OverDrive - Johnson on the Maple Leafs holding accountability, Nylander's inconsistent season and Canada's WJC outlook

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

TSN Hockey Analyst Mike Johnson joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the NHL, Connor McDavid's incredible season, the Maple Leafs' win against the Penguins, William Nylander's big game and the comments on Marc Savard's departure, Canada's outlook at the World Juniors and players to watch, Canada's olympic roster and more.

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hockey analyst Mike Johnson. Hello Mike. How are you? What's up, fellas? Happy holidays. Christmas Eve, whatever it is we are celebrating. Good to be with you. And is it possible? We didn't think we'd be here.

But is this a fair question? Is this the greatest Connor McDavid has ever played? It's like the fact that I'm even suggesting this, given what he has done in other moments in his career. I see that he has the most points now with 67 before Christmas in the last

25 years. 67! That's like a that's an $8 million player. He's played 35 games. It's just insane what he's doing. And yes to contrast their power play in Evanston

with some of the struggles we've seen here in Toronto it's insanity because those guys the feel they have to snap it around to move it around to score goals. Drysettle three power play goals last night. McDavid with the five points, you named it. Incredible stuff. But, yeah, they are, would it surprise anyone if they win the division?

I don't think so. I think they're probably even money with Vegas to win the division. Well, MJ, you know, it is astounding what McDavid's done. He's 31 points in the month of December. But it is his third career 30-point month, okay? Which is tied with, get this. this is from the NHL media guys this morning, which is tied with Eisenman and Yager

for the fifth most NHL history. And the only guys ahead of him, of course, played in, you know, much livelier puck times with goaltenders that stood up. So, I mean, it's astounding what he's done, but he's done it before is the only point I would make. Yeah, yeah, right. But I just like the pace, he's like,

I think I saw him hit like 25 hours an hour on a rush last week, the driving and like, you know, just flying by players, It's always a stark reminder. The NHL is supposed to be very difficult. And the margins between the best players and the players who are not the best is not as big as you'd think. But then you watch him skate past players.

He looks like he's 10 years old and he's the one kid who can skate on a whole bunch of T guys who can't skate backwards yet. The margin of it's been his fastest and everyone else's fastest feels like it's as big as it's ever been. And I'm not talking about fastest, just fast as a skater competition, but fastest with the puck, fastest form around guys, stuff, though, he can do. Amazing, amazing.

And he has found his second, third, fourth year after what was a pretty pedestrian start by his standards. But now he is absolutely rolling. And I don't know if it's just his internal drive, his desire to be another Stanley Cup run with Emmettin. Is it Nathan McKinnon and the quiz master asking questions? Like, who's the greatest player of the world right now? Like, I don't know what those guys do.

But I know Michael Jordan took that stuff personally. And it would not surprise me for a second if they would never admit it. They would never even acknowledge that they even heard it. But the fact of the conversation, who's better McKinor McDavid? If you're the guy who's usually number one, I could motivate you a little bit. Yeah, that's going to be a pretty good power play in Milan, those two guys together. Anthro, Sidney Crosby out there, Kael McCar, good luck to the rival nations. Well, it wasn't long ago we were talking about the Leafs and the Oilers in a similar light.

The early part of the season, the two teams were struggling. and the difference is Edmonton star players have become superstar players once again the Leafs players have kind of languished the way that they have saved last night where Nealander goes out and has four points but Dave and I have been talking a lot about last night's win for the Leafs what it means going forward the Eastern Conference playoff picture Mike where do you think things stand for Toronto now that they made the call on

Savard and we're seeing different line combinations we're seeing a lot of positivity from the room after that win last night, but just how much positivity do you believe there should be from this hockey team going forward? Well, I mean, they should feel good because they won a game, and they've been three games since they won. And in their

defense, they played hard against Dallas, that was a good game. You know, the 5-1 was not probably representative of the game, but they're not in a point where they can take moral victories. They look at how good we played, even if we don't win. And you have to look at the entire picture, when

you're sort of basing your framework about how good you feel about the Leafs going forward of the year. And for the year, the numbers don't lie, and the numbers are not kind. You know, whether it's shot shares, expected goals, high danger chances, whatever it might be, power play. There's a lot going on for Toronto that they need to fix beyond beating Pittsburgh, a team that's won one game

in their last 10. So, yes, they should feel good. And I'm happy Neelander scored goals. And I have a theory. We'll get into his non-smilies in a minute. But I think there is other stuff that has to happen. and we'll see, you know, it's probably a good time for them to get away, take a breath, get around your family, celebrate a little bit, and return. But we'll see.

I think the changes that started did not start with Mark Savard. It was like three games prior where Craig Barubei all of a sudden was doing a whole bunch of neutral zone work about getting the pucks off the wall and skating with it more and attacking more off the rush. We're like, that wasn't what the focus was early. I think they've already sort of seen what they were trying to do was not. working, and they are trying to shift a little bit on the fly to become a more competitive five-on-five team and give themselves a better chance in the second half. Well, you open the door, MJ, to talk about Mr. Nealander, who breaks his 11 game goal this

week, and he's been an enigma that we all study intensely, but what's your theory on the latest? Okay, so I read, and there's no doubt he scored a goal last night of Beauty, right? The breakaway, bumps a slump, and stone-faced. Like not smiling, not celebrating with the group, just sort of skates the bench. And I was read and I heard and different people pontificating that maybe he's upset or he's not happy about his lot in the Toronto Maple Leafs or whatever. And I'm like, I don't think that's it. Same with when Machelli scored and he didn't get it. Same with the empty net.

He was trying to give back to John Tavares. My take on it from a player who fashioned himself as like one quarter of the offensive player willing Nealander is was he, he is embarrassed that he has been so unproductive in the month of December and so when he scores he can go one or two ways

he can celebrate wildly monkey off the back look at me now or he can be like I can't believe it took that long I'm embarrassed let's just get back to work and I take that as a guy

like if I would have gone seven games without a goal me not Willie me and I scored in the eighth game I would not be celebrating wildly I'd be like let's get back to work That's sort of, I'm glad that's over with, but I'm a little embarrassed that it went on as long as it did.

That's how I interpret it. I don't think he's, you know, upset or dealing with stuff he's never dealt with before. I think he's embarrassed because he's a competitor and he's prideful. And so that's my theory, totally my guess, but based on the way I would have felt if I was him or when I played, when I would score and bump a long slow. Well, we'll play Nylander talking about the dismissal of Mark Savard in just a moment. And you had to wonder, I mean, that's clearly a shot at the top. players, right? I mean, Mark Savard oversaw

the power play. So he's working with Nealander and Tavares and Matthews and Nyes every single day at practice. And let's listen to what Neil Lander to say when asked about Savard and the dismissal. I think it was an interesting commentary on Neelander's thought process. He was a great guy and sad to see him

go. But I mean, we've been struggling. So, I mean, I guess that's the first step to make a change for the team. So not to make it about the last 10 years of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and a lot of people are doing this, and I think it's appropriate, frankly. There wasn't, well, we didn't produce.

It's on us to produce, and we've been a top five power play year after year, and we were the worst in the league, and it's unacceptable. It was, well, you know, we have the worst power play, so basically somebody had to go, and that was the first step. And I don't know what the second step is. I don't know if you see it the same way, Mike, but may not take responsibility. But I will say for Nylander goes out in the, game subsequent to Savard

being dismissed and has four points and is flying out there. So I don't know what that says about Neelander and his relationship with Savard and the coaching staff. Maybe it's just a single game. Maybe it's an anomaly, but I do think it's interesting nonetheless. Yeah, I mean, I think everyone, and

I played on two teams where the coach was fired in the middle of the year. And even if you don't really like the coach, and oftentimes when coaches get fired, a lot of guys don't really like them because they're not doing well, the team's not doing well. There is a human element that you feel bad and you feel somewhat responsible for this guy and his family losing their job. And I think a lot of people would probably like Austin or Willie or whoever say Marksumar got fired. I feel awful. We did not

play the way we needed to. If we had, he'd still have a job and that's on us. And then you could say the rest of it like, hey, you know what? When things don't work out, changes are made, it sucks. And maybe that's the first one to us turning around. Who knows? I hope so. I'm going to do my best to be better. I think there is something to that because on a human basis, you'd like to think if you're, you know, the goalie who's struggling and then the goalie coach gets fired, like you

would feel it. If you're the power play players and the power play coach gets fired, you would feel it. And to say that out loud, I don't think that's a great, you know, admission of failure by the players and the power play. It's just a fact. we're last. I'm on the power play. It's on me to help make it better and whoever else is the coach. So yeah, I get

it. I get it. That is not something we hear out of the top players in Toronto. And I don't know if that's a personal thing aka or is it sports psychologists. Like they're just, they've been taught just move forward, talk about

the group, don't talk about yourself. And whether they think that or not is just sort of what comes out in those moments. It's probably a combination of all of it because I bet if you put a polygraph on them, they would feel bad that they've been as bad on the power plays as they've been all year. Well, MJ, let's move on to

your next assignment. A tournament where failure is never an option for Canada. Canada will start the tournament Friday night on TSN against Chequia. And obviously, this is a redemption tour. They brought in the heavy hitters.

Dale Hunter, the winning his junior coach in history, is coaching this team. Mark Hunter is the GM. because Canada has not done very well in the past couple of tournaments, a couple of quarterfinal bowouts. I'm going to ask you to start MJ. When you think back to last year, Dave Cameron, talking about how the team was tired when they lost in the quarters,

really disgraceful performance from a lot of angles. What is the lesson that this team can take forward from the past couple of failures that they might be able to use to their benefit in trying to win a goal this time around? Just real quick, fast. When you say disgraceful, like, disappointing, yes. You remember these are 19-year-old kids, 18-year-old kids? I'm talking about the coach. The coach saying the team was tired.

That was disgraceful. If we're talking about the coaching and the general managers and the philosophy, have added. I'm just like, I always remind everyone these are kids. Like literally high school, university age kids. I was talking about the coach. Okay, coach is different. Okay, fair enough. I got it.

So what they've learned, I think this is the message they've learned from the previous coaches and from the selections was we have to let and empower the players that we have do the things that make them special. We can't try to dump them down by turning them into checkers and simplifiers and dump and chase. We have to have a structure and have a purpose

and be organized. But what makes Canada great is the players who are individually great. And I think for the last couple years we saw coaches try to control everything and that made their great players average because they took the stuff that made them great and said, don't do that.

Don't challenge guys one-on-one. Don't make a creative play. Worry about the goals against. Don't worry about the goals for. The leading score in last year's tournament for Canada at three points. Three points. It's absurd to even say that out loud.

So I guarantee like someone's probably going to get three points against Chechkey alone. No, Chequie is quite good on. boxing day. But I think that's the bigger message. That's why Canada has a Alan Miller is like the general manager of the program now. They've revamped how they do things there in response to the last

couple of years. But I think in a nutshell, that's it. Don't make the players who are exceptional, less exceptional by taking their great skills away. Try to make the most of their great skills in the context of the team game. And that's where Dale Hunter, like I get

in Washington, he was a defensive guy, he'd grind those guys down. But in junior hockey, he is well known for letting his best players play. Those guys in London play freely and creatively and a lot and I imagine he'll do

some of that as well with this group. So that's the difference. I think every forward on this team is a first round pick except for Gavin McKenna, who might go first overall. I think they have 20 first round picks

and then three guys that are going to the first round next year and two goalies who are returning who are second rounders like there is not a lot of reason to think they shouldn't be good and i like the idea that they're embracing the idea of going to minnesota taking it away from the states the same way the states took away from them last year mike johnson t sn hockey analysts our guest here an hour two of overdrive canada checkia friday night boxing at a kickoff world junior coverage here on tsn and tsn 50 as well when it comes to the forward group i mean you mention it there's just so much skill and McKenna, everyone's

going to be looking out for him. Who are some of the other guys beyond Gavin McKenna, Mike, that you're looking forward to seeing in Minnesota? Okay, Michael Misa, who lit up the American Ontario League last year with Saginaw playing with Zame Perak. He was the outstanding player. He's an NHL player, an 18-year-old playing for San Jose.

He's been injured, but he's going to be their number one center. I want to see him go because I think he has a just huge amount of skill. I think Tijiginla is fascinating. I've never seen Teech play before. But of course, you know, Jerome's son, prolific score who's battled injuries. So we'll see what he can do.

Michael Hage, Montreal picked first rounder. Great story for him getting picked my Montreal. He plays at University of Michigan. He's the second line center in behind Mesa. He's going to be really good. Watch out for him. He can skate like the win. And one guy that I think Canada will fall in love with, Brady Martin.

This guy is full of personality, full of physical, assertive play. with like the attitude that people will like like yes that's how we want our canadian guys to play plus a ton of skill he's been probably the most consistent player in the first three pre-competition games despite the bigger names i just mentioned um so i want to see those guys play and then maybe zane per rec is a real wild card offensive defenseman a little bit like john clingberg back there on defense but in this kind of tournament he could be really good what about the Americans this time around? How does that team stack up to Canada?

Because that seems how it's gone year after year these days. It's Canada, USA, Canada, USA. And certainly Sweden and Finland and the checks will factor in as well. But Team USA, how do you believe they stack up against Canada? And I think in the last six years, AK,

the Americans are 3-0 against Canada. Canada has to beat them. Even though Canada's won three of the last six goals, America's won three of the last six goals. I think the U.S. is not quite as deep, and powerful as last year. The last couple years, they had a group of players that sort of grew up the same kind of two-year cohort that were dominant. The Ryan Leonard's and Gabe Perrault and, you know, those kind of players, Will Smith.

They don't have that. They have good players, maybe not quite as many. They may not be set in net like they have been in years past when Trey Augustine played for three straight world junior tournaments. But they have a Hudson. And Hudson's are dangerous playing for U.S. They are. And so when we go to Culeleyn's younger brother, He led the tournament scoring last year as a defenseman, along with Z. Bouillon, they were dynamic.

He doesn't have Booium, but he's still got another year experience. He will likely be their best player. If they win, he probably is a good bet to be tournament MVP. Like, he's that good. Washington Capital draft pick, he'll be there probably at the end of this college season, a lot like Ryan Leonard did last year. But they'll be good. They have five, six, seven returnees, but just not quite as dominant.

They were heads and tails the best team the last two. years. They were the favorites going in, and they won. I don't know if their heads and tails the best, and they're probably not the favorite. Even though they're at home, Canada probably is the favorite heading in. MJ, we are about a week removed from another team Canada's roster being revealed to everyone. This one, of course, regarding the Olympics, which we're all looking forward to. I know you and Mr. Button have been doing some really fun work trying to figure out,

you know, give your opinion of who should be on the roster and who might be on the roster. I was looking at your latest consensus, Craig and M.J. roster. And you guys have both got Bedard and Celebrini as picks for this team. AK here is listening with baited breath because he's got future bets on this stuff and all the rest of them. Offer public consumption, Dave. Sorry, man. But what's your sense of it when you, all the intel you've been. trying to gather and just

using your good spitey senses as an observer of this league what are the chances that both those young guys are among the Canadian forward contingent So I think Sellebrini's not quite a lot but really close I mean he's top five in scoring he's got 20 goals

he does it on a bad team he doesn't he's not a great defensive player yet but he does win a lot of puck battles and stuff that will help other good players I think he's on the team fast like I think that's a foregone conclusion if Bedard had stayed healthy and he was also top five in scoring

and had 22 goals on a Chicago team that's not very good I'm not sure how you take him off the team but I think the fact that he's gotten hurt unfortunately for him I really believe that gives the team Canada brain trust sort of a convenient out to not pick him

because if they weren't sure anyways and like hey we're going to go with Anthony Sorrelli or Sam Bennett or Travis Kineckney or Mark Stone or one of the returnee guys who you know what they do there are more known commodity on that stage with that group, it would have been hard to say, well, hang on, we're taking Sam Bennett with 25 points versus

Connor Bader with 50. But now that he's hurt, I think that offers up potential that Badaard. So I'm saying it's probably not my team, but the team less likely than not that Badaard doesn't make it. I don't think Baderd makes it. I think Sellebrini does. Schaefer's a wild card to me.

Schaefer, I think he's going to be on the team. He becomes the kid version, you know, Badard not there. They can maybe have one more kid on the back end with Matthew Schaefer. Again, he was on my team. I think he's close to making this one. So, yeah, but I don't think, that's where you're saying. Telebrini, yes, Badard, no, Schaefer, almost a toss-up,

but leaning slightly, yes, on the actual team. Mike, did you see that story in the athletics from Michael Russo? and he wrote that he believes that Team USA will pick Vincent Trochevich. Vincent Trochec over Jason Robertson and Cole Coffield. As a Canadian, please go ahead, do that. But Jason Robertson's been a monster this year's scoring goals. And Coffield, I mean, not quite the same level, but not far from it.

That would be quite the decision to leave Jason Robertson and Cole Coffield off that roster. But, you know, go ahead, Team USA, do whatever you want. I haven't broken down all the team USA quite as detail as Canada but you know Vinny Troche is a good player there's no doubt right like he's a certain

like he's really good on faceoffs and good defensively and if you're I guess you're trying to build a team maybe you would prefer him as your fourth line center but I'm sorry Jason Robertson he's been one of the best players

in the league last 30 games and he does it five on five not just on the power play and in the end it's going to be five-on-five scoring that wins this tournament, right? The goals that USA couldn't quite get that the Canada team struggled to create, that's the tournament. And Cole Cawfield, I get, you know, Cole Cawfield saying, well, hang on, Kyle Connor as an offensively first winger. You can put him on as a 14th forward if you're Cole Cawfield.

Like, you know, you can break in case of emergency. Even if you're struggling, and the power play's not going, if there's an injury. You can go in there and play, even if he's not in your top four lines to start with. I want skill, AK, give me talents, give me goals and creativity. And Jason Robertson can be a good defensive player. Cole Cofield, he's probably not there yet, but Robertson is stunning to me. I don't know, is Brock Nelson on there, Tate Thompson? Like, how they round out that roster, I'm not so sure.

But it feels like they really want to run it back with largely the four nation team the same way they played last February. So we'll see what happens because I think there's three, four, guys that probably deserve to be bumped up ahead of maybe a trocheck, J.T. Miller, whatever. I agree. They were one shot away. That's all they were last year. And we'll see how it goes in February. You'll be there. You'll be in Minnesota as well. Safe travels. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas to you and your family, Mike. And we'll see you in Minnesota on Friday night. Oh, all right. Cheers, MJ.

There we go. Here we go. I'm done. I can have a drink. Yes, you can. You enjoy it, buddy. you very much. That is Mike Johnson. Happy all this. See you later. Join us on the Maple Toyota hotline. Get it and go where adventures take you in a new 2025 Tacoma from Maple Toyota near Canada's Wonderland in the Maple Auto Mall. Visit MapleToyota.com. I do recall. Do you hear what I hear?

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