OverDrive - Masters on Canada's performance at the World Juniors, the matchup against Czechia and McKenna's grand opportunity

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

TSN World Junior Championship Reporter Mark Masters joined OverDrive to discuss Canada's roster at the IIHF World Junior Championship, the matchup against Czechia, how the team can find offensive strength, players responding to views from the country, Gavin McKenna's impactful role and more.

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The smarter way to book travel. Joining us here on the Maple Toyota Hotline, here's our Team Canada reporter, Mark Masters. Mark, how would you describe the mood of the Canadian team and the confidence of the Canadian team going into this game tonight? Maybe the mood would be defiant, I would say. They know there's been a lot of criticism of the team,

and they've been critical of themselves here with all the penalties. But yeah, they're kind of defiant. I think they've still got a decent kind of swagger to a little bit of confidence despite the fact they've lost a couple of games. One to a team that they've never lost to before this tournament in Latvia

and one to their most hated rivals. So defiant and, yeah, still pretty confident, I would say. Easton Cowan, we were just talking about Cowan, and you've connected with him more than I'm sure the other players because of his team, his time with the Leafs and within the Leafs camp and following his career. What do you make of his tournament so far? I know the stats haven't been great. The penalty he took the other night was a stupid penalty. He's owned it. He knows it. But he's taken a ton

of heat. And I think in large part because he's a Leaf prospect. I mean, let's call it what it is. Everyone throughout the country is going to jump on him immediately because of the team he's a Leaf prospect. I mean, let's call it what it is. Everyone throughout the country is going to jump on him immediately because of the team he's affiliated with. But what have you seen from Easton Cowan, not only on the ice, but I guess behind the scenes as well? Yeah, you know what? I think his tournament's kind of been like the team's, right? Like, he's had some great moments.

Got on the board in that Boxing Day win, and then at times he's just been a little off, right? Just can't quite connect, and they've been switching around the top line. It looks like they're going to get Bradley Nadeau back up there tonight. They had Cole Beaudoin there for the last couple, and they're just trying to find something here, and Callan's trying to find something here as well. And he's such an important part of this team.

They really need him going. If they're going to get this thing back on the rails, it's going to be because he's found his game as well. I like what I've heard off the ice, though. Taking responsibility for the penalty and taking it starts with him. I think that's what you want to hear. He's talked about how being a Maple Leafs

prospect, he's been under the microscope more than other team prospects, and that's helped him mature a bit. We'll see if some of that maturity pays off starting tonight. We've been talking about how the books and FanDuel have Canada favored heavily in this one, Mark, minus 335 on the money line. That's a win probability of 78%,

but it feels more like a 50-50 coin flip based on how these two teams have played to this point in the tournament. What stands out to you about Czechia, the team McKenna's playing tonight? Yeah, I mean, we saw them in the final pre-tournament game. Canada really struggled against them. Didn't generate a whole ton. Gavin McKenna had a big game. He scored a couple of goals. Bradley Nadeau got on

the board. They won 3-2 on a late McKenna goal, but Czechia played them tough and Czechia's played them tough just historically in this tournament here of late. So I like what Patrick Augusta, the Czech coach, said today. I think he said his team's a little bit of an underdog, but not real underdogs. This is more of a 50-50 proposition in their mind.

So I think that's fair. The Canadians know how tough the Czechs can be. There's returning players from last year when they lost to Czechia, so I expect this to be a very tight, stressful night here in Ottawa. Mark, the three of us would like to see more McKenna tonight. Do you think we will get that? Dave Cameron has hinted at that. He said that the penalty problem,

one of the byproducts of that is he hasn't been able to give McKenna and that line more time. That's probably the most dangerous offensive line here of late. Berkley leads the team in shots, and they just feel like they're on the cusp of breaking out. I lied. I spoke to McKenna today.

I, I, I loved his kind of, kind of the, what he was putting off there. He said, I, you know,

I said, how are you handling the noise? He said, yeah, yeah. We try and stay away with it from it, but I don't mind it. I said,

well, what do you mean? He's like, it fuels me. And I said, did you look at some of the stuff that was being said after the new year's Eve loss? He said,

yeah, you got people in our own country doubting us, and I want to prove them wrong. So I really like what McKenna's saying, and I think he's going to get more ice time tonight. He had a hat trick in the gold medal game at the Under-18 World. He's shown that he can step up in these big moments, and they're going to give him every opportunity to do that tonight.

Lastly, Mark, because I know you've got to fly. There's a lot going on out there in Ottawa. Dave Cameron has been on the firing line. I mean, there's been a lot of people kind of running at him, the way that he's decided to put together the lineup, the way he's kind of stuck to his team in terms of what he envisioned at the start. He's gone through the group stage, and it sounds as if a lot of it will carry over to tonight. But also, after the two losses, he canceled practice the next day,

and then he canceled the skate this morning. Well, they didn't have a skate this morning. They haven't been on the ice since they lost to the Americans on New Year's. Is there any reasoning behind that? And is it a big story in Ottawa because it appears to be picking up steam online and throughout the rest of the country? Yeah, I think it's a big story. I mean, because they didn't practice, they didn't have a general media availability.

I was able to talk to some of the guys at the at the team hotel uh for part of our broadcast and uh they just kind of wanted to be in a bit of a bubble here going into this game as things have gone they they value you know obviously preserving energy here they don't you know necessarily know how much you're going to get out of a morning skate or why not the checks did do a full morning skate after canceling yesterday's practice um but yeah they apparently were hanging out at the hotel yesterday kind of just doing like having a game night kind of situation playing a little cornhole just trying to unplug obviously the pressure has been ratcheting up um mckenna mckenna seems to like hearing the negative stuff but i'm sure some players don't uh and it's maybe not great for their mental health so they've kind of try to keep them away

from that, trying to loose them up, help them deal with the pressure now. I'm sure that if Canada does not play well tonight a lot of people will look at how they handled things and the lack of practice time, the lack of skates as maybe a reason for that but yeah, I mean

because there's no general media availability today it's hard for me to get a sense to see how big of a story that is in in ottawa here but if they don't if they don't respond tonight uh i can tell you will be a big story after the game absolutely uh enjoy it tonight mark we always appreciate you doing this yeah thanks guys there's uh mark masters joining us from the maple toyota hotline count on maple toyota for the right winter tire package for your Toyota. Trade in your old tires, buy a new set, and get $40 back. Visit mapletoyota.com.