OverDrive - Masters on Matthews' response to the crowd, Woll's experience in the crease and Knies' injury status

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

TSN Maple Leafs Reporter Mark Masters joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Maple Leafs, Auston Matthews' comments on the crowd during Ryan Reaves' fight, Joseph Woll's role in the crease, Matt Murray's experience on the team, Matthew Knies' injury status and more.

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Mark, he wouldn't take a bribe for anything. There's no possible way you could find anything that would allow Mark to say, you know what, I'll accept that and i'll do something i don't usually what if mark roe handed him an envelope with five grand and said gas jones and never speak with jones again and be my trivia partner next time mark how would you answer that uh... well i'd listen i i i i don't have to bribe on the man of integrity but really opening the partnering up with mark roe uh... considering the the track record Jonas and I have. So it wouldn't be about the money for me.

It's about the trivia. It's always been that way. And yeah, my credential for it. I know, but would you take the money? Would you take the money? You might as well take the money. No, I wouldn't take the money. No?

No, it's not about the money. No, it would cheapen it actually. So no, I wouldn't take the money. Before we get to the leagues, Djokovic and Zverev tonight, right? Semi-final Australian Open. It's a mate like Djokovic, what is he, seventh or eighth ranked I believe in terms of the ranking system. I know that has to do with world rankings and how much you're playing and all that.

Yet he's a huge favorite tonight to win. And this guy's won 10 Australian Open's like I was on I knew he had won a lot I know he's won more slams than anybody but there's nothing that you can compare this to. No. This guy might win his 11th Australian Open one like how do you put that into perspective Masters? If you can't at all. It's hard to obviously R dom in rapid and l dominant that rolling garros is right uh... but that this is

this is jokovic is wrote this is his home plan that's why you need have another one if you had a guy deported if you remember a couple years ago uh... it's incredible numbers would be even better like he had the freak uh... that defaulted the u.s. open where he accidentally get a ball that struck an umpire in the throat he probably would have won that u.s. open and he would have won probably the

australian open that he got deported before which is a strange sentence to say yeah i i'm kind of a little surprised that he's a heavy favorite i'm not sure what the odds are there but he had a bit of a leg issue in an incredible win against Alcares what a match that was was. And it felt like if Alcares was able to force a fifth set, Djokovic would be in big trouble. But this is his happy place, Australia. That's kind of his home court. So yeah, Zverev, he's kind of owned in recent years, especially at the majors. And yeah, I can understand why he's a favorite. I don't know if he'd be the biggest favorite just because of the health

concern, but it's pretty, it's yeah, this is his fortress of solitude, so to speak, down under. Okay, I like it. Yeah, heavy favorites may be a bit of a stretch, but he is definitely a favorite. He is 100% a favorite tonight. We asked the question because we've been talking about fighting

and Austin Matthews and his reaction to it. You're around these guys all the time. How would you rank the likelihood of these guys getting into a fight? Austin Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, how would you rank 1, 2, 3 most likely to get in a fight in their NHL career? Wow. That's a tough one. I just, well, Matthews has already technically had one. I know. The Stamkos one doesn't count though in the playoffs. He didn't want to have it. That wasn't a fight. Stamkos initiated it and kind of forced it. So I'm kind of wondering like you know I can't see it happening with Marner. Just Matthews with his size and just

he you know has had those moments recently where he has hit back at times, feel like he would be the most likely to engage in that. Nylander did have that sequence, he had a member, Sheldon Keith made a big deal that he got a roughing penalty, actually it was against Columbus I think, during the penalty. I remember, he thought I loved this kid. A roughing penalty. I would say it's Matthews, just the size, I think that, and because he's targeted, Marner rarely gets hit, same thing with Nylander. They're kind of shiftier guys. I would kind of rank it as Matthews, Nylander, Marner. I would go in

that in that way because I'm not sure. Nylander does have that roughing penalty. So yes he does have that. You cannot forget about that roughing penalty against Columbus when Sheldon Keith was the coach. He was loving it. They lost. He said he liked that penalty. So anyway, it would be Matthew's for me. Just aside, I think he could do it. He really seems to love it though, right? I think part of the reason he made that comment last night is he was sticking up for Reeves a bit. He thinks that's part of the game and he embraces it. So I would go Matthews, number one. Is that what you guys kind of thought?

Yeah, we were all conflicted. I think Ohad, did you have Ohad Willie, I think, at one and maybe Marner at two? I mean, in reality, we're not holding our breath that any of these guys are gonna fight anytime soon. But the reason it came up was I said, you wanna see the roof pop off. If Austin Matthews got into a fight

down at Scotiabank Arena, that place place would go crazy like if he dropped the gloves he was the one kind of instigating the whole thing or reacting to something but you just said it like your impression of why he said what he said about not getting enough fan reaction or energy out of it was him more sticking up for Reeves as opposed to anything else or was there some sort of deeper messaging that he was hoping to get across? Well I guess you could look at it and try and speculate like there there was those couple games where they were booed recently on home ice that I'm sure did not do not sit well and they

didn't enjoy and surely Marner and Nylander comments to the point where Marner I think said you just got to ignore the booze and Nylander said that they can boo but we know we're a good team. So I'm sure they didn't love getting booed on home ice. You know, they got 19 home wins most in the NHL they've also played played more home games than a lot of teams but So so maybe that's an undercurrent to this and they've won three in a row But you know, I think probably the bigger thing is just yeah Reeves has been looking for a fight to get dismissively kind of waved off by Arbor Jack high Over the weekend and it's a midweek game jackets in town

building maybe not as you know by the end of the would be on most night in reeds goes out there and quite a pretty tough customer you know there were you know the crowd got a little into a but it could have been maybe in matthews of mine it probably could have been a uh... a bit louder and get more than electric atmosphere and

so i think that's probably why, you know, Reeves is a, is a, is a beloved teammate and he's kind of, that was the question, right? Was what do you think of what Reeves did? That was where he took the answer, and partly. So I do think that probably that's, that's a little bit of the motivation there. Masters, can you explain to me, just like put it in the perspective, the Joseph Wall workload from where you're sitting. What is it, like if he was a number one, like a true number one, like is he playing 40 games

a year? Like is he playing three or four, then he's just got to back off a little bit? Just explain the rationale behind what his schedule will be moving forward or what it is. Right. It is going to be interesting to see how they manage the goaltending. What, they got six games now before the four nations break, no back to back. Next one's on the road in Oslo, then they have a break until Wednesday of next week at home against Minnesota, then they head out to Western Canada and Seattle's in there.

So you could just ride them. I asked them today, we spoke to do support today is not possible masters the idea of my writing the gold terry don't you need to find out if if he becomes the number one in the class he's going to be playing every other night i mean i i guess it's a bit of a tenuous time just because stole our is it out still not his return is not imminent so

do you don't want to be stuck in a situation where it's a hill to be very tandem. It is possible. I thought he'd been rolling pretty well. I know the puck had been going in but I thought his performance on Saturday in Montreal was really good. He's been putting together. He was the better goalie in the game against Tampa. He had the three-game winning streak going so I was wondering.

I thought maybe they give him practice off. they were going to stick with him for the game last night, and I asked him today, I said, you know, what did you think of getting a break? And he said, my reading his answer was he didn't want a break, he said, it's weird when you're in a rhythm and you don't want to come out, you're feeling good, but then he said, I understand, they want me to feel good, body, mind, but then he said I understand they want me to you know feel good body mind all that So it's I guess it's a balance. I guess five games in nine nights Maybe you know you don't want to push it but obviously goal tending was a big story last night and you can

Wonder if that fantilly shot doesn't go in and the Leafs are able to get the first goal somehow Maybe it changes things, but yeah, I don't know what they're gonna Do I I would imagine if wolves looking good and feeling good you just ride him the rest of the way Matt Murray's coming up He's I think I just just look at a gel stats one goal allowed in his last three games to shut up So we'll see if they mix him in there But I see just based on hearing from him and how he's looked I'd see no reason why they can't ride him Well, I was gonna ask you masters Like what do you what do you think the viability of Matt Murray really is?

It seems to me that if they sort of laid out their plan pre-season, Murray was their number three guy in their mind and then of course injuries and such conspired against that at times. But what do you think Matt Murray still has left from what you've seen with your own eyes? Well I mean it didn't go you know he had two games with the Leafs, didn't go swimmingly I guess and that's why it was

hill to be back here but you can only go by what you're seeing recently and based on the reports he's been good with some Marlies listen when you get down to your number three and four goaltender on the depth chart you're probably not having huge expectations for those guys going into a season unless you got like a younger guy in Murph, coming up, who needs probably more development. And Bruce acknowledged that last night, that this is a guy who probably should be playing

regularly and not sitting around, what his last game was January 11th before last night. So not an easy position to throw him into there whereas a guy like Murray's a more of a veteran and maybe can handle that so I don't know it's a wild card right that's that's why you're a little queasy about it and that's why you're we're talking about why can't we'll just kind of go with it so I'm not sure really what to expect from that Murray or if he's kind of playing something here and get back to somewhat what he was in his previous times in the NHL.

With Mark Masters, what does your read on the Matthew Nyes situation? Well we didn't see him on the ice at the Easter Seals Gate but we spoke to Steven Lorenz and he just asked, you know, how's Nyes holding up? And he said, I just, I've seen him today, it doesn't look like it's going to be serious, he's got, you know, he's a big guy, extra layer of musclevert muscle there and he indicated just a little banged up in doesn't plan to be outlawed so uh... obviously lorenz not a doctor uh... but that's at least something positive something new

uh... brew they didn't speak to the media today will get a better indication on uh... tomorrow after practice i would imagine he's going to miss at least in our game for for sure just because he wasn't able to continue in that game last night. And then they do have the break that's going to lighten up a bit, which probably helps. But he's a hard guy to replace, especially the way he had been playing here of late.

The top line, I don't know, what do you do there? Do you, is this the time where Max Domi gets up back beside Matthews and Marner and maybe that somehow sparks him? You know, certainly he hasn't earned a promotion, but he's played, you know, found a way with Matthews in the past, maybe that unlocks something for him if that's the way they need to go. But the injuries are piling up up front right now. Max Pachauretti, Dr. Tavares, Connor Dewar.

So the depth is being tested once again up front and Knight in particular, he's a tough guy to fill that void. Played on both special teams, special teams, does so many things. I thought he was having another good game last night. He drew that penalty and even the player gets hurt on, he's trying to initiate a check there. So that's a tough injury for the Leafs. Yeah, and I believe the first shift they tested out,

Nick Robertson with Matthews and Marner when Knives was out. Like that's gotta, I must have had Max Domi looking around being like, what's going on here? Get me up get me up there but yeah cuz they've never done that really robertson with those guys we've never seen that and there's another guy who probably hasn't earned a earn that like that's the that's the issue like I guess McMahon could go up there but then all of a sudden what's the second line look like and who's William Nylander playing with and they could always put Nylander up there but then you really don't have much below that.

So I'll be intrigued to see how they handle this absence tomorrow. Absolutely. Alright Mark, good stuff. Thank you for doing this. Of course, anytime. Mark Masters, one half of Team Corsi.