OverDrive - LeBrun on Crosby and Hughes' injury status, the Canadiens' losing skid and the Blackhawks' search for answers

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the NHL, Sidney Crosby and Quinn Hughes' injury status for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, the Canadiens' losing run and the possible trade pieces, Connor Bedard's performance with the Blackhawks, the Senators in the market and more.

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Here's Pierre Lebron our TSN hockey insider. What's happening Pierre? Well I'm driving shockingly, Brian. I'm driving to one of my kids hockey games. At least I play in the big tilt tonight. Yes, so we're on the road and Getting ready for that. Okay. What rink are we on the way to what rink are we were we dealing with this afternoon or tonight? Mark where we going again? Oh Don Mills The old school No, not big village the Don Mills Civetan that is is where the Brian Hayes career was launched. That's where I played when I was like four years old, five years old, man.

It's one of the... it's a great barn, great little snack bar over on the side, and so cold, insanely cold, or it used to be 35 years ago. I can't say... I don't know if it still is, Pierre, but great barn, great great great barn Don Mills Civetown I love it awesome connected to the mall there the little strip mall there and Don Mills I got my toque and my mitts always ready to go because I live in these rinks yeah and yeah let's go I love it all right go Flames in terms of you know we're talking about the Leafs in Seattle tonight and Stolar's returning and Marner's back in the lineup. You know,

there's a lot of Four Nations face-off, I guess, concern, anxiety. How would you describe it with what's gonna happen with Sid? I guess Marner back tonight, that means he's gonna go, he's gonna play for Canada, but Quinn Hughes not playing. I don't even think he traveled to San Jose, don't believe he did. No. What's the latest on Hughes, Crosby, Four Nations, where do we stand on that? Well first just a quick note you mentioned Stolarz I love it for him that he gets a game in before the break like I think mentally for goalie and getting back before the break and getting that in I think is huge for him in terms of his approach when he comes out of this break but

yeah i listen not queen who's and you know great talk and said this yesterday but really within the next twenty four forty hours we should know i never all depends whether or not he's a gold on the weekend for the cracks i a it doesn't sound great right now i don't want to be for sure that he's out of four nations but i know there's a lot of concern concern with team USA and what a massive loss that would be. But again, not there yet. They're still waiting to see.

But equal concern, of course, with team Canada because yes, Cindy Crosby, team Canada's captain was on the ice today, but he wasn't in the main practice. Didn't take a lot of shots on the side rink where I was looking at the visuals of him doing some of those drills. And I guess, and Chris Johnson put this best, we just did insider trading, it's sort of the way that everyone connected to the Penguins and to Crosby are guarding the updated information

like it's a national secret. That gives you pause a bit. I mean, why is everyone so tight-lipped? And so, you know, I know one thing. Number 87 is going to do all he can to be in that tournament. I mean, if there's someone that is representative of best-on-best in the modern era in the game of hockey, it's Cindy Crosby. He is so excited about this event, genuinely.

You know, I traded messages with him last month about having a chance to play with Brad Marshaw and Nate McKinnon, his two Nova Scotia pals, that they work out together in the summer. He was so excited by that. So he wants in and he will do everything he can, but honestly, the key thing is to see what the update is tomorrow. that's what Mike Sullivan said and that's what I know

team Canada is waiting to hear again is tomorrow's update so we shall see but I think some pretty nervous moments right now. So it's natural now that you would have the conversations around who's on the short list if Crosby can't go or if Hughes can't go? Do you have any kind of information as far as who would be the next couple players up in either of those situations? Frank Carado, no. Not even on my best day, buddy.

Get him in there. No, not on there. Team Canada is being tight-lipped about that, but if I had to put a wager, I'd say Mark Shifeley at forward. Again, one of the things that you try to do is like take for example Axe Patrangelo who's still not been replaced by Team Canada because they're trying to wait and gather as much information as possible. It's not, it's not the way that Don Sweeney described it to me last week again without getting into names. He described their thought process which is it's not the way that Don Sweeney described it to me last week, again, without getting into names, he described their thought process, which is it's not about who the best player

is up next as much as the kind of minutes you're trying to replace in the lineup. And so in Petrangelo's case, you're thinking matchup minutes, shutdown minutes, BK, so that's why Drew Dowdy, Chris Tann of McKenzie Weger have really been more at the forefront as replacement options compared to Evan Bouchard of course is an amazing offensive defenseman. But with Kel McCarr likely playing 90% of the park place for Canada, you understand where Canada is coming from in that thought process. So that's why I think it's one of those guys. So if Crosby can't go and again we sure hope hope that's not the case But I think Shively checks more boxes perhaps than than a few other centers

But again that that remains to be seen with Pierre Lebrun our TSN hockey insider Behaves lost again last night and They had that great run and it was all of a sudden you got to keep everyone And they had that great run and it was all of a sudden, you got to keep everyone and you got to be fair to the guys who were there and, you know, Evans has got to stay and Savard's got to stay and you got to push for the playoffs and it's in the best interest of the culture and team building, et cetera, et cetera. Now they fall off and now it feels like maybe that ship has sailed.

Where do we stand with Montreal as we move forward here in their plans in terms of leading up to the trade deadline and just in general what they maybe expect the rest of the way? Yeah, pretty timely question I think. And just quickly, I forgot to answer Frank's second part of his question about Team USA if Quinn Hughes can't go. I think Jake Sanderson of the Ottawa Senators will be tapped. Okay, he's been a lot better lately. He's been really good. Okay, he's been a lot better lately.

He's been really good. Okay, go on. If Kooten can't go, I think the Habs realize now, I think this was seen internally as a pretty big road trip that they just completed in California. It didn't go very well. You know, I think that the Habs will come out of this break as sellers. You know, the best case scenario for them had they maintained their pace that they had through the holidays and beyond was that their version of buying was that they would have kept all

their Pending UFAs right? Jake Evans, Joel Armia, Christian Duporek, David Savard. I think now internally the idea is to come out here and tell teams you know come and bid on these guys. That's the reality of the situation. It doesn't mean they'll trade them all. You know, I don't think that's the case. I mean, they got so many darn draft picks already that getting a fifth round pick for

all those guys isn't going to move the needle for Montreal. It really has to be step up and be real. If you want to try and acquire Jake Evans or your RBM, both of them, by the way, the terrific bounty killers all year for that. So I think that's where it's at. And the reality, Brian, to fully answer your question on them, is that my sense of the situation is that even when they were playing a real high level of hockey

and got everyone excited in their market, Kenny Hughes and Jeff Gordon never really lost their eye off the ball, which is that it's so much more about past this season for them, the longer term of inhibition, which is which is why if they were going to do anything big at the deadline regardless of where they were in the standings, it was absolutely going to be in a hockey deal form where it's a player that's with them past this year. And that was going to be the case and still could be by the way but this year's success or lack of was not really going to dramatically influence their moves

for March 7th and that hasn't changed today. Would there be any concern there about the year that Juraj Slavkovski is having because he's not exactly on pace to exceed last year. I think he's on pace for 45 points this year. He's not going to score as many goals unless he has a really big uh... you know stretch run here like with with they have been concerned about this or were they under the impression that it was never going to be linear for him and and they may have expected you know an up year a

down year you know as he kinda progressed in his career yeah i know you do a lot of games i don't think there's a high level of concern. I think that earlier in the season there were probably a little more concern than there are now. I think they'd like him to shoot more, but to your point, I think they always thought that it would be, let's be patient with this guy as a power forward, as you often see with guys. And again, remember how young he is. And so, you know he continues

to keep that job on their top line he wouldn't have it if he didn't think he should still be there believe me so I think they're okay with how it's gone but it certainly hasn't been completely smooth all year to be real there's more offense there and again I think they really wish he would shoot more. With Pierre LeBrunner, TSN hockey insider. In terms of you know where we've been talking a lot about Connor Bedard today and he played obviously a prime time game with McDavid and the Oilers in town and Edmonton ends up beating them in overtime and everyone's got a different viewpoint on where he is, what he's growing towards, what the team's going to do. Chicago, like they they're confusing to me because they fired their head coach and

their GM Kyle Davidson came out and said the reason we fired him is because we believe we're better than this. Obviously he was wrong on that based on the way they've played and the way things have played out. But you see this in other sports where young superstars there's this concern like at some point that guy's gonna get really pissed off with what's going on and maybe demand some help. How do you see the Bedard-Blackhawk relationship moving forward considering year two it's not going well and he really doesn't have much help there. Well I would say that's certainly part of the reason why there was a coaching change. I would say that this is a pretty important offseason for the organization from that vantage

point in terms of assembling more parts around him. You know I will say that they do have a lot coming in their pipeline, which naturally you would hope given all the big events in the last few years, but they are pretty well positioned in terms of what's coming. There has to be a bit of patience there, Brian, but the reality is it probably hasn't descended as quickly as Conor would have wanted. I do think he's playing a lot better now than he was at the start of the year. But there isn't that much around him. And so, you know, that has to be accentuated this offseason for sure. And I think there'll be pressure there to do that. You know, one of the interesting things

to me about seeing how this season has played out for Chicago is that, you know, I only bring this up because I remember being in the middle of that reporting on the draft in Vegas last June, but you know, Chicago offered their 20-25 first round pick unprotected to Columbus for the fourth overall pick and then the Blue Jackets declined it at the time. I believe the offer was made to another team in the top five as well, but you know, the Hawks could end up with the first pick overall here again. And so looking back in hindsight, I mean, it's easy to do for anyone, but probably fortunate in some ways that that trade didn't go through, I would say, given where they are now. Well, and they also passed on Demidov, did they not? Like when you're building towards the future,

you look at Crosby had Malkin, McKinnon has had Ranton in, McDavid, Dreisaitl, it's like you could have had a situation where you had Badard Demidov together for the foreseeable future. That would have been a nice little combination. Montreal's pretty happy to have that guy. Well, and I think who knows what they were, I don't know who they were thinking of picking up. They've been able to pick twice in the top five, right? Yeah. I mean, that's to your point, Frank.

So yeah, it's always interesting to look at that. But yeah, I mean, listen, I think that, you know, not that the Sharks are any higher in the standings than the Blackhawks, but San Jose's rebuild started after Chicago's and you know it's really amazing to me how Macklin Celebrini has looked at his rookie year. I mean you know I've had a couple of front office people from around the league tell me that they look at where he is at his young age and see the way that a young Tom and Taze meets Cindy Crosby type hybrid set up there in terms of celebrities approach over 200 feet to his game. I mean that's an unbelievable praise from other teams. So I guess

what I'm saying is you know you're always going to be compared to perhaps what other teams are up to similar to you and right now you know I still think Chicago is gonna you know Chicago is gonna figure this out but right now I'd say San Jose is probably feeling better about where they are in their rebuild. Yeah and and they should and you know they get an elite centerman who's gonna be the franchise guy for a long time and you know there's a team right now in the Eastern Conference that is missing two significant centermen and that would be the Ottawa Senators Josh Norris, Shane Pinto and their third in the Atlantic but you know Detroit's chasing them down there one point back. Tampa's two points

back. We know that it doesn't necessarily go well for them when they don't have Stutsela into Norris into Pinto. How worried should the Sens be and would they maybe try and get ahead of this and try and bridge the gap here between those guys coming back to now? Yeah they were already making calls before all that for a top nine for Brandon Tan, his name has been out there from Seattle and a few other guys that the senators I know have checked in on. So I think they would like to add, regardless of what's happened injury-wise. I would also tell you two things.

One is that Steve Staus, if you're going to read his very early career resume that you have, he's only been at GM for two years now. He's not showing any panic at all. He has really weathered the storm through some tough moments already since taking over. One of them was when Almark went down, everyone was clamoring for him where a lot of people were to go trade for a foley and he truly believed they could get through with what they had in the organization. He was proven right. I think that's an important trait because I think it's a lot easier to panic trait than it is to suck it up and hang in there. And so that's an important trait that I've seen from him.

But having said it, like I said, I think they're going to try it out at top nine for March 7th. The other thing is I think, you know, the senators having survived all those games without Al Mark, he's back now, I know, but the fact that they got through that stretch without really the goalie that was brought in to be the difference maker for them this year speaks, I think, glowingly at where that team is finally headed. I think they're over the, I think they're over the, I think this year has answered a lot of questions about them.

I sent you that tweet, Brian, I did that poll this week just for kicks of asking people if it was Ottawa, Toronto in the first round, who would you pick? Now I get it, these things aren't scientific and you never know why people are voting in certain ways. But you know, just over 25,000 people answered and it was 52, 48 for the senators. Which is, I didn't expect that. Now there's probably as many Leaf haters in the hockey world as are Leaf lovers, I would say. That's maybe part of it, but I will say

I scroll down on my Twitter feed and look at some of the people that were tweeting at me about the poll. There were a number of Leaf fans who said, I'm a Leaf fan all my life, I'm thinking Ottawa. I don't know what to make it at. Like I, I, I think that despite a new coach, um, despite all the changes on the blue line, you guys mentioned TANF is having an unbelievable year. This is still a market here in Toronto that will not believe until they see it.

And I think, and they shouldn't, how could you blame anybody? How could you possibly blame anybody? How could you possibly blame anybody? They're so scarred and gun shy. But I'd love to see that series, man. It would be an outstanding one. And again, if it were to happen, I guess, starting tonight, that's probably what we would be looking at. All right, Pierre, you're probably in Don Mills by now, I would hope. So good luck with that. Good luck luck with the game tonight go flames and we'll do it again soon are you kidding I'm not there yet this Toronto man do you really think I'm there already I guess not if you're in Toronto you're 30 minutes from Toronto yeah very good luck good luck with the

Forge all right there is Pierre Labono, Tia Sanhok, Ian Sutter