OverDrive - OverDrive - August 20, 2025 - Hour 3

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

Join Michael DiStefano and Frank Corrado for Hour 3 on OverDrive! Former NFL Wide Receiver Stevie Johnson joins to look ahead to the Bills' overall season, the expectations for a Super Bowl run and how they rank in the AFC East. Seattle Kraken Defenseman Brandon Montour joins to discuss his role with the Kraken, the team's shape into the season and aiming for a spot with Hockey Canada at the Winter Olympics and Doogie hands out his FanDuel Best Bets.

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Frankie Corrado with me for the next hour. We'll have Stevie Johnson, former Buffalo Bills, wide receiver on the show. Brandon Montor also going to be joining us at 6.30. He'll be buying for one of those eight spots on the Canadian Blue Line in the upcoming Olympics. So we'll get a chance to talk to him. And he's had a really good career, Brandon Montour. forgot the leap he took a couple years ago that season in Florida. He went from being like a 38, 37 point guy to 73 points that one year in Florida when

they went to the, I think that was the year they went to the championship. They lost to Vegas, but I believe that was the same season. But like, what a leap to have year to year for Brandon Montor. He was, like, that's a monster year for him, you know, 73 points. that was the year that they went to go to the final. Yeah, they lost to Vegas. But he was one of those guys that was caught in that Buffalo, whatever you want to call it.

That's right, right? Remember in Anaheim, he was like very highly sought after, highly regarded, like bright, bright future, and then got caught up in whatever was going on in Buffalo where all those players go to, a bunch of those guys have moved on and won Stanley Cups and he's one of the poster boys for it now. And signed a really nice ticket.

He had a big year this year in Seattle that quietly, like 18 goals flies under the radar. Yeah, career high. And he got paid, right? They, uh, they couldn't afford to sign Reinhart and Montour. So they kept Reinhart. I think if you looked at that model, it would have suggested that, you know, they would have, in Florida, prioritized Bennett over Eckblad. And they probably did because Bennett got pretty close to market value.

And Ekblad had to take a hair. cut on what he was already making. Right. He would have been due for a raise if he was the open market. Still can't believe Barry Zito found a way to get all three of those. Bill Zito. Not the former pitcher. Barry Zito in there.

Jackson that win instead of scouts. I'll throw a baseball at your head if you don't sign this contract, Brad. Bill Zito, getting those deals done is, I mean, still just wizardry. Absolutely wizardry. Okay, so you know what? You talk about Bill Zito and getting that done. The athletic came out with their confidence meters, I guess, or confidence ranking.

Florida's got to be at number one. Florida is number one. Not shocked at all. And it's like a plus right across the board. How many, if you look at the top five, how many of them are no income tax states? Okay, so Florida's number one. Yeah. Dallas is number two.

Carolina's number three. Tampa's number four. and Montreal is number five. That's really interesting. Yeah. You know what, though? They've done a lot of great job. Yeah.

Listen, they did that when Kent Hughes and Jeff Gordon came in there, they brought in Marty St. Louis, and Marty has really carved out his niche of being a head coach and connecting with his players. That was a gamble at the time, too, because he had no professional coaching experience. The only experience he had coaching was minor hockey and he was, minor hockey and he was the power play consultant for the Columbus Blue Jackets for a little bit when Torts was the coach there. But a guy like Marty San Luis lives and breathes the game.

And so, you know, he's done well with the transition. But the fact that like they've been able to, a, strip it down properly, draft really well, you know, the guys who they've drafted are playing now. And they're going to add another substantial piece this year in Demadoff, getting a full year out of him, you know, hitting on Lane Hudson, you know, when they, they picked him in the 60s or second round or something, like crazy, but there's obviously a lot of confidence. And they were ranked six last year, so they moved up one spot to fifth. The Leafs moved up from 30th to 24th.

Okay, so not a monumental league. That kind of surprised me, though, because I like what Brad Trulivinian Company has done here in Toronto. Maybe that has a lot to do with how the Mitch Marner situation unfolded and the fact that they weren't able to get much out of the Marner deal. But his hands are pretty tied. Being able to get Nicola Waugh turned out to be the best he could do. But I mean, considering that Marner wasn't really in favor of making anything easy on the Leafs at that point, I think you could probably say that that was a win. Some of the things that were pointed to when it comes to maybe like not having as much confidence with the Leafs is

there's still a little bit of like the trade track record from in Calgary. I think that follows you know this. Oh, the Hugh Burdow, could chuck. Right. Trading Sam Bennett. There's been maybe one or two others. But that was one of the things, you know, signing David Camp to a lot of money for a fourth line center.

Yeah. The price you pay to get Scott Lawton. But that's that's the price. Like getting Scott Lawton is the price of doing business at that time. You got them for two years. It wasn't a rental. Yes, exactly. And you got him at half his ticket. And they did really well to get Brandon Carlo,

who's fit in really nicely next to Morgan Riley. I don't have, I wouldn't have my confidence that low in Toronto's front office. I think they've done a pretty good job, all things considered. The one that is surprising, though, is the Edmonton Oilers at 21. A team that's been to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships. Back-to-back Stanley Cup championship. They've lost, of course, but where does that factor in in the Connor McDavid negotiation that'll be happening? Because, okay, so the public kind of point of view is pretty similar to the fans' point of view.

So does Connor McDavid see it the same way? Or does he see it differently than how the general public and the fan base in Edmonton sees it? Well, that's a good question because he came out publicly and said, like, if I see this team is going in the right direction to win, then I'll sign up here. We'll make Edmonton our home. But if the fan base doesn't see it that way, how does he see it? What have they done this summer, though?

They've really done nothing. It's been quiet. This summer, it's been very quiet. They brought in the guy from Tampa who didn't want to sign there. It was in Ike Howard. Oh, yeah, yeah. Ike Howard, yeah. Right?

So they're trying to get younger at the same time, you know, make their team better. But I think the thing that you would look at with Edmonton that would not scare you, but would be the question mark is, can you definitively say that the team has taken steps to say, this is our group for the next, like, four years, and it's going to look like we're right back to competing for a Stanley Cup?

I think the core guys, yeah, Dry Seidel, McDavid, Hyman, but what about around that? Because we kind of learned from Florida that it's not just a few guys that carry you. It's got to be a true team. The whole team that does it. And Florida embodied that. better than anyone. Yeah. So the Evanton Oilers, you know, we'll see if they can get over the hump, the Buffalo Bills, looking to get over the hump as well. Joining me now on the line is Stevie

Johnson, former Buffalo Bills wide receiver. What's going on? Stevie, how are you? Yo, what's up, teammates? It's good to be on again. Absolutely. It's good to have you again. And how jacked up are you to get the season kind of underway pretty soon here? Very, very. I mean, it's exciting to seeing the rookies come in, all the guys. guys get drafted, you know, celebration to them, but now the grind is starting to pick up. You know, we've completed two preseason games. I think the guys are looking forward to getting a regular season going and really getting after it. And especially after a loss like that, I think there's a lot of tape for guys to get better. And I think they're looking forward to doing

that. You know, how much, how much faith do you think Bill's fans should have in Sean McDermick going into this season? Okay, now you ask how much faith should they have? I was say they should have all the faith in the world after bringing the team to consecutive championships leading the league but they have 525 points which was the most in franchise history since what 2021 when they did the 17 game season um so i mean they should have a lot of faith but when you look at the social media you know it's not like that you know they they want to win super bowls and we haven't got in the buffalo bills haven't got there yet so i'm going to say the fan base are 50-50 on our guy McDermott.

And that's fair. That's fair. McDermott would take it. You know, he knows he has to handle business. And the Buffalo Bills know they have to handle business in order to keep everybody comfortable in Buffalo. Well, so, Stevie, you know, Super Bowl or Bust is kind of where I think Buffalo Bills fans are at at this point.

They've come so close, just haven't been able to get over the hump. Like, when you look at this roster and you've now watched them a couple of games here in the preseason, you've been able to watch this team for the last couple of years. Like, what gives you confidence that maybe this is the, year that they can finally get it done? We can start with Josh Allen with our MVP number 17, just the growth that he's had, the way he's carried people, the way he's brought people up, elevated their game. And when you speak on Super Bowl or bust, yeah, that should be the mindset.

And there's nothing wrong with feeling that way. You know, it's no disrespect and no added pressure when you got one of the best guys leading your offense and you got a bunch of talent around this team on special teams and defense. you should be thinking Super Bowl or Buzz. Anything less is obsolete. When it comes down to it, how I feel about the roster, I am confidence. However, I still feel like the Buffalo Bills

need to get to another level of physicality in order to beat those teams, such as the Kansas City Chiefs. And when I saw last season, the Houston Texans, they out physical does and they play with more energy. If we can connect on those two things, energy every week, and physicality,

we should have a great chance that knock it down that Super Bowl. So when you talk about energy and physicality, is that, you know, are you pointing to the defensive side of the ball? Because the narrative around Buffalo, I guess, you know, what they were saying is that's where they needed to make the biggest improvements. So do you think they've done that? Have they addressed that in the offseason?

Yes. Yes. I answer that confidently. Yes. Because we saw the guys who knocked us out the previous four seasons. And they got, in the Kansas City Chiefs got dominated by the Philadelphia. Eagles defensive line, the versatility that they had. And what the Buffalo Bills did, they went out and they beefed up their defensive line

from the interior to the edge. So I feel like they did address that. When I was speaking on energy, that's collectively. We need energy from whether you make a tackle on special teams or whether you block somebody out the way on special teams and you show that energy and spark the offense or the defense to get on the field. So energy can come from anybody. Physicality, I would say majority.

yeah, I'm talking about the defense because, I mean, these offenses, come on now, we can't, we can't be joking around, everybody's elite in this, in his NFL. So if you're not physical with these guys, just think about it. You got a hundred mile an hour Ferrari driving past you. You think you'll keep up with them by backpedaling and twisting the turn? No, it's not going to work. You got to be physical. That's my point.

With Stevie Johnson, former Bill's wide receiver, and the everybody eats mantra is what the bills keep harping on here. And they don't necessarily have an alpha receiver like they did like you were for many years in Buffalo. How does that differ within kind of the wide receiver group and in those meetings? The fact that kind of everybody collectively is supposed to step up as opposed to looking at one guy. Yeah, great question. And I actually love that everybody's mantra. Even when I was that guy, I still wanted other guys to be as good as I am or as capable as I am because it takes a load off. It takes a load off of you when you're the only one that you feel like can only get first downs.

Then you got defenses strategizing and game playing on you. You begin to look around like, come on, come, is anybody else going to do something? So me personally, I love the everybody's mantra. And then nowadays, how the game is, the speed, even guys being faster, stronger. Injuries happen now. You know, so if you're only relied on one to two players, good luck. good luck later on in the season. You know, if you got a team that's stacked and everybody can help out and it's a balance,

you've got more opportunity to win that bowl at the end of the season. Josh Palmer is one of the bigger wide receiver weapons that was brought in over the offseason. He's obviously a native here in the GTA area. What are you expecting from him in his first year in Buffalo? Yes, I'm actually expecting a lot out of Josh Palmer without, you know, given that unwanted pressure on him, but, I mean, you got to think about it. This is his first time in a situation where he's being looked upon as the guy. You know, in San Diego, he was always either behind Keenan Allen, Mike Williams,

and then when Ladd McConkey came in, McConkey had that rapport with Herbert, and Josh was still, he was there, but he was just there, you know, to fill in. Now he's in Buffalo to be a playmaker, so I'm looking forward to him to exploding since he didn't have many injuries, and, like you said, he's back home. This is basically his home team, so I'm looking forward to him to, you know, shining and uplifting his game to another level as a Buffalo bill now. You know, in, I guess the previous few years, we would go into the season talking about the AFC East.

And, you know, New England was kind of an afterthought. Miami was pretty explosive offensively. We were kind of waiting for the New York Jets to turn into something with Aaron Rogers. Like, how's your kind of view on the landscape of this division this year? Of course, the bills would be head and shoulders above everyone else. But like, how do you see, you know, their main opposition kind of faring this season? You know what? You right.

Back then a few years ago, you know, we can be thinking about it, but not as much. To me, honestly, I'm not even thinking about it at all. You know, until they prove that they can beat the bills consecutively two times in the season, any of those teams in the AFCs. I'm not really sweating it. Even though the Houston Texans in the AFC South, they beat our bills. Yeah, it was a good game they got us, but was I really worried that the Texans are a better team than our Buffalo Bills? No, I wasn't because I want to see it being done over and over, or we meet in the playoffs and you beat us. So right now I'm not really worried about the regular season.

I'm not overthinking it. I'm just thinking about when we get to the playoffs, who will that matchup be? and then I can, I guess, give some more insight on that team. But as far as regular season, I still see the Buffalo Bills being the number one going into it, no issues. Steve, you spent a number of years in the league. I'm reading a report here. The New York Jets held a player's only practice. It was just Aaron Glenn and the players.

The players conducted their own drills, called their own plays. Justin Fields ran the offense. Germaine Sherwood, their linebacker ran the deal. defense. You ever heard of something like this in the NFL? You know what? No, actually no. I heard of players only meetings, you know, but players only practices? No, I haven't. But a fun fact, I used to do that with my high school kids because it gave them a sense of ownership. It let them feel like, even though you are the players, you guys are the stars on the field, but when you got the coaches around, it's still

that sense of like a pecking order. You got to listen to what the coach say. But I believe Aaron Glenn is doing is he's establishing that sense of, okay, there's going to be situations in his game or in the future where I can't be looking to the sidelines, expecting the coach to give me an answer. I have to own up and do this. So I love, I actually love that technique that he's doing. Unfortunately, it's not going to work this year for our bills. I've got to throw that in there. But I really love it, though, on the personal side, bro. With Stevie Johnson, there are a lot of talented. receivers in the NFL right now, Jamar Chase, obviously, C.D. Lamb, Justin Jefferson,

Amon Ross, St. Brown. When you look at the landscape of that position, is there one to you that you just love to watch, and what do you make of the star-studded group in general? Dang, you know, I can say any one of those names that you said, but I'm going to go a little different. I was just talking with my guy, Mike Florio, and he asked me about a fantasy receiver. And yeah, all of those names, as you say, it came up. But there was another one. one that I ended up doing the commentary on his name was Darnell Mooney, the Y receiver from the Atlanta Falcons, number one. And when I watched his game, I was calling the game and I saw how he was stacking his DB, how he was like hiding his stem in a sense. And I was like, okay,

he's doing something pretty good that like everybody won't really notice. And he was, he was getting money. He was getting first down at the first down for Kirk Cousins. He came through and got a touchdown. He was catching big plays. And I felt like he's going to be one of the of the guys to break out last year mooney had 992 yards and he was eight away from that big thousand and i feel like he's going to take that hump and be a thousand yard receiver next year so uh market number one darnel mooney aka darnell money just writing that down right now writing that down he thanks you for that yeah i wonder is micha parson's ever going to thank jerry jones for making him an offer that he can't refuse like where where like is it not bizarre watching some of the

clips of Micah Parsons sitting there on the sidelines, he looks bored, he looks uninterested, like credit to him for being there, but is this not getting crazy that this hasn't been resolved yet? Yeah, you know, I don't know much about that, that organization was going on inside, but as a fan, I'm going to say as a fan now, I'm going to say as a former player term fan, looking at that situation, you want to say, A, bro, like, it's bigger things to deal what I worry about than a net nitpick on things that's going on internally. Like you with the Dallas Cowboys, you know y'all go get TV time all the time, just go up

and just show up and keep being you and just if it's that tough on you as a team base, then okay, focus on being the best individual that you can. But doing the extras and, you know, calling out for trades. I know that's the new thing in this day and age, but I mean, he's a great talent and all, and he can go wherever he need to, and there's so much time he's so young, I don't think all the extra shenanigans is needed. Maybe if he stepped away and had the game taken away from him,

he wouldn't care which team he was playing on. But on the flip side of that, I understand he wanted to go to a team that wants to win. He's got a... Goes to Philadelphia, which is his hometown, similar to Micah Parsons, and he wins the Super Bowl. So I'm sure he wants to do the same thing. So that's probably why he's a little bit impatient down there in Dallas. And it's understandable, but he can just stay calm.

He's a great talent. He'll be fine. With Stevie Johnson, and I want to kind of jog your memory a little bit here. Richard Sherman, I was listening to a podcast a little bit ago. I don't know if someone sent you the clip, but he said that you were the receiver that gave him the most fits throughout his career. And I found a game, and I remember it now. It was here in Toronto back in 2012, Hawks Bills.

You went eight for 115 in a Tud against Richard Sherman. You remember that one at all? Yeah, I definitely do, man. It was, and it's funny you say April 115. I didn't know that. But I did notice that our guy Fitzpatrick just would make him so beloved with our bills. Our teammate T.J. Graham was having a tough time. He was having a tough day that game.

And Fitz just kept trying to get him the ball. And, you know, it wasn't working out for him. So I was just thinking, like, as I look back at that game, like, I wonder if Fitz would have just gave me the ball a whole time. I'll probably have had 200 and something. that game you could have encroach on brandon marshall's record maybe or something yeah i felt like i could have did that all the time but it was a different game back then you know i was a seventh round draft pick at that time you say too much you might get cut and i love the bill so much so i was just trying to do

as much as i can and not cause as many problems but i definitely should have been calling out for the ball a whole lot more with the you know ability that i had here's a fun here's a fun story about that So, Tavares Jackson came out to me during the pregame of that game, and he said, hey, Stevie, Shirm said, you ain't getting nothing today. And I said, I say, what? Like, what are you talking about? Like, this is trash. Nobody trashed talk to me. You know, not because I'm big and scary, but I just never heard this before.

And Tavaris came and told me that I said, okay, okay, we'll see what happens. And we lined it up. And I just, I just remember what Sharm told Tavaris. So I had to, I couldn't let them, I couldn't let them play me out. So, you know, we ended up competing. It was fun. They destroyed us as a team, but I guess I won a war against my guy Sherman. Big prop to him, though.

Receiver to DB and being a Hall of Famer, legendary. Yeah, I mean, it's got to feel pretty good to have Sherm, you know, say that you were the guy that gave him the most fit. That's got to feel pretty darn good. Really appreciate taking the time to join us today, Stevie. I'm sure we'll have a chance to do it again throughout the season. Tables coming back this year? Yes.

Yes, definitely. We'll be back this year, and I'm looking forward to kicking it with the gang, man. I love it. Love it. Absolutely. Love it. We'll definitely keep an eye for when that's going to drop. I think one next week, possibly.

I think we're getting back into it for Broken Tables. Beautiful. All right. Appreciate the time. We'll chat again soon, Stevie. Yes, sir. One love. Y'all take care.

Absolutely. Stevie Johnson, former Buffalo Bills, wide receiver and co-host of the Broken Tables. podcast with their boy AK. So he's with AK and Takia. AK's Kia. I think Davis Sanchez is involved with that. Crazy that. A guy like AK gets to hang with like a legit NFL stud like that.

I know. Like AK's got no athletic capabilities. He's got no business talking to Stevie Johnson. No. About football. And he also does four hours every morning with Carlo played 14 years. Like how many years in the NHL? Was it 14 years in the NHL?

I'm sure a lot of people say the same thing about me. with Luke Wilson, however. He's got no business trying to talk ball with Luke Wilson. I thought they said it the other way around. It's the other way around. How does Luke Wilson talk ball with a guy like Al's brother? Well, that should be how it is. Is that, yeah?

Yeah. Have you talked to Luke at all this summer? No, but there was apparently Luke was talking some smack with the boys. I think he did a hit a couple of weeks ago, and he's saying that there's some inflammatory comments that I had made towards the captain, Casey B, and I don't know what he's talking about. There's already infighting.

Hey, you guys haven't even started yet. No, there's not at all. What do you? Oh, between teammate, team to team. Sure. But Hazie P and I are fine. You guys are good, smooth so far? We are golden.

You're not in the chopper. I don't know what Luke is talking about. Release the tapes. Release the tapes, Luke. Release the tapes. That's what I got to say about that. Luke's busy with CFL stuff. He don't, he don't got time for you right now.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. But, yeah, we're getting pretty close to the NFL season. I did find it quite interesting. know, the New York Jets thing, that the Jets are holding a players-only practice, just Aaron Glenn and the Jets teammates, the team out there, and you got the quarterback running the show on offense and the middle linebacker, he's got the dot on his head, he's out there, and he's running the thing on defense.

It is interesting at Steve, he said, yeah, I mean, when you get to like a hurry-up situation, sometimes you don't have time to look back, and you've got to get a feel for it. So I kind of like that. It's interesting because you have to know what the hierarchy is in those situations, right? Like who's calling the shots, who's the leader, who are we following, and how are we doing it in an orderly fashion? And I think the other thing that Stevie mentioned that makes a lot of sense is grab ownership of the thing, right? Like, of course the coach is going to coach. That goes without saying.

But the best rooms, the best teams, it's kind of when the coach doesn't have to do too much hands-on stuff. It's like little reminders here and there as far as this is our identity, this is what we're all about, but you guys execute it. Florida Panthers are a well-oiled machine. Part of it, a lot of it is because Paul Maurice, but I'm sure he'd be the first one to tell you that, like, those guys take ownership of the room and what's going on on the bench. It's mainly those guys, right? Start to finish, it's them.

He's just, all right, boys, make sure we play Florida Panthers hockey. Exactly, right? So that's an exercise to help guys kind of take control of that situation. Well, a guy who was, who's played for Paul Maurice on the Florida Panthers, Brandon Montor will join us next here on Overdrive. Welcome back a new Overdrive on TSN 1050, live on TSN2. Mike DeStefano, Frankie Corrado, with you guys. And joining us now on the line, Brandon Montor,

defenseman for the Seattle Cracken and an invitee to the team Canada orientation. Buddy, any time we have an opportunity to have a puck moving right-handed defenseman on the show. We have to have that on the show. You kidding me? Is that the case? Got to have it. Well, we got it. Brandon Montour joining us now on Overdrive.

How's it going, Brandon? Hey, guys. How are you doing? We're doing well. Doing extremely well. How's your summer been? What you've been up to? Summer's been good.

It's been, you know, obviously longer than usual. But, you know, the body has had time to heal, which is always nice. And we're up north, actually, up in Musco for majority of it, other than a little couple trips, a couple weddings. but mostly after that, it's all been up north, so it's been nice. How's the new training group up north there? I know Sam Gagne's got, he's running something, Bo Horvats around, like who are you training with, and how's that been?

Yeah, we've got a bunch of guys. Probably, I mean, depending, you know, it's up here, it's more relaxed, so guys come and go, guys come and bring groups of other guys. a solid 10 or 15 or so of us that are you know regulars are here most of the summer myself and adam and reek actually training together most days our trainer comes up and trains us into or like to get together um up here three four times a week and um yeah we we have a great setup and gags has obviously done a great job of setting everything up with muscoq hockey and we can leave our equipment and

you know they wash our gear sharpen our skates whatever we need they make it as easy as possible and yeah they've done an extremely good job the last couple of years setting that up with Brandon Montour played at the World Championships this past summer and

nine points I mean you've fared extremely well at the tournament no it didn't go the way you guys wanted to as a team but do you feel like did you have a mindset going into that tournament or a goal that you want to leave a good taste in the mouths of hockey Canada with the Olympics looming, and you feel you did that. You accomplished that with your performance there.

Yeah, I mean, I think anytime, especially when your season end so early, you get an opportunity to play for, you know, Canada, you know, the players that played in the tournament, you know, grateful to play again, or with Nate and Sid and TK, the list goes on, the guys. that, you know, you play with, and it didn't work out. The results weren't there, but we enjoyed ourselves the opportunity, like I said, to play with those guys and play well. And, again, I think at this point in my career, the management with Team Canada and, you know,

the rest of the league knows kind of what I bring and a type of player I am. I think just with that, you know, being around them, being able to play with those guys and obviously management that I haven't been able to meet over the years. I think that helped. And, you know, that was one of the bigger reasons of, you know, having the opportunity that we have now is to be in that tournament and thought we did a good job at kind of representing. You had a really good first season with the Seattle cracking.

You scored 18 goals this year, and I'm sure, you know, you wanted to put yourself on the radar for the Four Nations team as much as possible. Now, you don't make the team, Like, are guys who aren't playing in that tournament at the time, you guys watching those games and thinking, like, holy moly, this is, like, this is some of the best hockey that we've ever seen. Like, did guys who didn't make the team really enjoy watching what was going on out there? I think, you know, everyone probably tuned in, you know,

the amount of texts that we've shared over, you know, that span of, you know, bi-week and stuff like that. Everyone watched. But, again, like you said, to get the elite of the elite and, We haven't had that in so long, perform and play against each other. And obviously, nobody really knew how competitive was going to be. But, I mean, obviously, for us, we knew. Extremely entertaining, obviously, the best of the best.

And, you know, it didn't disappoint, that's for sure. Well, like, what would it mean to you to become an Olympian? Like, you know, performing under Canada at the World Championships is one thing and a massive accomplishment. But does the Olympics provide, you know, something a little extra? yeah again i think team canada just whenever you get the chance to play for for them uh for the country obviously olympics is you know something that you know not i guess a lot of people have on their radar you know in a sense but the opportunity to be an olympian and be in the

olympics and tiny experience the whole thing as a group um would be pretty extraordinary and you know i think um looking back at the four nations i you know was hoping my name was at least involved with it. Obviously, you know, going into Seattle as a new team and a new face in that organization wanted to obviously do my part and help that team. I think it obviously helps when your team is, you know, successful and playing in big games.

So, you know, I think hopefully we can start off with that, have a good start to the year, and then, you know, the Olympics should be, hopefully, you know, it's something that we look at, you know, when the time comes. But to be an Olympian would be amazing. And hopefully I, you know, could show and have the opportunity to do that. In the meantime, you'll obviously, you know, be playing again for the Seattle Cracking.

You signed a long-term deal there. You know, you look at the roster, and it's pretty clear that they've tried to assemble players that have won before, right? Like there's you, there's Chandler-Stevenson, Jaden Schwartz. You know, you go down the list. there's guys that have won Stanley Cups, Vince Dunn, you know, how much of your winning experience do you bring to that locker room as you try and, you know, move this thing along in Seattle? Yeah, I think a lot. I think, you know, when you win, you experience the highs and lows.

I've been a part of winning teams that, you know, obviously have been all the way and lost and obviously won as well. But I think that's huge for the young guys. Again, last year going in, I knew a lot of the faces. And, you know, after the year, we're definitely underachieved. Nobody was happy with the results we had. I think any time you don't make playoffs. But I think for our group, there's much more than that. You know, I think we could get into the playoffs and, you know, surprise some people.

It's just a matter of executing. And obviously, we did not do that really at all last year. And, you know, how the year goes. It's long. It's draining, but you get on these, you know, losing swings and you're out of the playoff picture pretty early. It's tough to kind of keep that, you know, motor going. And I thought as the end of the year went, we got a little bit better, but, again, I think we underachieved as a group, the faces that we have, the players that we have, the guys that we brought in with Mason and Ryan and a few other guys will definitely help us as well. but the new coaching staff as well.

I'm excited to work with them. You know, Lane and his group seem like they are excited and ready to go and systematically on page with, you know, how our team operates. And now it's just a matter of us getting there. And, you know, again, surprising guys and surprising each other. I think that's the main thing is getting the confidence with our group, the young guys and the older guys. And I'm excited to see what we can do.

With Brandon Montour, I'm not, you know, sure. if you care all that much of what's going on at the U.S. camp, but I know it raised a couple eyebrows to see a young kid like Lane Hudson who had 66 points in his rookie year in the NHL not get an invite to the U.S. camp. Does that surprise you considering someone who got to watch and play a couple of times on the ice this year? Again, I haven't really looked at the roster, to be honest with you, but, again, I mean, I don't know what they see.

I would say for him not being invited to that camp doesn't mean he's not going to make the team I think he's still push and play well and turn some heads and no matter what come to that time when they decide on the roster you never know who they're going to pick or who gets heard or there's so many things that can happen

but again the kids obviously he's super talented obviously on the smaller side So I don't know if, you know, that plays any factor in the way their selection goes. But, again, you know, Montreal should be excited about having a player like that. And hopefully it continues to keep getting better and helping that team for sure. Really appreciate taking time to join us today. Good luck at the camp next week. We'll be rooting for you.

Absolutely. Thanks, guys. Absolutely. Brandon Montour, defenseman for the Seattle Cracken, Stanley Cup champion, an invitee to the Team Canada orientation camp, which will be underway next weekend. And, yeah, we're talking about Lane Hudson, just surprised that he didn't get the call there. But I guess he's correct.

It doesn't mean he's not going to make the team. He'll still have an opportunity. Yeah, you're just, I guess you're, it's quite evident that you're on the outside looking in at that point. Unless it's like Doug Armstrong and how he told us the goaltending position is still very much up for grabs. And there's a lot of. goalies in the mix. How much of that do you believe?

Okay. I have to believe it. Jerry's percentage, okay, Jerry's percentages that one of the three goalies he brought is not on the team for somebody else. Are they all healthy? Yes, all healthy. All healthy? Yeah. 18%. So you're 73% chance. They're all going to be an 83% chance at all three of those guys are there. What's the math on that? 83. You're sure about that? Yeah. 17. Yeah, 17, we'll say 18's 100. Quick math. Okay, I don't even remember what I said. Anyways, I'm thinking they're all going to be there.

I'm quite heavily into the majority that those are going to be the three guys. I would think so, too. I would think so too. Unless, like, unless Logan Thompson is just, like, gangbusters and he's got like a 930 save percentage, but that's, I think that's the one that sticks out for me. Logan Thompson? Yeah. If he was just, just had a.

horrid start to the year. He's the guy that if you look at, Darcy Kemper is another player who, you know, if he can get off to a really good start there, I think Darcy Kepper is a guy who last year statistically, it was right there with Logan Thompson as like the best one-two punch and goal at the time when the team was selected and announced. It surprised people that neither of those two were invited to the team, let alone invited to the camp this summer. But still alive, you know, Dougie Armstrong said, yeah, who spoke to, what he said, five, six goalies? Yeah, well, five, six goalies.

Yeah. So just inform them like you're still in the mix, but those are the three guys coming. Then why not just bring one other? I don't understand it. They're not, you know, they're not doing the skate around. They're going to watch all these guys. Yeah. I saw, like, calling games this year, whether it was Dubis or Breezebaw or Armstrong,

saw them a lot up in the booth at a arena. Travel and scouting for their teams. Yeah. That's interesting. I wonder how like the owners feel about that kind of double dipping a little bit

like Doug Armstrong you know like he's not a hundred percent focused on what's going on with St. Louis because he's got to be focused on what's going on around the league. That is the biggest clown thing I've heard. What do you mean? Of course he's interested in what St. Louis is doing. Of course. I'd say he's not interested

but I'm saying he's got other things also on his mind. Yeah. Whereas Brad, well Brad True Living right? He's not part of a management group here. Who else he's thinking about other than the Toronto Maple Leafs 24 hours of the day? No one. This guy's got to make scouting trips all around the league. Check out players that aren't associated with the St. Louis Blues. Listen, if anything, it helps your team because you're in the building watching guys more than you normally would. You know, if Doug Armstrong is watching

Buffalo versus New York, or sorry, Buffalo versus Montreal or New York, yeah, sure, it's like maybe that's a night of the week where he's actually going to be at home in St. Louis, but he's watching a game now. So it actually does help the same. Pro scouting. Yeah, he's like, he's like, he's doing some pro scouting. He's got more eyes, you know, in the building and around the league. I think it benefits the team having these guys in the building more. One of the things we're going to do like a little segment called A, B, Seasits.

I don't know if we got much time to do it. Actually, you want to take a break and come back. There's one specifically about the Olympic roster construction. Okay, let's do this. Let's go break. We'll do ABC's it. Hit me with your best bets and let's get out of here. Got it.

All right. That's coming up. That's coming up next. You're on overdrive. Overdraft continues on TSN 1050, TSN2 and on YouTube. Mike DeStefano and Frankie Corrado in. And we've got that hockey night in Brampton tonight in the city. Austin Matthews is there representing the Toronto Maple East.

in the team at a local hockey event. You like to see it. I think I saw Chris Tanna, photo him in attendance. Gary Roberts is playing, Kujo's playing, but I think Kujo's like out, like he's a player. Oh, really? Yeah. Really?

I thought I saw, that'd be fun to see. Some Viz of him and Gary Roberts on the ice, like passing and shooting pucks together, and Kujo was wearing player gear. I'd imagine he hasn't strapped the pads in quite some time. Remember there was that, there was a game a few years ago where people thought that Kujo was the E-Boo.

bug and he was very at the arena he's at the arena alumni box yeah and people thought that he was the ebug for the for the team and there was an injury or someone got hurt and then the the buzz was like guys that the ebook could have been Curtis joseph could have seen him strap the pads you talk about the roof blowing off of that place forget about a matthews goal 31 you see that guy wheel out onto the ice with the old bower pads oh the mask and the mask the mask the mask best mask in Leafs history. Yeah, they'll have to replace the roof if that happened. Cujo eBug.

Biggest crowd pop Leafs would have all year. It would. So someone asked Matthews about Mitch Marner and he said, quote, well obviously miss him and said that's kind of the business side of it. That's tough, but we're obviously wishing him nothing but the best

and we've got to keep moving on. And I guess that's the right thing to say. Like your stock kind of PR trained answer. Yeah. What's he going to say? What else I suppose? that's what you expect from him. But we talked about a new segment. We're unveiling here.

Only got a few minutes left, but it has to do with this. And it's a segment called A, B, C's it. A, B, sees it. So you either see it, I just see it happening, or you don't see it happening. This is brilliant stuff. Brilliant stuff. Nothing like this has never happened before. For the regular season, by the way.

I think if it lands, we will definitely bring this back at some point. but A.B. sees this, okay, I see, speaking of Mitch Marner, I see Mitch Marner setting a new personal playoff points record in year one in Vegas. Year one. Year one, this year, Mitch Marner sets a new PR for playoff points with the Vegas Golden Knights. I could see it happening because Vegas is a really good team. So, I mean. Is he going to unlock, unlock him?

himself in the biggest issue here in Toronto is that he didn't get it done the playoffs. It's not about the points necessarily, it's when the points come in the playoffs.

Those games four to seven. That's what it is. That's what it is. So if it's games one through, or one through three, sure that, you know, you'll,

fine, but to do it when the games are really important, I think that's the biggest thing for him. But like, now he's going to Vegas. Vegas, you know,

they lost this year, but they're a good playoff team. They're a hard. team. Want a cup a few years ago? They win rounds pretty consistently. Yeah. I see it happening. You see it happening? See it happening? How about this one? We'll keep with the, we'll keep with the theme of the

Toronto Maple Leafs here. Matthew Nyes will win himself a spot on Team USA's Olympic roster. I'll say I see it happening. See it happening? Yeah. You think he's got a shot. Yeah. I don't know why I'm going to draw this comparison, but I think if Chris Kreider made the Four Nations team. Yeah. I think Matthew Nise, with some, some, you know, younger legs. It's a perfect player comparison. Right? Because it's like the big body, front of the net, maybe some

younger legs, maybe a little more scoring touch there. Although Kreider was like, you know, he's three years removed from a 50 goal season but Nyes is kind of trending up. Yeah, he's on the wrong side of things. That could be your like your plug and play type player for that. The other thing I think if, like

Ty goes to chemistry and him and Austin Matthews, if they get off to a good start here in Toronto in a tournament like that where, you don't have time to create chemistry. You bring guys who have it. I think that that could go in his favor as well. Good point.

It is a good chance. We see Matthew Nyes there. We may have time for one quick one. Austin Matthews will rejoin the 50 goal club this season. Oh, yeah. See it happening. See it happening, eh? If he's healthy, he's hitting 50.

Yeah, Marner's departure doesn't hinder him from doing so. He still has Nylander. Could see Matthias Michelli become a guy. Yeah. Well, like what he was a couple years ago. Okay. All right, buddy. All right.

We see it happening. just with the bets. All right, today's best bets are powered by Fanduil, make your picks, and assemble the same game parlay in seconds on the Fanduals Sportsbook app. Doogie's surgical bets. What do we got, Dugues? Let's do it, fellas.

We're going with the Yankees at the race tonight. Yankees hitting a, tying the franchise record for nine home runs in a game. Yeah. So we're going to go with the Yanks on the money line. We're going to pair that with an Aaron Judge home run. They're smacking it out of that park. And a Chandler Simpson hit in the game. That's totaling plus 481 on the Fandualsportsbook app.

Today's best bets are powered by Fandual. The first inning means as much as the ninth when you have baseball on the Fandual Sportsbook app. Please play responsibly 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. Good stuff. Good stuff, good stuff. Thanks for coming in hot there. Of course.

You got it. You got some great guests today, dude. Yeah, I do want to give you a big shout out today. The lineup we have for the show was excellent. I had a lot of fun, Frankie. Yeah, it was a great show. And, yeah, it does it for me for the week. I was in here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, off the next couple of days.

I think the Tatman will be in the seat here. Batman? Batman, I think strutty's back on the show at some point this week. Yeah, yeah, it should be a fun little show. Then next week, one more week. I think I'm in three times next week. And then the boys are back. I'm on GP for a majority of next week.

And then, yep, Labor Day. It cares where we are or what we're doing. No one cares in the slightest. But, uh, yeah, the tat man, he'll be back tomorrow 4 p.m. You'll chat then. Seasoned gamer or just video game curious. This weekend gaming is the podcast for you. We break down the latest in the world of video games, from basics to beyond.

The hottest gaming news, insight and industry leaders, and more weekly. Join me, Naomi Kyle, and stay ahead of the game with all the latest updates. Even if you're a total newbie. stream this week in gaming on the free iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts