OverDrive - O’Neill on breaking down Canada’s loss to Czechia, Canada getting away from physical play, and praising the Ottawa crowd

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

Co-host of OverDrive Jeff O'Neill stops by to share his thoughts on Canada's loss to Czechia. O'Neill tells us that Canada is getting away from physical play and he shares some praise for the crowd in Ottawa.

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It sucks that you're back. It would be better if you were still in Ottawa. But what do you make of it, man? We haven't seen you in a while. We haven't heard from you. We were hoping you'd still be there all weekend, but Canada's out and that's that. It's one of the bizarre things about my schedule for the tournament. It's like I only do Canada games and then it's like the game's over and you're like, I'm going home. It's not like, hey, shoot me a note in the morning to Bobby Mack. It's

a handshake and I'll see you whatever I see you. There is some finality to it where it's like, and this is, I think I've been doing it for eight or nine years and this is the third time where it's like quarterfinals and it's like one time was in Vancouver, I had to make flight arrangements. I'm like, I said to my wife, I'm like, we, we have to get out of here. Right? Yeah. Like it's like, there's no sense in sticking around or we just, I don't know. It's kind of the weird thing about the tournament, but the tournament as a whole, it was bizarre haze. I mean, it started out like game one, four, nothing over the Finns. And it's like, we're rocking here. This is a typical Canadian team, and they're going to dominate.

And then the Latvia game happened, and it's like, all of a sudden, something happened. Some switch went off, and they could not score goals. Like, the offense was stymied and it's not like he was actually close either you know what i mean it's not like you can sell man these goalies were outrageous it's like they could not score goals and then you factor in the stupid penalties on top of it and all the time

they spent on the in the penalty box and at the end of the day you get it really a bizarre that was crazy man yeah it is it's a crazy thing it's like of all the day you get it really a bizarre. That was crazy man. Yeah it is. It's a crazy thing. It's like of all the Canadian teams it's like I mean the time I left in the quarterfinals in Vancouver it was like good team and it's almost like a coin flip anything could happen and there was kind of a crazy goal in overtime and you're like oh man like that team might have got cheated out of a gold medal.

With this team here I'm like they didn't got cheated out of a gold medal with this team here I'm like they didn't get cheated out of much that that was what was so unique for me was you know I'm not as connected as you are you're there. You're covering it. You're around people But I had the most unique experience yesterday. We were talking about on the show I'm like, I'm not sure they're gonna win in the quarters, you know, I've been in a gold medal match I'm like, I think the Americans will get him or Russia's better or whatever. I wasn't surprised at all that they lost. How about this one, Hayes? I had, I asked some people in the hockey community at the hotel, I was like, let me would you pack your truck up and go to the

rink did you do that no I did with your trunk packed in yes Dave Cameron on the way yes would have been a wild, wild scenario. And I got a flag on it that says, one way to Etobicoke, don't touch. Keep the motor running. Oh yeah. I made a big sticker, Oh Dog's Truck, don't touch, heading to Toronto after. And Team Canada walked by it. They would kick that car in. Yeah, that would have been, but it was a reasonable question. It was. team canada walked by it it would take that car it

yeah that would have been but it was a reasonable question and i was and we had you know surprised how many people just hockey people scouts gm's are like they could probably pack that they are ahead of the game notes it was crazy and i don't see who we were talking about yet but this is i don't know if they're going to like well and i'm surprised that they didn't win jeff i was on telling Brian at the start of the show

I was watching you in the pregame and you were like the most important first goal ever and then I flipped over the Leaf Game came back and it was one nothing. I was like, oh my god, Jeff was right Do I go anything when that happens that like? It's got to come up with some things and items to talk about in pregame and I'm like the way these guys are going offensively, if they don't score the first goal and kind of change the momentum of things and get feeling good about themselves, it's probably curtains. And then when Chekia puts up a three spot, you're like there's just no way in hell. And then it seems like they flipped the switch, they got the crowd going, and they tied it

up and I'm like, it wouldn't shock, I said to myself, it wouldn't shock me if these guys go on a run now and win the gold medal. And sure as you know what, they get that penalty called against them and check his scores on that power play. I mean, every year we talk about the importance of special teams in this tournament and that power play was something else. I think they felt they had it solved

putting the London guys together, but the power play was useless and the penalty kill wasn't that far off and they couldn't kill off that penalty and Chequia won the hockey game. It was a crazy game. Like you talk about like low event or high event games like that game like I'm exhausted today not because I had to drive home because it seems like you were so up and down and you're like

They're back in it and they're gonna go far and then there's a penalty and they score on her It just all the sudden ends abruptly But I don't know the blame games cooking around today guys And whenever this team wins a gold medal the first thing I do is focus on the players this guy was awesome this line was awesome this D pairing was awesome so when they lose I find it a little bit crazy to skip the players hmm and then just hunt for other things because everyone's like the coach and the coach did some weird stuff.

It's like not changing the lines around and you can talk about the personnel and there wasn't game breakers and it didn't work. But for myself and my own analysis when they win, I talk about players, how great they were, how good the goalie was, Bedard, the third line, they were so dominant. And then when it's a loss people are asking me to just bypass the players completely and go to the coach and go to the people that selected the team and I just don't think that's right. They're young kids and they went on the ice and they didn't play well

enough and that's the end of the story. I think that's fair, I think that's accurate, I think that's reasonable, I do think there's blame that can go around. You know I didn't love the way dave cameron handled really the whole time i think anybody did not like and i didn't like his piece you know and i had no regrets we did everything we could you know i didn't love that type of messaging i i said from a player perspective the players are heartbroken i think the coaches in

management are embarrassed right it's because hockey canada you lose back-to-back years in quarterfinals against Czechia credit to Czechia They played really well back-to-back years and they earned it last night. They played really well last night They came out to play but I think you're you're heartbroken for your player You're embarrassed if you're a coach or associated with hockey Canada. Yeah, you're right. I mean the players listen there. These are all You know gonna be future NHL players and they're all like really good talented superstars in their respective club teams and collectively they just never looked dangerous they never looked like a team that was gonna really bring much to the

table the press have to own that. Oh they do for sure. If you look at what how the Americans play and how they were like a unit out there and they created offense and they were big and they were fat. The Americans, as sad as it is to say this, the American team looked like a typical Canadian team where it was like line after line was just zipping it around and they were big and strong and fast and dominant. And that's what I was watching. I watched that American team and I'm like, there's no way in hell that they don't win

the gold medal this year. No way. And when they played Canada, it was kind of men against boys where it was like this. I mean, as far as like scoring and offense, and I just, I don't know what they were trying to accomplish offensively. Like there was just, there was time and time again where it was pull up, cross pass, intercepted, other way. Cycle it in behind the net and nobody gets it. It's like, what the hell are these guys?

These guys dominate when they go back to their club teams and they can't even get a four check going. It was almost like they didn't want to be physical and they wanted to say we're just gonna we'll go skill against skill and they got a rude awakening that in the hockey world nowadays it just it's not Canada just owns the skill game now so against skill they didn't find a separator and I always believe and a few of my panoramic panel members didn't necessarily agree with this but like big hits and physicality, it's like that's one of the separators for Canada. They kind of...

Totally agree. Totally agree. Like Duffy said it to me, he's like, that's not really the case anymore. I'm like, okay, they keep doing what they're doing there. But why would we accept that? That's what I don't get. It's almost like Hockey Canada has accepted that, that if you want to make it skill on skill you are evening the playing field no and dude not just that the as soon as they would crush someone in the corner the idea of getting the crowd in the game it's like a Canadian hockey fan that's gooning a drink yes he loves that it's the two things it creates momentum and it also helps a four-check but i guess some people don't want to see it they don't think it's effective i don't

know me i'm a dinosaur for thinking that because it was a little who plays the people play that way really what do you think the florida panthers did last year with the stanley cup they went out and figure skater right that's right about that's not the same as picking like a national team is it do give me a break it's the same kind of game it's the same size rank what are we talking about here are you in the at least i guess i'm just saying that how do you use to do it how do you pick players well i mean again generally it's

it's the players have that capability of also doing that like john has a i've seen it a bunch of other years doing this tournament the canadian teams it would be a massive part of their skill set was making the other teams say oh my god i gotta go back in the corner again most guys are just going to destroy me wasn't even close to that this year what player like comes to mind imposter historically yeah like who who i'll give you the number one and this is an extreme example but what go watch Eric Lindroos

at this tournament. I know that's extreme, but there's a guy who's the most skilled, but he also said, I'm going to kill people when I get out of here. Dion Fanoff, Jordan Tutu, Marcus Foligno. You're talking about guys from way long ago, like 15, 20 years ago. In Halifax two years ago, Connor Bedard, whenever he went in the corner, said, I'm going to squash that guy. And there's another guy he's five nine right

it's a team mentality it's it's like i'd i'd think that has to be reestablished where the skill is still going to be prominent it's not as not meat potatoes for the whole tournament but i think it's even more prevalent against the inferior teams especially on canadian soil saucer passes through the neutral zone are not going to get the crowd freaking out. A heavy, like forceful, four-check early in the game, that's going to get the crowd electric. Dude, like Latvia, sorry, Latvia should be crawling out of the corner and saying,

we just... And if you're going to take the penalties penalties that's when you do it boarding because you destroyed someone yes i got to give me my two minutes yeah these penalties that these guys were taken for all the goalie stick in the corner which was absolutely insane boarding a guy right in front of your bench insane is the ones like stupefied problems like it was a rather u r e in london was like, what are we doing here? It was silly

It was a really weird look man. Yeah, it's too bad because you know now you gotta wait another year and they're the Expectations aren't gonna change now next year. It's like you got to go figure this out Hey, the expectations are gonna change next year because it's gonna be two years in a row fifth place pumped in the quarterfinals You don't think they're gonna have the expectation of we better fix this and do something because it's going to be two years in a row, fifth place, pumped in the quarterfinals. You don't think they're going to have the expectation of we better fix this and do something next year in Minnesota? Well, no, exactly. That's what I'm saying.

They better... The expectations are gold every single year that they play. Every single year. And it's even more highlighted now. And if the Americans do win this, that'll be back to back for them. And now they're going home next year in Minnesota. I mean, why would you expect the juggernaut that is the American program to slow down? It's likely not going to.

Like they're just going to keep chugging and chugging and chugging and you know we'll see how hockey Canada handles it but it sucks. I think it's really disappointing. It's a great tournament. Crowd showed up. Ottawa is a great town for it. It was the best of all the times that I've gone on site it was the best crowd i've been a part of an up in ottawa well and they were ready to blow the top off like there's been some

unbelievable crowds in edmonton in halifax in vancouver amaze amazing hockey fans across the board i thought the auto walk route was the best of all of them that i've ever been to and i would go the game before that's when I would show up to the rink because there was a game and then the Canada game. And I would just look at the packed building and I was like, these people are ready to blow the roof off of this place and Canada's not even playing yet. Two different countries and they never got a chance.

They never got a chance to go nuts. They really didn't they just they were like okay there's no goals and then there's a loss to Latvia and they're walking out of the rink like what is going on here crazy crazy stuff well Jeff stuff if hockey Canada came to you and they said Jeff like what should we do what would you tell them I'd say you can hire me but you're gonna have to pay me a hell of a lot of money to get me out of this desk right here. They should give it a shot. What would you do? A little blank page. Well what I do, it's very simple. It just seems like there's these weird agendas where it's like people have these idea like

well here's a scenario that I found pretty goofy. The kid that Ottawa drafted, you're telling me you couldn't even have invited him to camp. Like maybe you had this thing where he was this one-way player or whatever. You're telling me you couldn't even have brought him to Ottawa. Like at least for the PR story for camp, it was like the kid's a stud, he got drafted by, let him go to camp and if you don't think he can play after that, then cut him. I guarantee you he probably, you probably would have looked at Him and said that guy's pretty good. Maybe he can help our team. Mmm. There just was no game-breaking Out there and it seemed like someone had this idea of like we're gonna do this instead of

Bring the best players there and we've seen in years past where guys like Rick Nash and Joe Thornton and Yeah, John, or your barsaris those are your you're now a depth guy I did it at the World Juniors I was the leading scorer of the Guelph storm and my assignment was you're the fourth line right winger for Team Canada you're a cheerleader and a plumber go out there and muck and grind and try to score a goal here and there which I did our line contributed offensively but that's the way it is that team that went over to Sochi they were the best players in Canada best players in the game and they were asked to play a certain way and when it was time if they needed four

goals those guys will go out and find four goals if it was three they found three I don't know it's you you got to bring the best players. Yeah. You know, I was disappointed in. I had never seen that video of you and Todd Harvey with your helmet on. That is one of the funniest videos I've ever seen in my life. The thing that would look that really you need to look at is when the whole team kind of gathers and catches up to us, i'm the only guy with my bucket on why did you keep your helmet on i know it's my third year or sings our buddy steve coolies i i have a weird thing with it i get out after practicing carolina and uh... the p r person says you gotta go

sit down there and do an interview with coolies you can find it online from somewhere and i wore my bucket sitting down for the whole interview with Coolius, and I remember somebody sent me the clip because Coolius came back from break and he had a helmet on at the desk. So I just, I don't know, it's the greatest moment of my hockey life, like you win the gold medal in Canada and you're skating around and i've got the bubble cage on and uh... in a cooper hallman i'm like it's insane someone stop me the other

day in as in a rink because another dad of one of the one of the players on on my kids team is like i just gotta say that video vote the helmet is one of the funniest things i've ever seen i had never i'd never seen it before Dude, I'd never seen it. You got it. That's gotta be an annual thing you and Duffy breaking that down I don't Brought it to my attention a couple years ago because you don't you don't really you're just like hey

That's us winning and yeah, and by the way, Harv is so trying to steal my thunder like I got that flag from a fan behind the bench and all of a sudden his grubby mitts are all over it trying to rip it out of my hands and I'm like you're the captain but you're not taking this flag. Yeah, that's a two man job. But Duffy brought it to my attention a couple years ago. He's like, why didn't you take your helmet off for the laps? Like the whole team's got no bucket. And I have my bucket on. It's insane. It's such bucket on yeah saying it's such a great video

It's such a good video. I mean, I know you got to find it. We'll find it. We'll post it We'll fire it up on Monday. Yeah, we got a break down because noodles are like it too noodles Some have a great appreciation for it a celebration in Red Deer Canada flag Yeah, every other teammate with the helmet and gloves off also has helmet still on yeah amazing is amazing uh... why even offer a while but you see this austin matthew story like with the people buzzin out there in the nhl that this guy you know still out not playing i gotta be honest with you not one

that world junior tournaments about the world really i don't know what i would tell i don't even think you could even get the leaf games that's great. But it's a perfect opportunity for you guys to fill me in. I read, he had a quote with you, Jonah, saying, I don't think this is going to be better, so we're just going to have to play it by ear, or what the hell's the scoop? Basically, I mean. He kind of said, like, he was asked, like, do you think this is something you'll get

over this season? He said, I don't know. I hope so, but I don't know. Things happen in a game that you can control except for a second it was a little basically is going out on the ice and if there's a cross check he misses two weeks that's what's concerning man and the end sort of but it's also like he might not only just saw i mean you play the game of buffalo and a guy gave a cross check in front of the net

kind of like it was almost standard defensement protocol where it's like you got a guy in front of the net you're going to cross check them and what he's missed two weeks. But Jeff like you would have said before that like he still doesn't look like himself right like he takes those three and a half weeks off it's like hopefully this helps he goes to Germany he comes back and he kind of looks like a little teeny bit better and then it just but not really.

He's never he has not looked like a hundred Percent Matthews all year, but that's the irony of this is that he's not going to tell anyone what's going on Yet you can actually look at a video and say that guy buried you in the back and now you're not playing Yeah, you know and I think most people are gonna put two and two together like we're knowing we're not idiots here It's like are you holding back the whole league knows exactly and that's the here. It's like what are you holding back? The whole league knows. That's the concern Brian. Exactly. And that's the concern.

It's A, how are you going to, well there's three things. How are you going to continue to play the rest of the regular season? I would definitely think the Leafs have said, I don't know what you think you're doing for this Olympic break or breaker for nations break but maybe not the best idea you go into that's here and how was he going to play a playoff series of one cross check takes about for ten days inside i don't i don't know that's concerning

again you can kind of see it in here that he's a little bit concerned about himself from it's a big year is the captain of the team i mean it's not your nine they have the history that they have. Well, it just must be such a fresh, like you probably dealt with this. It must be so frustrating when like you can't play up to the capability you know you have just because like your body is just not cooperating and nothing you're doing off the ice treatment wise is helping to the point where you're better. Like that just must be mental grind man. Brutal. Especially with the doctors like if

you're talking about a Mark Lindsay type guy or a Mike Prebeg or these guys like all the Gary Roberts and Matt Nichol people like if these guys can't get you up and cooking and a hundred percent you remember that crazy kind of video of McDavid with his knee where he took that chance and did that therapy with Mark Lindsay and it was like, it was outside the box thinking and the guy came back better than ever. Like it's crazy that this can't be, this riddle can't be solved in somewhat of a short-term basis where it's like, hey, in three weeks we can get you back to 100%.

You got hurt in camp, man. Yeah, so then what are we talking about? Does this need surgery? What does it take to get this to 100 percent? From everything I understand, it's not that kind of thing, like where surgery will fix it. So I don't know what that... Which again, glass half empty is you're scared both ways. Sure you are. Because you start messing around with surgeries, you know, there's a lot of athletes where it's like you just you can't get back there. And I don't want to get there with him. I'm not, I'm not going to make a projection on what the rest of his career is going to look like, but it's scary

both ways. You can't fix it. If you can't find it, you know, like look at that, your Demko, he left the game again last night. Like Demko's now again, they're going to reevaluate. They don't know exactly what it is there's a ton of concern. Tons of concern man. Tons of concern. Yeah. You caught any Rolf out at Kapalua yet or what? Dude, Rolf was doing a diatribe today of how the course got started and how he got his car stuck up on the hill when he was going through the site survey. Dude, he was talking about the 8 eighth green last night. Dude, he is so horny right now.

If they pan down his trousers, he is so excited. He was talking to the mayor on the first tee today. They both had the flowers on. He just loves being out there. This tournament, man. It's amazing. I thought he was crying last night. He was talking about the elevated green on eight and what it

overlooks. I swear he was tearing up and you got to see it yesterday. Tony Finau hit a wedge. You see him chisel a wedge from the top tier. You got to find a shot on the green. Yeah, it was on the green. It was actually like a brilliant shot. And immediately Hicks is like, Rolf, what do you, like it just, everything is about Mark Rolfing this whole week. You'd appreciate it Jonas. Even though you're not a golf guy. This guy has been living in Kapaluwa, has worked at Kapaluwa for like 30 years.

Dude, he was saying yesterday, he's like, when we built this place, we just put the clubhouse there and then we started mapping out the holes from the clubhouse He loves it and Cory Connors is looking good man. I'm checking this afternoon, but he's looking good He's in the hunt and yeah, we'll see what comes with it All right, man. Well good to have you back and we'll catch you on Monday and yeah get the helmet video ready for Monday We'll do a full breakdown of how stupid it is. You cannot, you gotta see this Jonas. I'm gonna watch it in the break. Full breakdown. I look forward to the explanation. Yeah we will. Noodle's gonna be included. It's gonna be a good one on monday. Watch that greasy pig heart trying to steal the flag. He does get in there right? He just he can't wait to get

that thing out of my hands. All right buddy, catch you monday. See ya boys. There he is, the old dog Jeff O'Neil.