OverDrive - Johnston on Duclair's dilemma with Roy, McMichael and Chatfield's tilt and Tkachuk's injury status

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston joined OverDrive to discuss the latest around the NHL, the Maple Leafs' performance against the Panthers, Connor McMichael and Jalen Chatfield's tilt, Anthony Duclair's conundrum with Patrick Roy, Brady Tkachuk's injury for the Senators, Rick Tocchet's point of view of Elias Pettersson and more.

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Made in Canada, played in Canada. On the free iHeart app and i heart radio dot c a his christianity s and i can sign up what's happened cj and ours to be used next six cornwall lately as a as we can and anybody yes did you do you know the plan referencing do you have a take on that it's funny i was in the building by mister and then i didn't go back and

look at it when mentioned it down we were by the dresser and postgame and then to the top of the sleuth but but fortunately i didn't actually check it out yeah it was uh... accident on purpose so that's exactly what that was the Like I kind of know what I'm doing but I'm gonna bobble around and make it look like I didn't know what I was doing but yeah. And that could have been dangerous man. Oh yeah. That could have been dangerous.

Like Tavares fell right back like on his head and again it's Bennett and that Bennett's gonna do that stuff man. Like that's what's gonna happen. But you're right about Tavares. Like up to 36 on the year. Like what more can you say? We were talking about earlier this week, CJ, this isn't a guy performing on a contract year type thing where, hey, I'm just gonna show up now and try to get paid. He's been doing this his whole career. Yeah, but I mean, it's hard not to look at the numbers

and especially look at the surge he's had in the last month or so and wonder if you know a little bit extra motivation you know channeling some of that uncertainty I think probably I'd put him in the bucket of players that you know the time off for the Four Nations break I'm sure you know help them just in terms of getting some rest and recovery for this push towards the playoffs but you know it's you're right it's not not

anything you haven't seen but it's it's at a different level I think especially early on you had two stretches that stand out to me obviously March you know is probably his best month I think by goals anyway in the NHL he's ever had so that was obviously a strong period but even since the start of the year when when Matthews was injured you know T, you know, played a lot more minutes than, you know, he had the last couple seasons which was, you know, put into some situations and produced at a pretty insane level and that's how you get this season when you add that all together. I mean, he's got a chance to have this be his best, second best goal scoring season,

you know, at his stage of his career and someone who's known for scoring goals that's pretty impressive. So credit to him and I think it does set up for an interesting off season as we look forward to his future. CJ, not to jump around too much but we were talking about the non-suspension, the play by Jalen Chatfield last night. What does the league say about not handing down a suspension for a play like that? Well, what's interesting to me Frankie is is they said that there wasn't even a lot of debate in their room you know, I think that they look at it as two guys who are spinning from the start of the fight that are sort of struggling for balance and

you know, they view essentially that the trip and fall situation where they touch deals as you know more more of an accident than something where Chacko did on purpose. That's like when Jay Leno accidentally like fell into that light pole and had the black eye. He fell down a hill. Is that what he oh it was a hill yeah. That hill gave him the black eye. Go ahead CJ I know you're saying what the lead is saying here. It's not your opinion personally, but Yeah, basically they view it as two strong guys that are grappling, that are a little off balance and are trying to get some leverage and then it has an outcome and

you know, I don't think that they honestly had anything close to debate about whether it should be suspendable or anything like that. I think that you know internally they view that as just the outcome of that fight. And so it goes back to just sort of the start of your conversation or the end of it rather at the start of this hit. But, you know, to me, if that's what you're viewing it as, then if you don't like that play, it's almost like you can't have fighting because, you know, those, you know, the players are most full of guys who fought for a living, you know, George Perros at the head of it.

But you know, you got Ryan Goetzel, that's in there now, Stefan Gittel, you know, other people have done this. And if that's what they're concluding, and if we decide we don't like it, it's hard to, where do you find the middle ground? I guess maybe if the helmets are off, you got to stop a fight.

Maybe, like, I'm not sure how you can safeguard for that because you know that that play clearly could have had bad outcome you know whether there was intent or not. Absolutely. What are you what is your read on this Anthony Duclair Patrick Waa New York Islanders situation where Waa really called him out after the last game and then today Duclair asked Waa for time off, he was granted it and he's no longer with the team right now. Yeah, I mean look, Duclair's had a really tough year. He signed a four-year contract there as a free agent and it's not produced at anywhere

near the rate that you're used to seeing and clearly things aren't going well between him and the coach to have laws, frustration, come out in the public sphere the way it did after that game. And so, we live in a time, I think, where mental health and things of that nature are taken more seriously in sports and elsewhere. And so, he's asked for some time to process this and probably think about his future and, you know, maybe, maybe catch his breath from what's gone on. But, um, you know, I don't know where it goes from here other than, you know, I understand

him on board with that. And I think Patrick understands, you know, how they got to that spot in terms of him, you know, not, not feeling comfortable with the situation. So I don't know a lot of the behind the scenes of what's happened there but you know on the surface you see a player who struggled to fit in with the team get called out in that manner. You know you just hope that whatever is going on that he's taking care of himself and it appears that that is the case with his request to take some time away.

It's just going to be interesting how they get back to even like grounds here. Like how do you get back into the room and feel comfortable? Like okay I'm back and ready to go? Like that's like he basically said he had no business being in that lineup, which is probably true. That's like bottom of the barrel for a player and you said he signed a four year deal there? Yeah and I believe it's full no trade clause for the contract too. So, I mean maybe there's a buyout in the future. I mean there are ways you could

I guess move on from that kind of deal but none of them are appealing when you're only in the first year of a four-year ticket. No kidding. I guess let's segue to Vancouver. What is your read on the relationship between Rick Tuckett, Elias Pettersson and their future in Vancouver? Is there something specific I might have missed? No, I'm just talking about the way Pettersson's been going. I guess, you know, Tuckett was making some comments recently. The market's starting to go a little bit crazy out there, wondering if Tuckett and Petters peterson on the same page

pockets uncertainty in the future what's going on with peterson him not plan him being hurt well before you answer anyway they played last night how could they brian beyond the same page it's not even possible when you have a guy you just heard patrick wad talking about anthony duclair do you think there's any possible chance that rick talk it in peterson are on the same page right now

a guy grossly underachieving for more than a year how could that possibly even be a thing it's not that valid under percent but yeah i guess where do you do you think talk it has to consider that in terms of his future like what is he getting out of peterson and why would he he stay if Pettersons going to play like this and make 11.6 million? I think it's an under maybe discussed or thought about part of rip talk and figure out what is best for him after the season is just

what's the direction of the organization? What kind of team is he going to be coaching? What's management plans? I mean it's been an abject disaster there this year. I don't think it falls just on one player or just on one coach. This is an organizational issue to have a team that was within a breath of getting to the conference final last year and to have dealt with all the different things they have, personality conflicts, rating away, JT Miller, uh, the Pedersen situation. I mean, look, he's, he's got to wear it too. He's signed a big, big contract and has not been remotely close to a player that should be getting paid $11 million. And then if you're in the coach's seat and you're trying to think, you know,

Hey, this might be a good time or other teams might want me maybe some better spots to go. I mean, it's got to at least cross your mind if you're Rick Tuckett. So, you know, I don't know how that's gonna all shake out. I do believe him when he says that conversation hasn't really happened yet, you know, with the Canucks. And it's not really, it's not really one that I think that they can get into too meaningfully while the, you know, there's still a little bit daylight left on the season,

although obviously Vancouver's playoff chances have plummeted here the last little bit. But you know, it'll be an interesting few days, you know, when the Canucks are done, just to see how does management approach that. I mean, the Canucks clearly want to keep Chockett. You know, they've already indicated that desire to try to get him extended. But you know, I think CS is a side of who wants to stay. And I don't think it's just about the one player.

It's more about where where this organization how can we be sure removing a good spot because you know i think you can write a book about all things that have gone wrong there this year cj mc a headline here that says nhl to address lti are slash cap playoff issues can you elaborate on that please well cb a talk

officially are underway this weekend and is the league desire finally after a lot of chewing and throwing on that issue uh... to to least try to see if there's some way that the rules can be tweaked you know where that that is addressed and so that's that's what the plan is right now obviously anything that happens the players have to sign off on it.

And it's not yet clear exactly what that will look like. But I think it's fair to say that, there's even some players out there that maybe don't like the way teams have used LTIR, whether it was the Kutrow situation a few years ago in Tampa or Marston in Vegas. You want to go way back, Patrick Kane in Chicago, and there's others, it's not just those teams, but you know, if you remember the lightning

made t-shirts, something $92 million team, I think it was a Dougie Hamilton comment after the hurricanes got beat up by Tampa that year in the playoffs. So, um, you know, it's, it's a bit of a hot button issue. It's seen as I think by some as a loophole and as those CBA talks kept going, I think what's great about those is we're not supposed to hear too much. I think they're just going to try to salt that away and announce an extension without any of us having to worry about it or dive too deeply into it as we go along here. But one of the things that our colleague Pierre Lebrun reported tonight on IT just was about the fact the league wants to address

that LTIR issue if they can pick up with something with the players association. With Chris Johnston so Ottawa at home against Tampa tonight Brady Kachuk not playing this would be the fourth game he misses this year I believe with an upper body injury they're 0-3 when he's not in the lineup. What are you hearing in terms of his status and in terms of you know whether this is something to be concerned about beyond tonight? Well, it seems like a case in this scenario where they're being almost overly cautious and I don't mean that in a bad way I think that you know, they look at the standings and while they're still obviously fighting to officially lock up their spot

You know, they're in a spot where they don't need to be pushing anyone to the limit at this stage And obviously given how important Brady Kachak is to them, um, you know, it's a separate issue from the one he had at the four nations. He had an awkward collision on Sunday, uh, with Ryan Graves of Pittsburgh and just was feeling sore. And so I think, I think it's a sort of under the bucket of abundance of caution right now, but let's face it, he also was dealing with that lower body injury that did awesome games coming

out of the four nations. And so I think it's an opportunity that they're seeing on their schedule to, to get Brady some extra rest and, and for them for the most important time of the year, which in this case does look like it's going to include playoff games for the first time since Kichuck was drafted by the senators. So, um, this, this is one of those ones where if they had to win the game to get in, I think he'd be playing, but they don't have to. And so I think they're just taking it easy with him and trying to make sure they get the best version of him in two weeks' time.

What about on the Leaf front, Jake McCabe and David Camp left the game last night. You hear anything on them? I didn't hear anything today. They didn't have practice on those guys. It was a weird situation in the cave. I actually didn't, again being in the building, I didn't see Halley got tangled up with the linesman. I guess it was in celebrating that goal, the breakaway goal, but it was very sort of strange circumstances there. You know, Campy's kind of laboring off after his last shift. You know, we're going to have to see what the master's report has for us when they get

back on the ice tomorrow. Yeah. Okay. All right, CJ. Thank you for doing this. We'll do it again soon. Okay, boys. Be well.

Chris Johnston, our TSN Hockey Insider. That just happened with me, Vashi Kapelos. Canada Decides 2025. Stay informed with my exclusive iHeartRadio podcast, available Friday afternoon straight through till election day and beyond. I'll have your weekly highlights and my unvarnished analysis of the campaign of a lifetime. The candidates, the quotes, the polls, and the momentum. That just happened with Vashie Capellos. Canada decides. 2025. Fresh every Friday. Stream on your schedule with the free iHeartRadio

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