's a really good player. He has the ability to be very good. I look at three ways, though, okay? Either. Mitch Marner is a different player in Vegas. What does that mean? He's matured, is he freed up?

Does he not? I mean, I think is he matured, is he getting utilized differently, is he freed up mentally from not carrying the baggage of previous failures? Some that might be pressure, some that be whatever. So he's a different player. He's on a different team, which means maybe that team is better than Toronto in those situations. Maybe there's more structure that offers him more support that allows them to maybe the coach treats him differently.

So either he's different, the team he's on is different, or the teams they are playing against are different. And Boston, Tampa, Florida, those were the heavyweights of the world Toronto was going up against, who were very physical, made it very hard to get around the net. And the stats bore that out with Mitch when as series went on, as playoffs went on, every shot he took up further and further away from the net. He just couldn't get to the net.

And so Anaheim, not a great defensive team. Utah, not as good either. So maybe you factor some combination of all those three things. And now the last one, oh, now that he's had a bit of success, that two-goal game in Utah and game six probably, it probably did so much for him. He says he doesn't hear anything.

That's not true. He's very aware of what people say and how it's said. But having that success in a close-out game, that probably shed a lot of weight off his shoulders. For himself personally and for himself on a new team saying, guys, I'm different. I'm not the guy who's not going to come through when it matters. I am the guy you can count on that you brought in to do these kind of things.

And maybe that also has freed him up to be more like the regular season, Mitch Martner, which is what he's playing like, maybe even better than that. Yeah, so you put all that together and you got a player who's on a heater right now. And if Vegas wins the cup, he's the Kahn-Smith winner. It's not even close. So that's where he's out right now. And good for him. You know, he's deep put up with some, he earned all the criticism, he earned all the scrutiny, but he also put up with a lot of it because he was here, and now he can feel good about himself in these moments, which he hasn't been able to do in the past.

Johnny, we've got to get you out of here, but before you go, who would walk out with the flame to absolutely take it to a next level and just blow the roof right off the top? Although it's already going to happen. Who's the guy for you? At the bell center tomorrow. I got it. Bell Center tomorrow. I got it. Who? Mademoiselle Bellevaux.

Oh. Mrs. Bellable. You put Jean Belafo's in a Belafo jersey. She's at the games all the time. She's a tremendous woman. Wow. And just you, I get chills

thinking about the reaction. If she walked in off the street, she's a smaller woman and she's got that torch held high because she can. She's strong enough to do it. And she comes through the into the bowl. and it's Mrs. Belvo? Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. I like that. I might be cried, Johnny. I might be proud. You cannot, you cannot be ready when that happens. Okay. I like that idea. Let's see.

I'm curious. I want to find out what they're going to do tomorrow night. It's going to be a fun one. All right, Johnny. Thank you for doing this. Have yourself a great weekend. We'll do it next week. All right, fellas.

Have a good weekend. Mike Johnson, our TSN Hockey analyst, joining us here on the Maple Tart of Hotline. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind, and now, I've got my own show. So if you're tired of lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, join us each week. Film Never Lies, available on all TSN platforms in the IHeartRadio app.