OverDrive - LeBrun on a mammoth gold medal game, the Bennett-Marchand-Wilson behemoth line, and Sunday's goaltender matchup

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joins the show to discuss a Canada v. USA gold medal matchup, the powerful Bennett-Marchand-Wilson line, and the ever-so-important Binnington v. Hellebuyck goaltender battle on Sunday.

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Phenomenal. He is crushing Milan. He should have grown a little movement. mustache. Well, he always has the goatee going, usually, but you're right. Just mustache for the gold medal game. And started blowing darts. Here he is.

That would have. Here he is. Let's bring him in. And let's see if we can establish that. Pierre LeBron. Pierre, will you go mustache only on Sunday? And blow darts. No, no.

The old gray hair goatee stays on, boys. I'm not changing that look. Okay. I don't know. I think I grew my first goatie. I was eight. But anyway. Well, are you willing to say it's Canada U.S. on Sunday,

considering the Americans are up 5-0? Yeah, this game's over for sure. Slovak is just never had a foothold here, right from the outset, they look nervous and destroying it, and honestly can not look like the team at all that have been the darlings of this tournament. So pretty disappointing semifinal. But, of course, that's happening because we're playing a team that,

I mean, this is the best team USA roster ever assembled, you know. Yeah, there's so much, Jack. I mean, this is going to be quite a challenge for Team Canada boys on Sunday. In particular, because of times I think we saw it, especially in the Czech game on Wednesday, Canada's had some defensive breakdowns. That's going to be really, really, you know, tested on Sunday here. But I'll say this, after, you know, talking to Team Canada's players here after the game, they feel

they feel they can handle almost any situation now if they're coming back twice in terms of their resiliency and their belief and a couple of guys were saying they were down to nothing and it was so calm on the bench they just talked about sticking with it

sticking with it and it's not easy to do when it looks like your gold medal dreams man so Pierre if you had to pinpoint one thing that would be a concern for Team Canada their roster-wise or anything like that, come Sunday against the Americans, what would it be?

Is it just the obvious, the low-hanging fruit, the goaltender, is it the de-depth, or is, you know, Sid, is Sid going to play? Sid, the health of the group, like, what is it? Yeah, noodles. I start with Sidney Crosby. I mean, they don't have the same depth without him in the lineup. I know that's maybe pointing out the obvious,

but, you know, the idea coming into this tournament was to go one, two, three, three-ed-a-monster down the middle with McDavid, with Crosby, and with McKinnon. And now a couple of things have happened. Crosby's injured. He's going to try to give it a go on Sunday. But, you know, John Cooper made it really clear to us yesterday. They're not going to put him in harm's way.

Everyone has to sign off on this from the doctors. I mean, Caldivus is here as an assistant GM in team Canada, his NHL GM. Pat Brasson, his longtime agent is here trying to get him all the health he can. And so he's surrounded by, you know, his people and making this decision. He's going to try. I think he's going to try and find a way to play, but I'm not 100% ready to tell you that's going to happen. So what's happening with him out of the lineup is they've really gone away from the three-headed monster.

It's also because Nathan McKinn is not 100%. We don't know what he's dealing with. I was going to say, you guys don't know Pierre what's up with him? Because he looks a little bit off. I know he had a big goal. Yeah. Yeah. No, he had a big goal and honestly did some great work on that power play goal, if you rewind it.

I mean, he won a couple of fuck battles along the wall that kept that play alive that ended up back on his stick for the winning goal. But he's not 100%. So McKinnon's on 100%. Klausie's injured. It's put all kinds of pressure on Connor McDavid to carry the load. And, you know, my concern for Canada against the U.S. on Sunday is, you know, the U.S. is littered with offensive talent and all four of their lines. that Canada is going to go in a little top-heavy against that, which might lead them exposed.

Now, I will say this. Putting together Tom Wilson with Sam Bennett and Brad Marshall today, something that John Cooper said, he was surprised he waited this long to do because it's something he had talked about before the tournament, but they finally got to it today and went through the game. That could be a really important line against Team USA, because I'm telling you, that line today softened up to finish defense.

They started report checking and bang and hitting everything in sight, and that changed the game. It gave them momentum with finished blue liners looking over their shoulder, and they're going to need that against Team USA because that blue line is unreal from Team USA. They're going to have to try and top up that U.S. events. It's going to be a fascinating goaltender matchup, A. Pierre, like, it's who can flinch first of guys that, you know,

I mean, Binnington's got the clutch gene. He gets it done in big moments, but Hallibuck, it's like, it's just going to be a real fascinating matchup. net like to see who can kind of flinch first here? Well, in a year ago, Four Nations, it was one of the deciding factors. Jordan Bennington outplayed Conner Elba, plain simple. I mean, that's a game that the U.S. had better looks and great A's and overtime, especially, but Jordan Binnington shut the door and Conner Alba collided the goal by McDavid,

so we'll see if that matters at all for today. But I will tell you this much. One guy that wasn't at Four Nations was Tom Wolfen, and when I asked him to say today, after the game, if the U.S. were going to beat Slovakia, how excited he was to be in this matchup after having to watch it on TV a year ago. If I could describe this smile from one ear to the other that was on his face, he is so jacked up to be in that game Sunday and to throw his body around. And I will share this too.

Wilson said that he was mad at himself for laying off some hits that were there in Wednesday's quarterfinal against Czechia. He was so scared to take it back. family, but he didn't play his normal game. And he said today, he said, heck with it. He went back to his game, and he was a real physical force. So they'll need that from him on Sunday.

Love it. Can't wait for it. Can't wait to see the look on Sports Center, and we're holding our breath over here on Sunday, Pierre. Change something up for us in the gold medal game. Thanks, buddy. Enjoy the third. Right on, right on. Okay, guys. Thanks for having me on. Look forward to see you guys back and down. You got it.

Pierre Lebrunner, TSN Hockey Insider. from Milan. I'm Dylan Playfair. And I'm Tyler Smith. We're putting loneliness in the penalty box by talking to some of our favorite athletes about the importance of friendship. This is bromance. Bromance is brought to you by Charmed Diamond Centers, proudly Canadian-owned and operator.

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