OverDrive - OverDrive - April 14, 2026 - Hour 2 - Mike Johnson/Martin Biron

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

Join Bryan Hayes, Jeff O'Neill and Jamie McLennan for Hour 2 on OverDrive! TSN Hockey Analyst Mike Johnson joins to discuss Auston Matthews' future with the Maple Leafs, his outlook in Toronto and the Hart Trophy sweepstakes. They also go around the sports world in Confirm or Deny, TSN Hockey Analyst Martin Biron joins to dive into the segment 'Dis or Data' and Bryan gives his FanDuel Best Bets.

Springs finally here, and Julie is making the most of it, going for long walks, escaping the city and reconnecting with nature. Hey, girls. And reconnecting with her besties, one of whom is having a baby shower on the other side of the country. Switch to Canada's best 5G network and never miss an important moment. Plus, get all the data you need at a great price. Visit a bell store or bell.ca. slash rate plans.

Bell, connection is everything. Hour 2 Overdrive continues, powered by Fandul, any more ways to play your game your way. Brian Hayes, the other dog, Jeff O'Neill, Jamie Noodles, McClennon, confirm with the night later in the hour. Best bet's still to come. Mike Johnson will join us here in a few moments. We know all 16

teams going on the Stanley Cup playoffs. There's still some jockeying for position. Some series are set. Montreal's playing Tampa. Minnesota's playing Dallas. Philly's playing Pitt. So we know those are going down. But we don't know the wild card

rounds yet. And, you know, who Buffalo's going to play who Carolina is going to play, Colorado, et cetera. Vegas with a big win last night. They just keep rolling, man. Now they're scoring goals. They keep putting up numbers. Beware, I think. Beware, man.

Beware of that team. Like if the goaltending can hold up and they get cooking, we talked about their depth all year long. They had a slide, which was remarkable to watch, and it cost them their coach, their job or his job. But if they get rolling, man, they got depth and they can do damage. Yes, they can. They have that history.

Really good team. Carter Hart, I think, is going to be the man. Yeah, he is. He's going to play, right, Noontos? He's their guy right now, and he's played well. Like, that was the one key. Aiden Hill didn't have a great season. You got a Kear Schmidt, who's, you know, up and down kind of,

and when you look at it, I think that they'd wanted Hart to be healthy. And now he's healthy and playing well. I think he's their guy to start the playoffs. He's a good goalie, you know. How about Mark Schifley hitting 100 points? And how crazy that season's been in Winnipeg where they ran out of time. They couldn't, I think if they played 15 more games, they might make the playoffs the way they were playing. But 101 points for Shifley.

Well, wouldn't you think it would be one of the checks? Like if you said to Shife at the beginning of the year, you get a hunch, we're probably going to the playoffs. Definitely. For sure. Definitely. You know, another hunter point guy that was kind of sneaky. I don't know because we kept talking about Cole Cawfield. Uncle Ricky Suzuki, a hunch.

Yeah, that's right. I, you're starting to dig in. I think there's a chance he's in the heart conversation. Suzuki? I love it, noodles. I love it. Like Cawfield 50, yes. You know, Hudson's a great player.

Keep in mind, their goaltending has been a question mark all season. Now, Dobish has played very well and deserves. I mean, he's a rookie. He's going to be up for a rookie the year. He's not going to win it, but he's going to be in the conversation. Jamie, when you meant if you dig into it, did you mean the numbers? Well, the numbers do suggest a lot of things, but also... But just look at it.

Oh, you said it the other day, and I think you said it really nicely. A lot of times we look past things. Yeah. Right? We look past the greatness of McDavid going, yes, he's there. But let's look around here. Like Montreal, and I know the market we live in, all of that type of stuff, but, like, they know how valuable Nick Suzuki is.

He is an absolute rock star of a player. And, yes, I don't know if Coffield gets 50, if Suzuki's not driving that line. I just, I think he's such a great player. And he's not, he got 100 points, but he's not a flashy guy. He's just really good. Like, he's consistent. Remember when we were hoping to compare him to Patrice Bergeron? Like that's what people were like, that's a Bergeron might be a 60, 70 point guy.

This guy got 100 points. Yeah, Bergeron never hit 100 in his career. Like, I just, again, there's lots of sexy conversations, all of that. But Suzuki's a hell of a player that I don't think it's enough love because there's other people in other organizations, and including on that organization that is maybe, you know, Caulfield. Cauffield and Hudson on the other two. to come up, clearly, as they deserve to come up. But I think, you know, we've known the heavy hitters for a while.

McDavid, Coutcherov, McKinnon. McDavid's going to win the Art Ross. McKinnon likely holds on to the rocket. But you never know. Colorado and Montreal, Montreal's got one more game, and maybe Cawfield pots a couple. And Coutcherov's going to be right in between the two of them in terms of points and five on five numbers and all that kind of stuff.

Celebrini's not going to be in contention now, because they missed the playoffs. So it does open the door to, you know, who would be the other two or three guys in the league. Drysettle would have been. Drysena's got 97 points. He hasn't played in like six weeks. It's crazy.

Well, let's, I guess, bring Johnny in, and maybe he can supply us some answers on this. Can help us out with some numbers? Sure. Here's Mike Johnson, or TSN hockey analyst. Johnny putting... Johnny, hang on a sec, Hasey. Welcome to our first installment of what is our house?

hashtag hazy, we are data driven. Data driven. Welcome, Johnny. I mean, I appreciate you having me in there. We got to work on the delivery of your hashtag for next time. I appreciate the data

centric nation. Although, we were messaging before, and I was trying to gauge we're always going to go with this, and he did not give me a ton of direction. Well, you're such an idiot. I said, you better have some numbers, Johnny, and you said, why don't you take me in a direction?

And I said, I don't have any numbers, you idiot. Well, how about the numbers that Noodles was digging up on Suzuki? Oh, I want your thought on Suzuki. I mean, John Hart. Like in heart contention. Where do you stand on that? I mean, he's going to win the, like, so make him bark off. He's not quite as good as Barkoff, but he's going to win the Selkie.

He's got 100-something points. his team is going to finish with home ice and 108 points. Where would Barkoff have been in the hard trophy carbonation? Periphery. Fourth or fifth, six, seven, eight, whatever? Yeah, something like that, yeah. Right. So sort of without the resume and reputation,

but sort of the productivity of a Barkoff, and he's incredible. I mean, he's, uh, the third team all leagues. Enterman? Is he beat Celebrini? probably does. I mean, you think about it.

I mean, David McKinnon, there's a third league, there's the third all-league team somewhere. He, I mean, for what he's done for that team, how good he is, both ends of the ice, it's just that he does it quietly. Like, everything about his game is unassuming. He's not the flashiest.

He's not the fastest. He's not the strongest. He doesn't celebrate the hardest. He's the captain of the Canadian. Do you think he'd have a really big personality and falling around the league? But he's just sort of, quietly goes about his business, but he's been, you know,

we have to do that top 25 lists, right? We all got that email today. So OZar, he'd done it because he'd like to get ahead of his homework. Always. I was, like, he'll be in the top, he'll be in the top 10 for sure in the league this year, Suzuki. Yes. Yeah, I think that's appropriate.

I think Celebrini has been better than him and more valuable than him. Well, Jamie just brought up the word, Hayes, that if there's anything to this, he will be on the periphery. Yeah. As good as a year as he's had, he is not going to bump out a Celebrini or a McKinnon or a Kuteroff or McDavid. He is going to be on the periphery, but that's still damn good. Here's a question, though. Like Celebrini not making the playoffs.

Does that? Yeah, he's not winning it. Yeah, he's not winning. Yeah, he's not winning, but they still get top five votes. Like, you know, that's the thing. Possibly. Does he fit the top five narrative? Or do you look at somebody?

arbitrary, right? Right. 92 points. He can be there. 91, he can't. I mean, like, the value is essentially the same. I know it's not the same

because there is a playoff implication, but one point swing all of a sudden, no, no, he can't do it, and one point higher up, which is almost unrelated to his performance. Oh, yeah, he's totally legit. And I would also just say this. I mean, I can,

Hay, you're not making an outlandish claim here. Celebrity's been incredible. What's the highest scoring centerman on Montreal other than Suzum? They got nobody. It's a cap in? Right. Because he have 38 points.

He's got 70 points more than the next high scoring centerman. 65 points. Like that's, you know, talk about value. You know about Cole Coffield's really good? Well, part of the reason why Cole Coffield is so good because he gets to play with Nick Suzuki. So, yeah, I mean, you could make a pretty compelling case that he won't get votes. He won't be a finalist.

There's three finalists. They're the obvious three. They're made David McKinnon and Coochero. however you want to slice it up. But as far as the next punch, you have to put in, I guess, the best defenseman in the heart conversation, Celebrini and Suzuki, and I don't even know if there's a goaltender worth putting in there this year. There probably isn't.

Okay, so let me ask you this quickly. Suzuki or Pasternak, who would you have higher for the heart? Suzuki. Yeah, that's what I'm doing. That's close for me, man. Yeah, sure. Sure, but, like, he's going to win the Selky. I hear you.

David Posternak is not a defensive. But they have no one else there that moves the needle, geeky, I guess. But, like, Coffield 50. Because of pasta. Exactly, man. Like, they've got Lane Hudson. Like, again, the points, you look at the points. He gets to play with Hudson and Coffield.

Maccaboy. Like, Maccaboy, yeah, but he's, he's been up and down this year at times. And, like, I hear you. But Pasternak is, like, on an island there in terms of talent. Like, he's kind of the celebrant. Breeney of the East. And they're in the playoffs. He's going to touch 100 points too.

I think he's at 99 right now. Yeah, it's... I mean, because of him and because of their goaltender, right? Like, that's why he's there. But again, we're going to... We can't discount the guy who's probably going to vote the best defensive forward in the league,

who will have more points and his team has been more successful. Like, I think it's incredible. It is incredible. It is incredible, but he's there. He's right there. That's the thing, guys. For those lists, you have to list.

not just three. So, like, I look at it. I'm like, I, Suzuki's got to be in the conversation. Like, you start, I dug in all afternoon. I was kind of sniffing around and, you know, I've got my, like, I've kind of got my mock lists and stuff like that together. And you talk to people throughout the league and then you start reaching in on analytics, all of the other stuff. Johnny, you all know. Johnny, let me ask you, Johnny, when you're doing your voting, what are some of the most important metrics you look at?

let's hear it what do we got hey for the record i don't vote for these awards so i don't have to worry about you're a loser like us then oh and i're they welcome to the loser club let's go golfing together okay never felt cooler than being part of the loser club amazing what an accomplishment today um like i i depending on the award right like i i think you have to look If it's for the heart, obviously look at their individual impacts, which is what they do when they're on the ice. It's great to offer up some relative impacts.

Also, like, what does San Jose do when Celebrini's not on the ice? As compared to what they do when he is. Compare that to Suzuki. Compare that to Poserog. So try to get a handle on what Hayes is talking about exactly what he is relative to the rest of the team. How much better is he than the supporting cast around them? You know, for the Selke, for the Norris,

I would look at quality of competition. Like, who do they play against? We all know it's very different playing against second, third, fourth liners or second and third pair versus the best of the best. And I take that into consideration as well. You know, time on ice. I know there's been this big conversation about the Norris

and whether Bouchard belongs in that conversation. He does. He absolutely does. I agree. I agree. Quality of teammates, oh, who do they play with most? What do they, you know, what does? McDavid do for him. What does he do for McDavid? All that kind of stuff.

You look at all those things and try to find commonalities where you could say, okay, by look at these numbers, this performance, I could say he's a bit better than Fosternock in a similar situation because you flesh out through the numbers a comparable that's a bit more precise than just sort of Boston versus Montreal. With Mike Johnson. All right. So this is a lot of looking back. Let's look ahead here.

Let's bring a couple of leaves into focus here. of these two players, who do you have more faith, will have an A-plus season next year relative to what their expectations should be? Austin Matthews or William Nealander? William Nealander. Expectations are lower, right? Like I think Willie does sort of what he did this year.

That's, you know, if he gets 37 goals and 95 points and plays 82 games, or for that, which he is on base this year to be over 100 points if he were to play every game. It's 12th in the league and points per game. 12th. Like, I don't expect him to be higher than 12th. That should be an A season for William Nealander. I think because he's younger, he's healthier, his legs are not in question.

His movement is not in question. He's very likely to do what he is supposed to do. Austin, a lot more question marks. I think his health, I also think the new coach will. impact him and his usage and his game more than, sorry, if there is a new coach, the new direction will impact him more than it impacts Willie. Right? Like, does he get freed up a little bit?

Does he get different kind of wingers, different kind of assignments, different kind of usage? I put all that more questions. So, yeah, confidence level for Willie, pretty high, confidence level for Austin. He'll be good. He'll be solid B material, but will he be A plus plus, which for him is 50 plus gold and 100 points? less certain what do you so what does that mean he is if he comes back a hundred percent healthy

he's ready to rip he's got some kind of magic the leaps pull out some magical winger in the league somewhere and things are like all system go what is he like we're talking about let me ask you this if after the two months first two months of the season next year where do you think if we had to do like a top 20 players in the league do you think think Austin Matthews will be on it after two months next year? That's a good question. Dale, that's a good question. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I mean, top 20, you're going to bring in goalies and defensemen. He'll be a top 20 forward. I'll say that. But if you're going to take out eight spots for goalies and defensemen, top 12 forward, I mean, he's got to score a lot, right? It can't be 40. It was like 15, right?

It can't be one of 15. He's got to be one of four pushing 50. So, yeah, I mean, Jerry's percentages, there's probably a 35% chance he's in the top 20 after two months next year. Now, if he goes great, he could be in the top seven, which is what they need. But he could also be 40th, which is what they don't. I think you'll be in the top five, Johnny, and I'll bet you a hunch. Well, let me ask you. Gladly.

Bucket, gladly. Let me bring this up here. Do you not, don't you think one of the questions that should be posed to him on Thursday is do you believe that your body will be 100% next season? Yeah. Yes, they should ask you, but what's he supposed to say, noodles? No? Well, I mean, you said no? But I'm saying, he's shocking.

That's the crazy what I'm getting at. My back's a little rickety. I got the arthritis in my knee. My wrist is all bunged up. Like, what's he going to say? Yes, of course. I'm going to try. What I'm saying is that if you believe, like, it's clear he hasn't been 100%.

There's obviously been stuck nagging, obviously the knee injury, all of that type of stuff. The challenge for me looking at him, all of us looking at him as a player, is I believe he can get back to whatever O's talking about, whatever we believe, the standard. But that's if he's 100%. Johnny, you talked about NHL Edge, the drop in his velocity, the drop in speed, all of that type of stuff. Those are real numbers. That's real. We watched it with our eyes.

I just think, guys, he's 28 years old. He's not 34. Yeah, maybe 29 in September. A lot of years. My point being is, if he can be 100% from a body standpoint, I believe in the player.

I just don't, like, that's, and I know he's not going to answer that question on Thursday. But I just, that's the one thing I think about is if Austin Matthews has the ability to get back to 100% physically, now you've got something. But I just looked the last couple years. I think he's been had nagging injuries. And then you take Marner away from his line. Like it all looked different. I would say this.

How about this? The spin I would put on it, because that's a tough question for him to answer. He's going to say, yes, of course I would. I would want an honest answer. were you healthy this year? Before your knee injury, was anything bothering you this year that is abnormal for the bumps and bruises that guys have every year? Okay? Because you can sort of be retroactively honest.

Yeah, you know what? My back was a little tight. I did have a bad elbow. Whatever is going on. I would say that. And the other question, hey, is for you, because you really want to know about his future. It's not will you commit to Toronto? it's what has to happen for you to commit to Toronto

because he doesn't know and he can't answer as Doodles was mentioning yesterday and it's not fair to say we'll commit to it now because he doesn't know he can't say but what he can say is if we are committed to winning if we feel I have a challenge whatever the groundwork is beyond the contract what do you need to see

to want to commit to this team long term that's I think a fair question and one that he could give a pretty honest answer two. Is it possible he says, I want this team to be a Stanley Cup contender next year, and someone just says that's not possible? Because I don't think it seems like I wanted you to score 75 this year. Didn't happen. Like, so let's get with the reality of, like, let's be serious here. You can't, of course he's going to want that. Everyone's going to want that. But like, you have to be somewhat realistic. No. But it would be an easy way out if he kind of secretly

wanted out. I feel sure. But I mean, if he says something like that, then the inferences he wants out because he's not being realistic. He has to appreciate where they are. And in many ways, guys, this is why he signed a four-year deal. To give them this flexibility in case it didn't go great. And it's not gone great this year. They have to try to make it better next year. Otherwise, he will utilize the flexibility that he baked him with his contract for the exact reason he baked it in.

If they're not competitive, then he can just walk away, no hard feelings, at least on his side. Yeah. Well, listen, I think there's a chance he's going to be challenged on why Lee fans should still trust him, you know, as an individual player and as a leader of this team. And quite frankly, I think that's fair. You know, like I know we've been hyper-focused on core for this, core for that for 10 years and this obsession with the players and you can't live without them. And the only way they're ever going to get out of this dark period is because these three or four players dragged them out. The fact is they didn't pull their way. They didn't do it. They weren't alone. The teams, you know, sure there were some things that weren't built properly and maybe

they didn't have the right depth or goalie or coach or tough matchups. But they had ample opportunities, 7, 8, 9, 10 opportunities where it was a game 6 to close or a game 7 to close and they didn't do it. And obviously we saw that the last time they played a meaningful game. It was game 7 against Florida and Austin like everyone else didn't show up. and this year they've been terrible. So I think he might be bracing or probably should brace for someone asking, where do you fit into this?

Why is everyone worried about you putting pressure on the organization? What are you thinking? Can they build around you still? Are you capable of dragging this team into the playoffs? Like Sid just did in Pittsburgh? Those seem like reasonable questions. Shouldn't he be prepared for both sides of the coin? I will say this about Pittsburgh O.

Pittsburgh says January 1st, by far the highest scoring team at 5 on 5, almost 20% higher than any other team in the NHL. So it's not just Sid, even with the Olympic missing. It's the entire team in Pittsburgh. So I would not cite Sid as an individual dragging him in because, oh, who told me to prepare for that one. Good job, Mo. Good staff.

I do think, you can ask him that. And it's a fair question. But again, like, what's he going to say? you know what we have come up short but yeah probably not you probably shouldn't build around me anymore like what are you going to say? No I hear you but you can only answer to the affirmative right but you're saying you're comfortable

with him answering is not between awesome you're comfortable in him answering why you should stay you know then why aren't you comfortable you know self-reflection where do you stand in all this like how much responsibility do you take why should we want you to stay

exactly is the flip side of that And I don't know if you ask him that, but what you do ask is whoever the search firm comes up with Hayes, whoever that president is, or that GM is, whatever that management team is, that is an absolutely fair question. What do we have here? Do we, you know, do we triple, quadruple quintuple down on it? Or do we say maybe it's not going to happen with these guys? He's being one of the guys.

So yes, that's a fair question, but I don't know. You can ask it. You're not going to get an answer out of it, though. Let me ask you something. Why the hell do we need a search firm involved here to hire somebody, a quality person in the National Hockey League? Go ahead, tell me. I would imagine that Keith Pelly doesn't know every single person around the NHL.

If he's the one sort of directing this, he has a job to run six professional sports organizations, not one. Well, then that's not reasonable. If you think he knows every assistant GM or Cap Guy or Scout or junior coach or European coach, There's no way. Which begs the question, why would one person ever be responsible for running that amount of items in an organization? It's ridiculous.

And it's not possible, and you can't be good at all of it. You can't monitor all of it. You can't know what's going on with all those people. Sorry. But that's why you bring in somebody, though. You can't ask me one question and then tell me, that's why you can't do it. I'm telling you what, they're doing it because the guy who's hired can't do it. And that's why they're hiring a search for all.

So they can do the grunt work, right? Like you can siphon it down to 20, 30, however big you want it to be, and go from 100 candidates to the top 15 by doing their due diligence. So you don't have to waste time because you are busy running six teams and then you get down to the brass tax

and then you're more involved. So I think that is reasonable. You know, I don't know about this whole conflict of interest and the guy who represents guys, also being the search firm guy, but you can get boiled down to without doing any work the final 15 or 20 guys you should consider,

and there's probably some value in that. That's where I was going to jump in there, Johnny. That's the problem I have. That's why I said you should have multiple firms, because if you've got one guy who's got clients and coaches and all of that, obviously he's going to be pushing his guys. You should have multiple firms, and if they put together a list and that the names appear on multiple lists,

that shows that you've got a candidate, not just Neil Glassberg's guys, and then everybody else on the outside of him doesn't get a sniff. That's the only problem I have with one search firm as opposed to multiple avenues. Hayes, you know what, Noodles is asking for? A Venn diagram of multiple search firms. I love that. And we'll see who is in the center crossover triangulation from multiple search firms.

As you were requesting earlier in the year, Hayes, it's all coming back on our data-centric show. love Venn diagrams. I could do this for Keith Pelly. Shoot me a note. I'll put a little Venn diagram together for you and we'll meet somewhere in the middle. But also, it's also, AZ, easy, real quick, let's not get ourselves, like, where do names

come from when there are openings? Search firms, agents for coaches, the NHL, agents for former players who may want to get into that role and they're kind of out there, pumping them around. Like, there's always a bit of

a not full impartiality from whoever's putting these people forward. You know, there is a relationship there that gets them put forward. So, you know, Glassburg or whoever, I don't think, you know, I think Brennan was put forward by the NHL. He did a good job, but I'm saying, like, you know, they put him forward because they work with him. So there is always a relationship there for whoever, whoever puts forward.

Absolutely. All right, Johnny, I like it. Data driven. I think this thing's going to explode. A lot of potential here. Let's get ready. Everybody dig into their notes because Friday, we're going to have an absolute banger. Josh sent in a great name for this.

Uh-oh. They're going to lay it on me. Dis or data. Marty Barron. Marty Barron may not like that. We don't do that. Marty may not like that, but dis or data, it's got potential. Dougie, at 550, you call Marty Barron,

and we're going to ask him on air if we're allowed to use it. We have to. Yes, you're right. It is trademarked by Marty. We've got to be careful with that. All right, Johnny, great stuff. We'll do it later in a week. All right, fellas.

Good talking to you. Mike Johnson. Disardata. That's awesome. You know what? I just got a note. Remember I was saying that monster in the picture who's like 6'9, who's a PR guy? his name is Stefano Tunanuti.

I don't know who that. I guess he's the Marley's PR guy back in the day. Is there any reason why you needed to clarify that guy's name? It was bothering me. It was bothering me. Don't you think that was like we got to pull up that picture because, oh, you said they were six to. This guy looks like he's seven feet tall next to you. That's what was bothering me.

Because that was like 12, 10 years ago. Find the pick. It's on the, I guess it's on our overriving Instagram page. Yeah, I'm not familiar. Not that, I'm sure he did great work, great guy, shout out. But yeah, we might have established something new here. I think we have Johnny coming up. I love the diss or data.

That's awesome. Dada is the other thing and then diss or data is. And Megan Chico, we're going to have you on. She's giving it to us a little bit. We're going to have her on. Okay. She's the data queen. Megan's not happy with us for some reason.

No, we'll get it. But she's got to have numbers. We're only having people on if they have numbers. The thing is, is reasonable numbers. Is that or the other thing with Megan? The problem is. You don't say that without us calling Marty Barron, dude. It's like, tap man.

We don't need, we're not going down that problem. Not even saying it. The problem with data people is they need to translate it to the layman. That's where the analytics people struggle with. If somebody on their couch needs to understand what they're talking about when it comes to numbers. Okay. That's the challenge. You want the biggest problem with data people is, Jamie, when their team is data-driven,

like some of the teams, I won't mention any names, they don't put their hand up and say, we use kind of a data recipe here and we stunk. Like there's teams that had to hire, whatever, I'm not kidding. Yeah, confirm it tonight coming up. Best bet still to come overdrive continues up on TSN4. Springs finally here, and Julie is making the most of it, going for long walks, escaping the city and reconnecting with nature. Hey girls.

And reconnecting with her besties, one of whom is having a baby shower on the other side of the country. Switch to Canada's best 5G network and never miss an important moment. Plus get all the data you need at a great price. Visit a bell store or bell.ca. Slate.com slash rate plans.

Bell, connection is everything. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind and now, I've got my own show. So if you're tired of lazy takes, if you want honest conversations,

join us each week. Film Never Lies, available on all TSN platforms in the IHeartRadio app. I can neither confirm or deny that this is in fact a segment. Austin trades Andrew Raycroft to Toronto in exchange for the rights to Tuka Rass. It's been my honor and a privilege to serve as the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Club. It's time for confirm or deny. Do you regret giving all those gentlemen the no trades or? no movement clauses. I can either confirm or deny that.

I can't confirm or deny that. All right. Confirm with Deny brought to you by Boston. Pizza Canada's favorite sports bar. This playoffs BP is summoning the hockey gods to tilt the ice in Canada's favor. Join us and feast like a hockey god on our new playoff menu. See you for Puck drop at your local BP. Okay, let's get to confirm with deny here.

Starting with this one, confirm or deny. one of the bottom five teams in the NHL standings will make the playoffs next season. Confirm. It's a zillion percent. Confirm. Yes, I said confirm. It's a zillion percent confirm. And Jamie talked about it all year.

It's a weird year. Yeah. And, oh, man, there's some bad teams here. You're talking Toronto, Calgary, New York, Chicago, Vancouver right now. I'm denying. Well, you thought Florida was in there, right? That just slapped me right in the face, like a Tyson hook. Like, whoa, I got to deny it.

I'm sorry. It's trouble. Like, I thought there were some heater teams. There's not heater teams. I mean, the least maybe Calgary, could they put some pieces together next year? Maybe. Calgary's got currency. That's the one thing Craig Conroy has has.

He's got nothing but draft picks and young players coming in. So he might be able to turn those into a 24-year-old stud that can score 35 goals? I don't, you know what? I don't know because the Ottawa Senator, keep in mind, the Ottawa Senators traded Josh Norris for Dylan Cousins. The trade worked out for everybody. But, you know, like that, in the end, like Craig Conroy, I do like what he's done

there, but again, you've got to put the team together to get to the next level next year. Like two years ago, they had 96 points. This year, they want to be in the bottom five, and they've had a dignified tank. dignified tank. That team is exactly what the Leafs did a couple years ago where played hard, didn't cheat you forever. Leas made the playoffs the next year. Yeah.

And I think they've got the goalie. Vancouver's got no shot. They are a disaster. They're trying to rebuild too. Like I think that they've, yeah, I'm going to deny it just because I think that the teams that are right there in those bottom five,

I think they all have a lot of work to do. The Leafs would probably be the most intriguing one, because there are some pieces there, but the spine of the team isn't there. That's the thing. They don't have a number one defenseman. They don't have a, you know, like they don't have, like, even bring TANF back in a healthy Matthews, that's all that's been really missing the last couple, you know, months is those two guys. Impact players, believe me, but are they impact enough to get you over the hump against the teams in the Atlantic?

That's the biggest challenge. You guys mentioned Vancouver, absolutely no chance. is this completely like ridiculous to even have the thought bubble Pedersen returns to form maybe you guys will stop me right there and say that's not I don't see that out of me

well you put Thatcher Demko a net and Pedersen's a hundred point guy Okay Dempco's not healthy ever Unfortunately I just that's that ship is sailed for me Like you can't rely on Demco And Patterson I don't even know how to

explain what's happening. Well, there also might be something too, Brian, to the point where if there is going to be some major changes in the off season, you know, the league's been weird this year, maybe one of the changes is a Pedersen trade. If we were talking about the deadline, maybe these teams are more willing to do it in the offseason and Vancouver's willing to try and get some assets back. Like, I think you might see some trades in the offseason that we didn't expect. Yeah, it's very possible. It's, you know, in Pedersen, I don't even know if that would be shocking anymore. It wouldn't be.

Right. Like if he agreed, I need a new scenery and Vancouver moved off him. But they have like 53 points. Like there's, there's Calgary bad and Toronto bad and New York bad and then Vancouver bad, which it's like a different level of awful. And Quinn Hughes is gone and it's just, it's a mess up there. Yeah. All right.

Let's continue with the NHL ones here, Joe. It's been a constant theme today. We'll stay in this world. confirm or deny the NHL should retire number 87 and number eight league wide 100% confirm and i think they should both get the mario lemieux treatment which is automatically into the national hockey league hall of fame and everyone's like oh they weren't at that level why not like just because they're not mario lemieux or wayne gretsky they've been so special as players and important to the nchel as soon as they take their gear off for the

final time, that year they go right into the Hall of Fame. Both of those guys deserve that. It would be a shame that if they don't go in there. By the way, a guy that just retired, Scott Oak should be in the Hall of Fame too. Yeah, we'll get them there. Love the guy. But, you know, come back, that's two different arguments, though. The Jersey being retired, the Hall of Fame.

Because the Hall of Fame, I agree 100%. The Jersey, the number being retired, that's the interesting one. Like, OV is the greatest goal score of all time. Yes. So he is worthy of that. But eight, like there's a lot of number eight. You can't retire at League Wall. You call Zach Wrenski.

Like, sorry. You're out. Take your jersey off. You can retire at Leaguewide. He leads the whole, he's got more goals than anybody. It's retired. It's still, to me, is silly. Then Gordy Howe's number should be.

Number four should never be worn again. Yeah. Sixty-six should never be worn again. You know, just these two? Like, I know they did it with Grutsky, and I understand why. but I can reason with your Hall of Fame take. I thought you're about to say it's a hall with some plaques in at noodles when he stole. That's why I started laughing because you stalled and I'm like,

tell me this guy's going to say something crazy here. It's a hall with some plaques in there. But I don't think they should retire the numbers. I don't, I don't think it's necessary. They're going to be retired at Washington and Pitt, clearly. I mean, that goes without saying, do that immediately or celebrate them when they come back. All right. Last one here. Confirm it than I. Connor Bedard in Chicago is morphing into the new Jack Eichel and Buffalo.

Confirm it than I. You have to ask me next year. I'll kind of confirm it, though. They're terrible still. They suck. They suck. And I thought they were turning a corner this year. And I thought they were going to be just sniffing the playoffs. Yeah.

But they weren't, dude. They were like, they're awful again. Yeah. I guarantee you that this kid's going to say to him, if it's December next year and we're garbage again, I'm not going to like it. And then they're going to have big time problems. I'm denying it because I think they're coming. They got the goalies. They got the goalie.

Spencer Knight, you're a believer? Yes, I am. They've got young defensemen that Kaiser Vlasic creviate. And, you know, what's his name? Nizar. He's a good. Yeah, Franks isar. They've got some players there.

You need to add to it. Need to add to it. I agree. Give it a little time maybe by Christmas, but Jack Eichl's situation was different. There was an injury involved that soured a lot of things, too. The point being is he was incredibly hyped, you know, second overall pick, but it was like, here's Eichol. He's going to save us.

Keep in mind, we were talking Bajard for the Olympic team if he didn't get injured. Yeah, you're a great start. He was on a heater, and he looked really good. good. I think they continue to add. They've got a young nucleus there, but yes, there's lots of work to be done. I'm not there yet, so I'm denied it. I'm not there yet. I'm confirming

it. I got a bad feeling about it. They've just been bad for a long time. This is third year in the league. And, you know, Eichol, it was, what, six years in, and they had Reinhardt, and they had Dahlia. They had good young players, too, just like Chicago.

And it was like, it's just not possible. We don't win here. frustration pops up. It's going to get sticky there pretty soon, like for Bred and others. And, you know, his ELC is up this year, so he's got to sign long term. And I assume he will. I'm not saying he wants out of Chicago, but they are still a really, they're far, far away from being competitive.

Or it looks that way right now, although they're probably going to, their Twitter account will probably clip that, play it next year when they make the playoffs. That's the hot new thing in sports. No, you're just got to go, they're brutal. terrible. Chicago's awful. They'll make the playoffs next year. Here's an idiot in Toronto calling it. All right, best bet still to come powered by Fandole. There it is, confirm or deny.

We're going to call up Marty, I guess, and ask if we can use dis or data. If we can, he may say yes, he may say no. So we'll check in with Marty quickly. Overdrive continues up on YouTube live. Springs's finally here, and Julie is making the most of it, going for long walks, escaping the city, and reconnecting with nature. Hey girl. And reconnecting with her besties, one of whom is having a baby shower on the other side of the country. Switch to Canada's best 5G network and never miss an important moment.

Plus get all the data you need at a great price. Visit a bell store or bell.ca. Slash rate plans. Bell, connection is everything. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind and now got my own show. So if you're tired of lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, Join us each week. Film Never Lies, available on all TSN platforms in the IHeartRadio app. Confirm or Deny is brought to you by Boston Pizza. This playoffs, BP, is summoning the hockey gods to tilt the ice in Canada's favor.

Join us and feast like a hockey god on our new playoff menu. See you for PuckDrop at your local BP. This is our new theme song for potentially dis or data. Revenge of the nerds. Okay. Dis or data, but we can't use that unless Marty signs off on it. Right. Marty Braun owns this bit, not only with us, but with everyone there is Marty looking

phenomenal. Marty, we have a question for you, Hazy. Please go ahead. Okay, we love having you on. We love dis, data, the other thing. But MJ joined us and we're implementing data-driven commentary to our show. and someone sent out the idea of us calling that segment dis or data. And O said, absolutely not unless Marty allows us to call it that.

So where do you stand on this? I mean, I would be all okay with it, but you got to check with O because O is so business-minded that I believe like your name may be on the copyright. Oh, because you're the one that had the idea in the first place. So, I mean, I can't be the only one that says, yes, you have to be able to give your blessing as well because of the business mind that you are, that you saw an opportunity there years ago. Marty, I just want to say this, in those documents where you copyrighted dis or dat, you are the CEO of that corporation, and you have to make this decision, do you care if we use hashtag dis or data? I don't care. I think it's very flattering.

And to be honest with you, I have gone, I have gotten pictures on social media of other businesses around that have used this or that or this or that and many different variation of it. And I want to like go to them and say, listen, you're doing it wrong,

but I appreciate how flattering it is. And I think it'd be very flattering if you guys use this or data. But who is the, data-driven person on the panel here. Like, is MJ that? Yes, not us. No, no, Marty. No, no, Marty.

Noodles is going to the dark side. And me and Hayes, we are learning different stuff week by week, and that's why we wanted to start the new segment. And we are now what you call a data-driven sports talk radio show. Right, boys? Yeah. Yeah. For years, I've looked at the numbers.

I just don't talk about it. Like, you know, I've been, for years, we get the sport logic numbers. I'm with you, noodles. I hear you, man. I hear you. Like, it just, I think it's nice to chat about and bring it in. But it's a piece of the pie. It's not the whole pie.

Marty, do you like data? I do like data. But I think it can be very complicated. And if you're going on here on TV or radio and you start talking about, you know, zone entries by 60 and percentage of power play entries per power plays. And it's like, are they a good power play or not? And what does it make it? So I think there's a place for data, but there's also a place for, you know, analysis and

storytelling and all of that. So I think you've got to simplify it if you're going to go in that route, especially when you're just voicing those numbers. It's like, whoa, like it's just floating around, you know, in the head. I love it. All right. I love that you've joined us here, and it's official. We have a new bit, and Marty, you're going to be thought of every single time we do it. Marty, just do us one favor. You've got to record a sound bite for us.

You've got to record a sound bite for us. Just say this. Just say this right now. Welcome everyone to diss or data. Welcome everyone to diss or data. Yes. I love it. Send the invoice to doogie, and we'll take it from here. into it to make it good for you guys it's brilliant we love it we love you marty we'll catch you soon buddy thanks for doing us as always a lot of buffalo sabers advancing to the second round when you guys fill out your brackets yes we're all do it all on board unless it's ottawa i think of like

noodles i know you do a lot of sands and obviously the canadian market but if it's boston it better be buffalo across the board cross the board huge support up here for the sabers if it's boston cannot wait for that. All right, thanks, Marty. Yeah. Awesome, guys. See you, buddy. There's Marty Barron.

We're in. All right, yeah, we got the suit of approval. It's amazing. Diss and that and the other thing and data. We got it all kind of working together here and everything's moving in the right direction. Hayes, you got to always go. Always loved Buffalo. Always been a fan.

Always been a fan. Dude, that's what I was wondering about if we ever go down there. Like, would somebody suck? Like, would you get jump walking in that bill? I love the bills. I pump the bills tires and Josh Allen's tires maybe more than anybody. And the fan base would understand what Brian was talking about. They've been starving for-

Jamie, listen to what you just said. What fan base is understanding when people argue about everything? You say one comment, and then you got Egg Avatar fighting with another guy that says, oh, that goal is just, it's crazy stuff. It is, but I'm saying, If you look at it reasonably, that fan base hasn't had a playoff hockey. This is the 15th year. 14 years they've missed.

They are starving for it. They will welcome anybody into that building because they're going to be so pumped. I can't wait to see what that's going to be like their first home game. It's going to pop off. And I do hope it's Boston. I hope it's Boston, get through Boston, Ottawa. Then they go through the other division. If you can get through Carolina, you've got Pitt or Philly in the next round,

And, you know, that sets up. That's a pathway for Ottawa. So, yeah, I mean, we're getting closer to it. We still got a couple more games, obviously tonight, tomorrow night and Thursday. Best Bet's powered by Fandwell. Make your picks and assemble the same game partly in seconds on the Fandau Sportsbook. Yeah, we've got playing games in the NBA tonight. Miami's getting six and a half on Charlotte.

Charlotte's been a really good story. I've been really good in the second half. Miami, I'm going to take the points out. Like, I'm taking... I'm taking Spolstra and the heat. their history. I'm taking the points tonight in that game. I'm not touching the Jay's game. The total's really low. They need

a great start from Gosman. I would lean the under, but I'm not going to touch that one. It's seven the total, so that one's a tight one. Best Bet's powered by Fandual. Same game parlay is available for every MLB and NBA game on the Fandul Sportsbook app. Please play responsibly.

Must be 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. You just brought up Charlotte, dude. Whenever you go to like the toilet bowl of sports organizations. Always them. King Daddy Topper. But they could be in the playoffs.

Sabers are into playoffs, right? There's a lot of good things happening right now in pro sports. A lot of these smaller markets are kind of popping off. So shout out to all of them. All right. Thanks to everyone behind the scenes for helping out today. We appreciate it. Everyone for tuning in TV, radio, podcast, web, and of course up on YouTube live.

We're out of here. Enjoy your evenings. Enjoy the games tonight. We're back tomorrow at. 4 p.m. We'll chat then. Iheart Radio wants to send you and a friend to experience Luke Colms. When the sky is blue.

Live in Montreal. With a thousand dollars cash, backstage passes, and his new album on final to get you ready for the show. Flights and two nights from tripcentral.ca. The smarter way to book travel. Download the free IHeartRadio app. Listen to Pure Country for 10 minutes. And win your way to Montreal to see Luke Colmes.

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