OverDrive - Johnson on the Maple Leafs' search to change the narrative, the Core Four's role and Marner's next steps

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

TSN Hockey Analyst Mike Johnson joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Maple Leafs looking to extend the series against the Panthers, the importance of the Core Four in the game, Mitch Marner's possible next steps in Toronto, how the eras dynamic will look on the team and more.

Introducing Brian Adams Radio on I Heart Radio. Hosted by Brian Adams himself. Join me for an insider look on a wild ride through 40 years of global rock and roll. Brian Adams Radio. Now available on the free I Heart Radio app. Or ask your smart speaker to play brian adams radio and i have radio ready to rock here's uh... mike johnson rt s and hockey analyst joining us here the maple toy dot hotline johnny was just referencing a quote from foot where i guess uh... rick talk it

suggested that he have an itinerary for the day prepared for peterson we walks in the door what are you doing yeah that's how bad it is okay at nine thirty we go outside at ten we do apples and on the carpet at ten thirty we get a nap like

what are we talking about here it's gonna be twelve million dollars okay if you need an itinerary like this is what we're doing the practice everyone gets one Okay, like I played for Andy Murray. He was a detailed coach He had a by the minute itinerary of the sort of two hours You're at the race stretch meeting on ice drill drill drill drill 52 minute practice. We're out. Okay I mean that's just one way to be organized but to be specific And every day you got to be there and I already like like gotta have your hands on them when he walks in say okay

you're gonna do some half-wall stuff here and then we're gonna do shooter tutor and then we're gonna do penalty killing routes like I mean I guess you have to do what you have to do and everyone's different but it's far from ideal and what makes it worse guys is you mentioned mentioned Sid, noodles, if he's your best player or he's not your best player, you're your best four, your highest paid four, you'd like him to set the example not be the guy who has to be babysat. You'd like him to be the guy who's independently driven that would then filter the rest of the group as opposed to the opposite where he's at the other end of the spectrum where he's the guy who needs

more attention than anyone even though he gets the rewards of the contract and everything else. Yeah, I mean that's the thing. It just, I don't know Johnny, I mean give me your interpretation. You've got Rick Tocket who's very well liked, sounds like Vancouver wants to re-sign him. And now if this is a monetary thing, I get it. If it's a term thing, all of that type of stuff. But is it not a bad look for a coach to say no thanks to an organization?

He's already been in for a couple of years. So that says to me, he's seen what goes on behind the curtain and he doesn't want any more of it. Yes, but I think it hasn't been said out loud too many times, but I do think Rick Tauke was interested in going back to the Northeast United States for some family reasons. That's fair. So if he had the luxury and he had family, whatever, I'm not exactly sure what was going on, but if that would make his life better,

then that would be part of the equation, but noodles, make no mistake, if Vancouver was the perfect market for him, the perfect team for him, the perfect organization for him, just about every single coach in the league would find a way to make that work in Vancouver

and sort out the family stuff and travel or move them, whatever, private planes, however you wanna make it work. But it wasn't enough to make him want to stay, whether it's money, whether it's term, whether it's team, whether it's competitive window, whatever. Yeah, it is a bit different that a team wants to resign a coach, wants to pay a market value,

and he says, no, I want to go somewhere else. Doesn't happen very often, but I do think, for talking specifically, there may be a little bit extenuating circumstances to go along with the stuff that you're talking about with mike johnson at his and hockey analyst so game six lease panthers tonight i'm gonna present this to you

i'll give you the final all all just i would give you the final score this could give you the final assault lease win tonight they win the game is it more likely because joseph wall stood on his head it more likely because Joseph Wall stood on his head or more likely because the core four dragged them to that victory Joseph Wall Joseph and I mean I say that pretty definitively yeah for both sides I mean the first side being that Florida's good Lord is gonna push or

gonna make it difficult. Florida's gonna be busy. Florida's gonna challenge and pepper Wolf and we'll have to be good. I'm very confident that that's likely to be the case. And then, you know, certainly there's a possibility cause you say the core, the core of four is four guys. Could William Neylander have a night with two? Sure, when the other guy's doing nothing, sure.

But I'm less confident about happening that i am of the they for a pattern laying an egg and making joseph wall night easier so i think it leads when go telling what we want the front line stories

uh... because he's not then they don't yet that i think that's a probably reasonable answer noodles like like yeah, I was gonna say I mean, Johnny, if you were Craig Barube here, because we've been talking obviously now for two days about this game and this thinker that they put up. What would you be more focused on their the exit knows of it or their mental psyche? I thought about this last two days myself noodles,

I've thought about this the last two days myself, Noodle, about the team, about if I was the coach, what would you approach it? Like, okay, the X and O's sort of feel easy. What did Toronto do better early that they haven't done later? To me, it's mostly their ability to handle the four-check and eggs at their own end. They were just better, cleaner, quicker going back. Some of it's winning more battles, but just moving the puck out of their own end, turning it over. So that is an X in the nose.

I think also early we saw them get into Bobrovsky's face, like someone like the Nylander goal in game one was right along the ice. Mitch Marner's goal, screened in front for Bobrovsky, give him trouble, like every goal center. So yeah, there's some X in the nose you want to address. But the X in the nose are almost inconsequential if you can't wrap the minds and the emotions and the hearts of the guys collectively not just the four guys but everybody to get in a place that will allow them to play with the intensity

and sort of bravado that is required to play against any team, but especially Florida at this point in the season. So I guess I'm sort of, I'm aware of the X's and O's, but it's so secondary to me, noodles. But I don't know. So I've come to that conclusion. But the question I pose back to you guys is how does Sprague- Barube rehabilitate the egos or the confidence or the belief or the will in two days.

Like for the group and for the individuals, that is a monumental task because they would have been extraordinarily low and fragile after game five. And I don't know, you know, if it's private challenges, one-on-one meetings, hype video. I don't know which way they go with it, Noodle, but that's where I would have spent, if I'm Frank Berube, the last two days thinking about it. Yeah. And listen, there's been a lot built up over the years about Berube's intensity and his ability to hype people up.

That famous, you know, inside the room, game seven, blue is Bruins speech. You know, can you play it in game six of the second round? I mean, that's game seven of the Cubs. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. You can. Okay. Listen, you go to your new Rockne, you go to your Mark Messier, you go to whatever you

think it is and you give your best. I don't care if you empty the whole series and you got nothing for next game. I don't care. Whatever you got, you gotta play it now. Cause I think that's the way the leads have to look at what's, I mean, obviously it's a must win for them, but they can't worry for a second about what's coming next if they happen to be successful.

It is only completely about right now for the coaches for the players for everyone in the organization about seven o'clock whatever seven thirty when the game starts and being ready to do it then quickly let me follow up on this because if you mention the access in those noodles and you know the the handables of rah rah the mental you know I'm curious

what you make of the news of the day today that he's not going to split up Matthews and Marner like he's keeping that line intact how does that factor into what you're saying like in terms of the mentality like not trying to panic trying to try to trust them trying to prove that you trust them would it maybe have been actually more relieving mentally if he got them away from each other, said, guys, we need a fresh start going into game six tonight and you're all going to play with different people. Where do you stand on that decision? One, I'm not surprised, uh, given that they played together almost

exclusively the whole year. And I think you, I think you hit it. I think there are a lot of ways you could spin this decision or non-decision and I think if I'm the Leafs, if I'm the coaching staff, I spin it as a quasi positive. I'm not breaking you up because I don't need to break you up. I'm not breaking you up because we were a better team than this team over there during the regular season

with you two together. Mitch, I'm not taking you away from Austin because you had a hundred and something points this year, best year of your life playing with him. Austin, you scored 70 last year playing with him. We don't need you guys apart from each other. We need you to be together and to be good together. Like that's how you're trying to spin it. And I do think if you put Austin with the two different guys and Mitch on the second line with Tavares and Willie on the third line with the Swedes, like I do think in elimination game when he's done very little of that this year he's right. He hasn't really experimented.

It's been Austin and Mitch and largely Matthew Nyes and it's been Neilander Tavares and a myriad of other guys. So you can swap out the other guys, but if you start switching with everything else, I think it would indicate a degree of a panic because not something you've ever done before whether it's appropriate or not it would come across that way and so I get why he's saying no I'm not changing them because I trust them because I believe in them he can't say anything else but that but there's probably an element of truth to it. This is who the team is.

I'm not, you don't just concede defeat because it's not going on your plan A, but this is the team. This is the team that was good and won the division, and you're gonna go down, think or swim, with the group that got you there, built the way they got you there. Yeah, I agree.

I think if anything, you don't challenge them, but you just say, I know what you're capable of. Play to your capabilities and that's it. And go at it and see if you can beat that team head on. What do you make of, obviously in the last couple days it's been noisy, but would it be a distraction for everyone talking about Marner and going to free agency and obviously was asked in the scrums and that because that's come right back up, that topic and it was quiet there for a long time and he's kept it quiet all season but now obviously with what's happened recently, it's right forefront.

I mean it did come up in a big way though, right? For a story that was largely a non-story, it's a big organizational story, but in the media and in the public, it hasn't been something that people were focused on because the team was good and he was good. And so that's all that people cared about. But it did come like an avalanche the last couple days.

But Mitch has dealt with this and dealt with it well all year. He knows what's going on. He knows what's at stake. He knows what offers may or may not have been coming. Whatever. He knows about the rampant in trade. He knows about all that stuff. And he's dealt with it well because he's played really well for almost the entire regular season this year. So, you know, I imagine the last two days were not very much fun for Mitch Marner, right? Like, you know, the degree with which the venom that went his way, which deserved in many ways, but

that would not have been fun. But I thought he's done a good job all year long, sort of focusing on the task of playing and not worrying about the future. Now the future could be 60 minutes away, so it might be harder to knock that out of your brain. But I guess you're going to have to trust that he did it all year long to the benefit of himself and the team and Like even if you have to tap in Mitch, you're leaving you want a lot of money, you know The best way to go get more money

play well with the game Be a different be the guy you. And even if that means you're leaving us for more, you'll get more if you play better on your way out the door than if we lose timidly here in game six. So I don't know if you have that conversation with him. I don't think you would. I'm not sure who would, right? With tree-living? With Verube? I can't imagine someone sitting down and having that conversation. It'd be awkward to have but in his mind

Maybe his family his agent whatever his closest friends might have that conversation but he's dealt with it all year, so he's gonna deal with it well and and Hopefully it doesn't bother him tonight that it might be his last game of the week. Yeah I mean he would be the one that would have to I think Convince himself that you know and ideally the reason you go out there and perform is for your teammates and for the team and for the fans and all that. I'm sure that's-

Not really for the fan taste. Yeah, I guess not for the fans. I guess, and- You think in the last few days he's going into the ninth game going, I'm gonna do it for those fans. No, he's probably not. No, he's saying, I'll do it for myself my family

these guys in the room this organization that has been good to me and that's what I care about and And for sure there will be I mean, it's a long ways away but if they ever were able to win these two games a big double salute to everyone who dumped all over the last two days like that is Somewhere in their minds mind it would be great to prove all these people wrong who feel that they've been proven right by criticizing the makeup of these guys in these moments

so that might be in their house was my reason i could think of but i don't know the most inspiring michael jordan i took that sh personally exactly just go play you have to manufacture it it's legit they would take it personally yep exactly like everyone's doubting it everyone is looking at you saying I I never should have believed it was gonna be different you know and yeah again as we continue to say they're they're lucky in a way that they still they're still

playing like with all of this doom and gloom and all this doubt at all you know these roller coasters for nine straight years these guys have another opportunity tonight to prove something different shut everyone up feels like they should have always said this and done this so many times before uh... that all the people who got the same answer time and time again and maybe we will again tonight and if so will cross a bridge but

maybe we won't and maybe we won't on sunday and if that's the case come monday morning it's gonna be a completely different vibe and i'll be a lot of people said i always do i always believed i always knew that they were there what i was just waiting for them to prove me exactly what i mean now i think

now they're, yeah. The whole thing has been, and I think what the team had to do in the last two days, guys, really, was get out of the focus that the series is virtually over and that the season is over. And hey, what you just said, they're still playing. Are you telling me that they can't win two games in a row are you exactly of course they can of

course they can they go in they had the best road wreck most road wins of any team in the history of the franchise this year you tell me you can't win one game on the road that's all you're trying to do when one game somehow some way on the road like that and I'm not saying it's gonna happen. I'm not saying they're gonna play well. I don't even know. But like that's what they're trying to get to. To that sort of belief that let's just, you know,

focusing on the task and believing that you're up to it. And then hopefully they can let us fly. At the very least, you know, I think a lot of people said the way they lost and how sort of timid, frozen, paralyzed, dipping their toe in the game, that mentality, that game, I really hope they don't do that type.

Win or lose, like go down swinging. Exactly. Not literally verbally. Like go down, not behind the back half doing your thing but just playing as hard as you possibly can lay on the line the aggressive people the smart and i feel that

that's all you can do going into tonight all right johnny uh... will uh... catch a guess on the other side of the long weekend of the long road out of it or what? Well, my weekend is real long. I got three games tomorrow. So yeah, thanks for asking but it's Who knows what next week to ring we talk on Tuesday. It could be a whole new world

Or it could be the end of the world of the Toronto Maple Leaf as we've known it for a decade Will be no more one of the two things to happen by the time next time we talk. You're right. Fork in the road. We'll see which one the team takes us down. No one else. The players and the team, they will determine this. We'll chat Tuesday.

Thanks, Johnny. All right, guys. Have a great weekend. Mike Johnson joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Drive the built in Canada fuel efficient, fun to drive Toyota RAV4, gas or hybrid models available. Visit mapletoyota.com. New, nostalgic, unmistakably Canadian. Made in Canada delivers 100% homegrown hits all day, every day. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca or the free iHeart Radio app.

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