OverDrive - Kaplan on Matthews' profile for American hockey, Crosby's role in Pittsburgh and Ovechkin's career accolades

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

ESPN Hockey Reporter Emily Kaplan joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the NHL, teams at the American Thanksgiving mark of the season, Auston Matthews' integral role, Alex Ovechkin's career tenure, Sidney Crosby's future in the league, the possible changes to the standings and more.

My name is Maria. Okay, I lied. It's Mary. But I just got back from a European-style holiday on MSC Cruises. And it made me want to be more European. Oh, the restaurante. I mean restaurants. Nightlife and shops in La Galleria.

Sorry, sorry. Even North American stuff like water slides and a sports bar and the views were bellissima. Okay, this is a problem. Book and save. Get drinks and Wi-Fi included. Visit MSCruises.ca, or contact your travel agent. Let's holiday.

Restriction supply ships registered in Panama and Malta. Here's ESPN hockey reporter joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline back on Overdrive. Here's Emily Kaplan. How you doing, Emily? I'm good. I appreciate you guys having me just coming off our annual Thanksgiving tradition of a street hockey game in New Jersey. So proud to report, we do drink Moulson's afterwards. We're trying to do it proper.

But always good to shout with you guys. I love that. That's the way it should be. That's the way it should be. And are you a believer in, like, how much stock do you put in that kind of defining moment? U.S. Thanksgiving? That defines who you are. in the league and basically what you see, what you get the rest of the way.

How much wiggle room do you have in terms of your evaluation the rest of the way? You know, like personally, I feel like I'm an eye test person, a field test person. I'm never a numbers person, but the numbers definitely bear out. You know, if you're in playoff position at American Thanksgiving, we've seen it a million times. We don't have to repeat it at nauseam. At the same time, I do feel like this season feels a bit different than years past, where it's just so many teams are in the mix. especially in the east, where you look at, you know, the bottom dwellers,

and there are only a couple points out of the playoffs. So I'm not sure this year. I think this would be the year rather that we'd see the outliers. But typically, you know, the teams that look like disasters at this point, they're not going to figure out a way to solve it. Well, and that would be where the leaves currently stand, like the least of not. Yeah, it has not been good for them. And it hasn't been great for Austin Matthews.

And we were talking about him in the last hour, and he's coming off the injury, played the other night in Columbus. last year he had an injury-riddled season, was a captain at the Four Nations, didn't have the greatest tournament, was okay. Actually, I thought he had a really good, it wasn't a gold medal game, whatever the hell they called that game,

the championship game. I thought he actually played really well and had ample opportunities in overtime to win that game, and he couldn't beat Bennington. And we were discussing, you know, with the Olympics back and how significant it is, especially in the U.S., because it's such a huge profile for the game

and for the American players in particular on NBC. We talked about T.J. O'Shee over 10 years ago, how big he was because he scored in the shootouts. But if you're trying to get a read on how big that's going to be for Matthews, for Austin, his profile, we presume he'll be the captain again. I don't know if you have any info on that. But what kind of, how defining could this be for his legacy, particularly in his home country, what could happen at the Olympic Games this year?

Absolutely. I mean, you look at T.J. O'Shea, and now all of a sudden he's a colleague and on the desk here at ESPN. because he's such a household name. And, of course, he had a great career. But all of my friends were just casual sports fans. No OSHA because of what he did in that Sochi Olympics. As for Austin, look, I think the captain question will get there first. I think USA hockey, every time I talk to Bill Guerr and about the makeup of the team,

how he wants to make the team, the first thing he always says is, we really like our Four Nations team. We were a really good team. And because of that, I just don't get the sense that, A, they're going to make many roster changes, and B, they're going to make a leadership change. And even though there are a lot of guys that have loud voices in that, we know that Kachuk Brothers have basically come the face of it. I think they'll be heavily marketed in the U.S.

and I think when they come out of the Olympics, especially if the U.S. does very well and get the gold medal, they're the ones that are going to get the biggest bump. I expect Austin Matthews to still have the seed because there's nothing that he did not to earn it, right? Or to have it taken away or somebody else to go over him. As for what this could do to him, I mean, I think he's been criminally undermarketed in the NHL in a lot of ways.

And I think it's intentional, right? Like he's so focused on the ice and so focused on being the right role model and the right person for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And that's a really tough market to navigate that he said no to a lot. And he's been very choosy about what type of opportunity he gets. And let's be honest, there just haven't been that many opportunities here in the United States for hockey players. But he's so marketable in the terms that he's from Arizona. He has a Mexican heritage. He's just a wonderful player to watch that if Team USA wins and if he has a good tournament and he's

wearing that C, I think some of those opportunities are going to come to him that he cannot say no to. And we're going to see him in national ad campaigns. We're going to see him, you know, crossover on things that are transcendent beyond hockey. And it will be absolutely massive. And I know everyone listening to this is probably a hockey fan in Canada. And they're like, how much bigger can he get? But trust me, a lot of my casual sports fans here in the United States don't know Austin yet, but after the Olympics, they probably will. Well, these fans are certainly hoping for that, Emily, because he certainly has made himself relatively anonymous this season

in Toronto, given where he's come from and how big he's been at times. But the Leafs are getting a little break from this very difficult market, Emily, and on a road trip, there are two games into a five-gamer in Washington today. And I'm wondering how you're seeing

the end game of the career of Alex Ovechkin, because we all thought, hey, he got the Gretzky record, he's reached 900 goals. Is he going to sort of, you know, sort of waltz into the sunset here and have kind of a, you know, a quiet end to his career. And yet, you look down and he's got nine goals in his most recent 12 games. The capitals are into a playoff spot.

He seems to be playing with a ton of energy and enjoying all these honors. He seems to be getting a pregame ceremonies on a very regular basis. How have you viewed OV at 40? Yeah, you know, I think, look, what we're seeing behind the scenes is kind of a test. hell that either he knows this is it or could be it with all the jersey swaps that he's doing, like doing with Connor McDavid, and you see it with Copatar. And I think every stop he goes, you know, he's a big memorabilia guy and he's clearly gearing up as if this could be his last season.

I have always assumed that the way this year goes will dictate what he does next. But I found it really interesting that when I sat down with him, I think it was, God, it was probably end of October, maybe early November. We did a sit-down interview and I asked, when will we know when it's time? to hang him up. And he said, I just want to make sure that I'm there for my kids, that I'm able to play soccer with them, play hockey with them. And because of that, I kind of had this thought in my head of like, he wanted to make sure that, like, his body still feels good. And because of that, it probably doesn't even matter how this year goes. Like, I think there's

some thoughts that are already kind of going through his mind of how the end of his career is going to play out. Like, you obviously don't want to be out there and be a liability. And I feel like sometimes we were questioning that, especially when he was getting every single start in the offensive zone. Like, dude, you trust this guy at all? And I'm like, okay, fine. Like, you know, he's still producing. He's still producing. And then the other thing that I've always considered with Alex Ovechkin is he's so obsessed with other goats. Like, he loves following the careers of Lionel Messi, Aaron Judd, and Kobe Bryant. And I know that the one goat that he loves the most out of all of them is Michael Jordan. And I think about

MJ, and MJ walked out when he was still on top, when he still had so much to give to the sport. And I can't help but think that might be something that's going through his mind as well. with Emily Kaplan of ESPN and the Leafs are, you know, they're going back to back with goats or legends because they're in Washington today, they're in Pittsburgh tomorrow and the Penns have had a surprising start, you know,

but I get the sense they're coming back to Earth. And I think by the end of it, like we just talked about U.S. Thanksgiving, where you happen to be in the standings, I think they're going to fall further south. And I think Dubus is preparing for that. But with Sid, like I'm curious, you know, how you apply that same logic

or that same, you know, line of thinking to Sid and trying to project what his career looks like the rest of the way because I get the sense he's just going to keep playing. Like I think he's just, he doesn't have kids like Ovi does. I think he just, I wouldn't be shocked. He plays so he's 42, 43. What is your prediction on how many more years could be left for Sid?

Oh, yeah. I honestly don't even want to put a number on it because I think as long as he's playing at a high level and I feel like that's most of these guys, they feel like as long as I'm still contributing to the game and I'm still contributing to my team and I'm not a liability. I want to be out there until they told me that I can't be out there anymore. And I feel like, Sid, to your point, because of how narrowly focused he is, that's got to be the group that he's in.

I think that Pittsburgh has navigated this so beautifully because it's such a challenging situation. And I remember when Fenway came in and I heard these rumors that he did this market research, what would it mean if we said goodbye to the franchise legends like Sid, like Gina, like Lettang? And the results that came back were like, oh, no, no, no, that's not good for business. and that's why you saw Latang and Mel can get these extensions that they're playing on right now. And so I think that there's just this thought process in Pittsburgh that we've got to do right by Sid, especially Sid, and they're going to let him dictate this. And, you know, we saw the noise really ramp up this off season.

Will he leave? How can he stand this? This is such a rebuild. One, I think Dan Mew's is a way better coach than any of us gave him credit for. And two, we just all underestimated the way that Sid can drive the bus. and even though that roster is not up to par with so many other NHL rosters, like they play their butts off because of their captain. So I think he'll dictate how long he wants to go,

how long it's going to be in Pittsburgh. He hasn't shown no indication that he wants to play anywhere outside of Pittsburgh. I'm with you. I think that they're going to come down to Earth, but they'll be competitive enough where after the Olympic break, we can't say, okay, this is the year he gets traded. There's just no way. Emily, you talk about how this has been a bit of an unusual season

with the jammed up standings and so much parody in the league. There's been an unprecedented number of overtime games to date. Are you getting any sense that there's any appetite for changing the way the standings are run in terms of the loser point, which does cause so much congestion in the standings when there are so many overtime games? Any appetite for a three-point regulation win in the standings or anything of that nature that might separate things more than they are separated right now? maybe if we get to a situation where like the end of the year just feels like such an anomaly

when we look at all the overtime points and we're like okay like we can't have this anymore perhaps there will be some appetite to discuss it I sense absolutely zero appetite for change though right now like I really don't like maybe people all have opinions but I can see the way this goes like the general managers are going to meet again in March in Florida and I'm sure it'll be like an agenda item someone brings up and what should we do and then they'll table it and then it'll go up to the Board of Governors, maybe, but it will never get to the point where it's going to get voted on. And I just can't imagine we're going to get a situation

where we're getting any kind of format changes, both to the regular season or the playoff format. And I think that's just because Gary Bettman and most league owners say, like, hey, the league's a really good place. We're really healthy. Why change things for the sake of changing things? So a long answer here is, no, I don't sense any appetite. But we'll probably discuss it on the table and table it and table it and nothing.

I know. Well, they love the idea of all these band bases being able to believe that they're in it. Yeah. You know, I mean, I think that's what they're afraid of, and I can't necessarily blame them. Like, it's not, you know, that's where every league is going right. Everyone leaves, every league's chasing parity. They all want to be the NFL. The NBA's doing it.

The NHL. They want everyone included. They don't want teams bottoming out. And kind of tough to argue that. Like, even up here in Toronto is a good example of that. Like, the least you have had a great run. They've been in playoffs nine straight. eight years. They have had an awful start and they're out of the playoffs, but you look at it,

they pick up a couple extra points here or there. They're still in it. Yeah. You know, and you can sell it. You can kind of reason with that if you're Gary Bettman. For sure. And like a couple notes there. One, it's so such a gate revenue driven league that we need the money, right? From those two fan bases that are like, okay, maybe, maybe like these games in February March, like those games need to matter because we need fans in the seats for those point blank. And it's just, yeah, there's, sorry, I got a little off of them thought here.

Maybe the Moulton just hit. You're a winner, Emily. You're allowed to. Thank you. Take it wherever it takes you. I'm telling you, the bruises from that street hockey game, it got a little tough out there. But no, like, I think that there's so many, you know, this is the other point I was going to make that, like, our company, right?

Like, we broadcast the playoffs. And I think the one thing is we're still so dependent on the big market teams, like when the Rangers, when the Bruins. when the Red Wings and the Blackhawks are not in it long, we see the ratings drop at the same time. This is the way the league wants it. They want teams in it every year, and we probably need to do a better job of elevating those smaller markets.

So no. And I think that with the salary cap rising, there might be more of a divide with the have-and-have-nots, and that's all the more reason why they wouldn't change the format at this point in time. Yep, absolutely. All right, we'll let you get back to the celebrations. Good recovery, man.

That was actually very professional. Very, very professional. Great catching up with you, as always, Emily. Thank you for doing this. Likewise, always. Hope you guys have a good one. Yeah, you too. Emily Kaplan of ESPN, joining us here on the Maple Toyota hotline,

get in and go where adventures take you. And a new 2025 Tacoma from Maple Toyota near Canada's Wonderland in the Maple Auto Mall visit mapletoida.com.