OverDrive - Masters on Easton Cowan learning from Auston Matthews, Matthew Schaefer’s impact and Carter George’s impressive start against Finland

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

TSN World Juniors Reporter, Mark Masters joins OverDrive to chat about Carter George’s impressive start against Finland, Canada’s defensive identity, Matthew Schaefer’s skillset, Easton Cowan learning from Auston Matthews and more.

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The smarter way to book travel. Live is life. Life is life. Who knows what the name of this song is? Apparently, everyone has a different interpretation of what it's called. Mike DiStefano, a.k.a. Al's brother, in for Brian Hayes. Got Strutty and Dave Festchuck with me today. Joining me on the line is our good pal Mark Masters,

TSN Leafs and World Juniors reporter. What's going on, Mark? How you doing? I'm doing all right. Good to be on with you. Life is life. Which one is it? Life is life? Live is life? I don't want to tell you how many takes I had to do of my previous show story that mentioned this. And looking at it and saying it wrong and coming out wrong and i believe it's live is life is the name

of the song it sure sounds like life is life to me and they play it all the time at leafs games usually midway through the third period so you would think something would have seeped into my brain but i it was the end of a long day and and I was just trying to get this. This is the last thing I had to do. Live is life. I believe I'm saying that right, but it sure sounds like life is life to me. It's one of those. Apparently, it's a Mandela effect, too. That's what I've uncovered via the Reddit waves.

Masters, nice tidy 4-0 win from Canada last night, so got to hear that song a few times. What did you make of the effort last night against Finland? Yeah, it was pretty comprehensive. I think the only thing missing was probably a power play goal. Would have been nice, but other than that, goaltending was perfect. Carter George looks like they made the right pick there. Up and down the lineup, they're getting contributions.

The young guys get the party started. That's a pretty good sign that the kids aren't having any stage stage fright uh the really young kids because they're all young here uh but yeah so much to like uh you're getting the block shots at the end of the game the crowd into it making their presence felt it's hard to imagine a better better start to this tournament for canada well let's touch on those young players because I was surprised how confident and how deliberate they were at the puck. So maybe go over Schaefer and McKenna. You're around them every day, their level of confidence, kind of interaction with other players.

Yeah, it's great. I was asking Braden Yager, the captain today, I'm like, does McKenna ever look young to you on or off the ice? He said off the ice, yes. He's messy. They're roommates. His side of the ice yes he's messy their roommates his side of the room is a lot messier than his so he said that's so he's got he says i'm still teaching him a little bit but uh other than that he's a total pro like on the ice you wouldn't know it right

other than these cages they have to wear they they you wouldn't know they were the youngest guys on the team um so they handle themselves like schaefer in particular like this guy is just i'm so impressed with him. It's just a stud. Like he just takes command. He's the complete package, both ends of the ice. I just thought early in the game, you know, Easton Cowan's getting under the skin of Consta Hellenius,

going at him after a whistle. And Schaefer like just jumps in there and he's like, you know, I'm getting involved in this game. So to me, like he just looks like the real deal. And I could easily easily i understand why he's picking up a lot of momentum in the 2025 nhl draft class and why a lot of people think he's going to be the number one pick now so we've been talking about canadian goaltending masters and not in a good way for a handful of years here and we'll be talking about it more as we head toward

the olympics in 2026 but carter george I don't want to put too much pressure on the kid, but a second-round NHL pick who looks like he's got poise in the crease and really great fundamentals. What do you make of his chances to be the next great Canadian hope in net? He sure looks the part right now. And he did at the under-18 World Championship where Canada was getting outshot badly by the Americans in the gold medal game back in May,

and he was keeping them in there, and he won them that game, a lot of the players say. And he certainly, if he was any nerves at all, you couldn't tell last night, he looked ready for the moment for sure. I like how confident, like he's just talking about the mental side of things. He was talking about he's working with a goalie mindset consultant now,

Pete Fry, and he didn't want to. He didn't think he needed one. His parents really pushed him to do it, and he said, okay. He said it's really helped him. He's discovered that he was too focused at times, and it's allowed him to breathe a little bit and be energized for the key moments. He certainly looked completely locked in.

20 saves in that third period after a quiet start to the game. His numbers maybe don't look as impressive in the OHL this season because it's a young, Owen-sound attack team. But, yeah, there's a lot to like there. It's funny, like, Ivan Kovic starts tonight, 17-year-old, another 17-year-old gets into the spotlight tonight. And the tallest goalie, 6 six foot four the guy with the best numbers of the three of them carson bjarnison who's playing for brandon in the whl leading the whl and c percentage when he came to the camp he's the healthy scratch he's the third goalie so it's

you know after all these years of questions about ken and his goaltending the question now is which good option to go with so do you expect for us to us to still see a running and try and see what we've got in all three goalies here? Or did you think last night maybe made enough of a say to keep the net? Yeah, it feels like George was the guy they always wanted.

Or the guy that they identified as he's going to be our guy if all things go to plan. And things have gone well to plan. He started the first pre-tournament game and he started the full final pre-tournament game and then he started the boxing day opener so back-to-back situation get Ivan Kovic in there just because he'd like someone to have some experience in this building uh and having played and just get a feel for it not going too long between games and just give him that in case you need him god forbid an injury or whatever or you know if there's play, he's ready to go.

But I would fully expect Carter George to be back in for the Germany game and assuming everything goes smoothly in that for the New Year's Eve game against the Americans. Masters, how's the coaching staff going to balance the obvious mobility and desire to jump up in the play by this group of D-men they have? They want them to jump up. They think that that's kind of the identity of this defense is that they're all really good skaters.

They can defend with their legs, so if there's a turnover, they can get back. Schaefer's an amazing skater. Mullendieck, that's a big talking point, is who's the better skater, Mullendieck and Schaefer. They both look like they're floating over the ice at times. Oliver Bonk was saying that he's hard to keep up with Schaefer, and he's not a bad skater himself.

So they really like it. Andrew Gibson, he looks like a man out there, not just because of the mustache. So they feel like they've got good balance on the pairs. They feel like they all can skate well, and they're happy to let them kind of push the offense from the back end. They want that to be part of that. They're going to need those guys to do that because, you know,

obviously they've got that top line with Easton Cowan getting on the board and then mckenna's coming but they might not get the offense from down the lineup and so it's important to have the the defense kind of driving things a little bit the masters uh easton cowan the maple leafs draft pick rolls into this uh tournament on a 56 game point streak in the ohl scores last night, and I see you've tweeted out an interview you've done with him where he's crediting learning a little bit of some of the tricks of the trade, of the goal scoring trade, from one

Austin Matthews. What did you make of that? Yeah, my ears certainly perked up when I heard that last night. You can't take the least beat reporter out of a reporter right so like i was i was like all right let's explore this topic a little bit more um and i i you know he said he's been picking his brain you know how high should i put my stick back when i'm shooting

where should i where do i hit it you know i'm sure plenty of other secrets it's interesting because you know how can austin matthews know, he's such a gifted goal scorer. Sometimes it's intimidating for a young guy to ask him because, like, what can I really learn, like, from this guy who just seems like a goal-scoring savant? But it seems like he's got the confidence, right? Callan's kind of got that swagger to just go up to him and say, like, what can I learn? And they were texting, right?

Matthews texted him heading into this World Juniors. And what kind of impressed me was Callan's like, yeah, Matthews texted him and heading into this World Juniors and what kind of impressed me was Cowan's like, yeah, I was chirping him because he was telling me to score goals and I was chirping him well, you've scored a lot in that building, maybe I'll follow in your footsteps, you know, referencing the four goal debut. So Cowan to me just is just oozing confidence right now. Last year at the World Juniors

he never got going. Like, even he didn't have a good selection camp and they mentioned that. Management was like, we're bringing him because he's been so good in the OHL, we have faith he'll get it going and it just never got going and he wasn't the only one it was a tough year but you can tell he's on a mission he's on a mission right now he's on the top line he's on the top power play unit he's engaged he's looking like the easton cowan who has put together that incredible point streak in the ohl looks like a guy who's certainly happy to go up to austin matthew, hey, teach me about goal scoring. And his goal scoring has ticked up in the OHL this season.

You know, 15 and 20 games,.75 per game in terms of goals, which is up a little bit from last year's round,.63. So he's heading in the right direction in that department and looking really good here. Well, I guess we're going to leave a question in there to you, Mr. Lease Beat Reporter. What's your level of concern here with this mysterious Austin Matthews injury that is likely to keep him out

the next couple of games coming out of the holiday break? Well, yeah, it keeps getting higher, right? I mean, you know, it's looking like this is something that's lingering, that's not getting better, and it is a big concern. And we're not getting, obviously, we don't have the complete picture here, but it's now, what, this is the third time

it's pushed him out, right? He missed time in the training camp, then he was shut down going to Germany for like a month almost, and now he's out again. So, yeah, it is concerning. It's hard to talk too much about it because we don't know the full extent of it, but this is a much different team

with Auston Matthews looking like a 69-goal score versus Auston Matthews, who's not 100% and is scoring, but not the dominant player that he was last year. I mean, we've been talking about this a lot, Masters, and there's a theory now that, okay, so he goes to Munich, he comes back, he's still not healthy. Is it not time to sit him for a longer period here? If nine games in the initial stretch didn't work, in your mind, I mean, we're not doctors,

but it seems like common sense that if nine games wasn't enough, maybe they need to sit him longer than that. How do you see it? Yeah, I mean, if you told me you sit him down for the rest of the regular season and he'll be ready for the playoffs, it'd be 100%. This won't be an issue again. I kind of feel like it's no brainer. You can't take everything for granted, right?

You still got to get to the playoffs, but they're in a pretty good spot. And they've found a way to win without him in the past. But, yeah, like, you just want this to be, like, that's the number one thing. But this is hockey, and guys that want to play, and, you know, he can still contribute a lot even at not 100%. He's just that good. But, yeah, like, if it was me you know if you know it's easy for me to say but i'd want to if i if i was elise and i could get an assurance that it would be

completely healed in a certain time of period before the playoffs that's the way i would want to go but obviously the player himself you know austin's going to want to play for sure i imagine just knowing him and you know the team you know in Toronto, you're only two losses in a row from a fire burning very hot. So I can understand why they want to make sure he's in there and helping them out. Because he still does. It's incredible what he's able to do, even not at 100%. All right, Mark. Appreciate it, as always.

And good luck on the broadcast tonight and the rest of the way. We'll chat with you again soon, pal. Do we have a line on this game tonight? I'm curious. What's Canada-Latvia? I would imagine it's quite, quite high. Nothing last year. I don't know. I'll look into it, and then I'll

fire you a text. I'll let the people. I think six and a half. Six and a half I think is the line, which seems a little short to me. You could get, well, you know, the Latvian coach, he didn't go full Swiss coach. No one goes full Swiss coach. But he was saying that we just got to survive the start of this game.

And I was asking how you do that. He says, we've got to play with courage. So it'll be interesting to see how they handle this environment here. You know, Redard had, what, four against Austria before that Winter World Juniors was canceled. I'll be interested to see the young guys tonight, especially McKenna in a game like this. You know, I'd like to know what's the prop there on points for him in a game like this.

So it'll be fascinating. I know it's Canada-Latvia, but this will be an interesting game tonight, guys. Should be a fun one. Can't wait to watch it. Appreciate it, as always, Mark. Yeah, for sure. Thanks, guys. Should be a fun one. Can't wait to watch it. Appreciate it as always, Mark. Yeah, for sure. Thanks, guys.

There he goes. Mark Masters, the leader of Masters Nation, a World Juniors reporter.