OverDrive - OverDrive - August 28, 2025 - Hour 1 - Mark Masters

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

Join Bryan Hayes, Keegan Matheson, and Frankie Corrado for hour one of OverDrive! The guys begin by getting into Producer Doogie’s texting style before getting into the Blue Jays’ comeback win over the Twins on Wednesday. They discuss the Blue Jays’ bullpen struggles and why John Schneider gets credit for going back to Jeff Hoffman on Wednesday. They are then joined by TSN Leafs Reporter Mark Masters.

Josh stares down the business end of his baby brother as he takes the reins on diaper duty. But Josh comes prepared with a diaper change tutorial. The video stream, fast and strong. The baby stream contained. Yes, when the Harmon switched to Bell Pure Fiber Internet, they wondered why they didn't sooner. Experience proven reliability with Bell Pure Fiber Internet, Canada's fastest awarded by Ucla. Switch today. Plans starting at $60 a month with a two-year term.

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All right, here we go, overdrive off and running. TSN 1050 on the TSN app, your home, smart speaker, up on TSN2, Brian Hayes, Hegan Matheson, and Frankie Carrotto in here. What's going on? He is in the house. I don't know, man, like, we've had a pretty good summer. It's been hot. It's been really hot.

we haven't had a lot of rain and today the rain hit and the drivers that were already bad somehow got like exponentially worse today it was a disaster trying to get anywhere doing anything today it was awful yeah it's weird like every driver in southern ontario it's like we have amnesia or something where you just you forget how to drive in any of the elements you get used to the heat the sun it's been so hot my grass has just hated me for about two months tried to keep it going get get the sprinkler going every once in a while. It just died out. Like it just, it died out.

Every once in a while, I'd be out there with a hose. I'm like, I'm wasting my time. What am I doing? This is a- Probably like 6 o'clock at night too, and it's just baking onto that thing. It's not going to achieve anything. And at some point, I just conceded defeat. I'm like, it's done. But now that

it's rained a few times over the last week and a half, it's coming alive, man. It's like, what, yeah, it's like one of those documentaries. This is my season, you know? And it, the J- unfortunately keep winning games, which means I have to be in a suit and tie down at the dome with Hedger. And at certain points at the summer, that was a bad scene, fellas. No amount of TV makeup

can protect a big guy like me from the sun. But it's beautiful now. These are much better days. Yeah, it's beautiful, man. Things guys have to say. Yeah. When it rains and it hasn't rained in a lot, you look out the window and you say, we needed this. Yes. You need that. You have to say it. You can't control yourself. Gotta have it. Another thing guys say, big third down here. You have to say that this is a big third down here. You can't control yourself. Those are two things that are like-

I can't wait to say it for the first time. My God. Football, it's football weather, man. You can feel it. Football's here. We just cross-pass with Al's brother and he's got, I guess, fantasy pools tonight, which just listening to these idiots out there

where like JP and the grappler and Al's brother, they're all in the same pool and it's an auction pool where they're, you know, I guess talking about how much money they're going to spend on certain players. And it's just way too complicated. I have a fantasy pool tonight, and it's very meat and potatoes, which is the way I like it. And I'm excited for it because I do find when you start putting together a fantasy team, that's the real thing. I find the same thing with hockey.

You know, we talk about hockey a lot clearly. And on this show, once the lease are in town and they're back on the ice, you can feel it. But I find you get going through like a, you know, an ESPN fantasy or a Yahoo Sports Fantasy or NHL.com, whatever you use. And you start picking off names you haven't mentioned in a while. You know, you get deep into a draft. You're like, oh, that's right. That guy signed there. I forgot he's in Seattle now.

Exactly. You know, I forgot he was wherever he was. And the same thing happening with the NFL. And naturally, when I see how his brother, I just launch into what are we doing opening night because I believe Hayes and bro are going to have the pick Eagles, Cowboys. How's that decided? That's not a question.

I'm not sure why. I'm not sure. Maybe Doogie did. Doogie sent out the text yesterday. and, yeah, it was revealed us that we're going to have that pick. And I don't, I didn't read the, it was one of those, like, too long of a text. I just sent a thumbs up and I didn't really read it. It was very, like, Dugie's very cordial.

Dugie, at times, we'll send messages as if he's never met you before or trying to sell you insurance or something. Not at times. Every time. All the time. We'll sign off. Good evening, gentlemen. Wishing you and your family the best. All the best.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, Duggy, it's a group chat with, with the guys. Like, what are you doing? Hey, Frankie, it's Doogie. I'm like, yeah, it's been saved for years in my phone. Yeah, I know. Josh, I got you, bud.

He sends me, so I interact with Doogie more than anyone else in my life, right? With the exception of my wife and my two kids, right, like who I live with. So it's my wife, my two kids. They are in a separate category that goes without saying. They are my family and I live with them. So I interact with them all the time. the fifth person in line, fourth person in line is Doogie.

Is Josh Doogie Pulis, okay? Tough power ranking. It's very difficult. It's, with all the respect, I love Doogie. It's a big drop off, you know. He will send me every single Sunday night as we prepare for the next week. Hey, Brian, hope you had a great weekend.

And then he'll launch into like, good evening. Or he may start it with like, good evening. Hope you had a great weekend. I'm like, Doogie, just send me a normal text. Get into it. You know what I mean? I feel like Ben Affleck and Goodwill Hunting. Like, you know where he's like, I want to show up one day and you're just not here.

I want to look at a text and Doogie is just right to the point one day. I will start tearing up. Yeah. He will just write me. Frankie's coming on. Keegan's coming on. We're coming off the J's. Leaves her back.

We should probably hammer this. Middle finger emoji. And I'd be like, yes, thank you, dogy. I'm a big hard details guy. Yes, right to the point. Half the texts I get, I call him the Hey Keegan text, which are. appearance request. Yes. And what I want is, Hey, Kagan, 9 a.m. Question mark. And I reply with a thumbs up. Right. And man, we all move on. The beautiful thing. It is. It is. It is. A beautiful thing.

But I'm interact. I will send, I would say over the course of a week when we're all on the show and everything's cooking, I'll go back and forth with Doogie 60, 70 text messages. And that's, you know, that's the text message portion because then when you're in studio, Doogie has, he holds court out there and I've seen him do it where he goes over Brian I think we should hit on this topic but what about from this angle maybe from this point of view this audio this video we have different things

and I was just wondering Brian like what's your thoughts on what so-and-so said right like he he hammers it from every single angle very dignified can a boy not be curious I'd sell you he's very dignified let's nurture this I hope you had a great weekend listen you don't go from internet TSN 1050 to producing overdrive as quickly as Doogie has.

Yeah, that's right. Without having a little something special. That's right. Yeah, he's got class, man. He's got class and he treats people well. And he's an awesome guy, but I'm waiting for my goodwill hunting moment. I'm just waiting to look at my phone and it's just right to the cutting to the chase. Yeah.

You know, and I'm sure it'll happen at some point. It'll happen. It'll happen. So we got Mark Masters coming up later and Mark is out at the orientation camp, Team Canada, obviously continuing with their Olympic preparation. and he's sitting down with Mark, or with Mitch Marner today. So we'll catch up with Masters. Then about a half an hour, and you were down at the park last night,

the J's, it was like deja vu, man. It was actually a wild eight-night inning sequence. The same thing as the night before. More runs produced last night. But I think you've got to start in the bottom of the eighth, where I have so much time for George Springer, the way he's performing this year. And the veteran leadership he showed in his bat,

where you have Barger behind him who has been in, a dark place for what, three weeks, a month, maybe? Yeah, it's a month. Like, we're talking a dark, dark place. And they're chasing the game and Springers is red hot as anybody. And he goes up there and he just moves the chain, right? He goes, I'm not going to chase anything. I'm not going to get stupid. I'm not going to be overly aggressive. I'm going to put faith in this kid who I know can do something for us if given the opportunity. I don't care that he's three for his last 45 or whatever it was. And, you know, he's

a great at bat and he's jacked up as he's running up to first base and barger comes up and the hit of the season for him and that's saying something considering how many big hits he's had I think because this was the first big slump of his major league career right he hit the ground running in such a he slumped a little he can't even call it a slump when he first arrived I think his first five seven games he went hitless or one hit or whatever but he had just shown up and he got to give him time to kind of acclimate himself to the major leagues and ever since then the guy has he's been a pistol man he's been an unbelievable story for him and he needed that at bat so much and yet i think springer was the one who kind of

set that's the definition of setting a table for a guy and full credit to george man just unbelievable what he's done all year took ball four spins flips the bad he's screaming he's pumping his fists that's amazing yeah and he's become this team's entire identity And we should, next time I'm in, we should go back to all of my spring training appearances here on this fine program and just list the ten things I was stupidest about. But I was most wrong about it. It would be a long list, fellas. We talked over and over about George Springer coming off a terrible year.

He was down and done Eden doing absolutely nothing. I know that spring stats don't matter, but I'm there, so I need to pretend they do. And he did nothing. And this has come out of absolutely nowhere. It's been the entire identity of this team. like George Springer, busting it on the bases, going first to home on the bases, moments like that.

And then having Addison Barger come up clutch, he'd been hitting 200 this month, I think a 571 OPS this month. That's not good. And he needs to be that extra bat, that extra something that this team has and they've been missing it, man. But to come up in that moment,

it shows an adjustment. A lot of young players can come up and throw a hundred. A lot of young players can come up and hit a 450-foot home run. Cool, I don't care all that much. You need to survive the first adjustment. Because once Addison Barger

hits every ball 112, 115, if I'm the opposing starter, I do not want to get turned into a highlight clip on Sports Center that night. You start to plan for them, Addison Barger just counterpunched. Finally. Took him a bit. Absolutely huge. It's the loudest I've heard the dome all year. Really? Yeah. For that hit

last night. Easy. And then with Vladdy coming up. The twins. Yeah. Who aren't good. They just traded everybody, including some guys with the Blue Jays. But I couldn't name half that roster as they came up. Right. But I think the night before, probably factored into that, right? The fact that they blew the game the night before

that's interesting that that was the loudest. It's been obvious. And it kept rolling into that Vladia B, but it's coming off that night before. And there's a little bit of that nervousness setting in because the Jays run a heater for so long. Yes. And they've been comfortably five or six above Boston and New York for so long.

You feel them creeping up again. You get that little bit of nervousness in your body again, which is part of being a Toronto sports fan. You're always worried how it's going to go wrong, how everything's going to fall apart. That was huge because if they had lost that game, imagine the conversation we're having right now. Imagine if Jeff Hoffman had of blown it. Right. If the bullpen had blown it again, it is doom and gloom. And the story I had written in the eighth fellows was a

pretty cranky story. And I was saying outside, I was still in recovery mode from a couple nights before an oasis. I think I was projecting a bit. Yeah. You know, a little bit of my bad mood was some demons. Ribbling into the story. It was really cranky. Then I had to write about the biggest win of the year maybe for them. Just fantastic. Yeah, fantastic. Every win is going to be the biggest win in the year. It is. Every single one.

Once you shrink it down to less than 30 games. It's going to let's get louder too, right? Like, you know, the Yankees were here. The J's beat up on them and that's a time where the crowd will get very loud. But now that the games mean so much more because, like, man, you lose and someone else wins around you, Boston or New York. They both won last night. You're all of a sudden three games up on them.

And that doesn't feel as comfortable as four or five games. And, you know, Jeff, Hoffman gets a chance to redeem himself. Now, I don't think you'll look at last night and say, I'm comfortable now. Like, we're ready to go. And it wasn't three out, three down and clean necessarily. Gives up a hit, right? But at least whatever thought was going through his head the previous night when it was awful,

maybe now he gets to see something that's a little, little more pleasant for him. It's not a whole reset. He's right back at it. But, hey, at least he got it done as opposed to. the alternative, which could have been far worse and honestly more devastating mentally. Well, I don't think there's any way to come back. I don't think you can overstate if he

blows that game last night. That's it. It's over. I just, I don't, I think it would be, it would force the hand of John Snyder to have to change the complexion of your bullpen. Even, even if it is just a reset and you say we're willing to go back or in the back of your mind, you're thinking in a week we're going to go back. If you blow

two games back to back at home against the twins, that's enough. That's it. It's over. with an off date today where you've got a stew in it and then you got Milwaukee here tomorrow. But yeah, socks have won four in a row, Yankees have won four in a row. Now you get a three and a half game lead on Boston, four and a half on New York.

But I think Schneider, obviously he made the right play to go back to Hoffman. He tipped his hand on what ultimately they're going to do in the end, right? Or what they still believe is the best course of action for their bullpen is to have Hoffman as a conventional closer. Like to have him as your one A guy in any

position of leverage. And if you you're going to have faith in him, and they all said the right thing. Chris Bassett was probably leading the charts the night before, who's a good teammate and came out and said, we have full faith in this guy. Everyone's allowed to have an off day. If that's the messaging, then you had to go back to him last night. And they did, and to their credit, and Hoffman's credit, he got the job done. And he went from getting booed off the field the night before

to getting cheered off 24 hours later. And that's their best bullpen. If Hoffman's good, that's the best bullpen. putting Sir Anthony Dominguez in Louis Varlane, something like that, and trying to find a spot for Hoffman. That's not it. You know, they need Hoffman in there. And I like the John Schneider put him right back out. And John Schneider's thing is sticking behind players who he believes in.

I remember this last year with George Springer. I had to ask him the same question, probably an annoying amount of times, about how are you going to keep playing George Springer? What's wrong with him? And he kept insisting, listen, there are things I believe in. We've got numbers. I've got belief in him. and I thought he was wrong. He was right.

He's not going to bat a thousand with that, but when you do it for a reliever like that, like this guy's when I talk to any alumni about Cito Gaston is the number one thing that comes up. You never had to worry that he was looking over your shoulder. Every single player I've ever talked to from 92 and 93, first thing they say, Cetogastin never made you worry about your job or your role.

If I gave up three runs, one night, I knew I'd be back in there the next day. I knew exactly when I'd get pinch hit for. There was no surprises, no worries, no worries, no anxiety. And that's so important for a manager. I think Schneider nailed that one, getting them back out there. Now, if it goes wrong, it's the first story today.

We're talking for 20 minutes about who's going to close games for the Toronto Blue Jays. Yeah. But when you roll the dice at the right time and it works, that's pretty special. Kind of wild that it honestly was available to them in that. Yeah. Like it was a carbon copy. You're coming up with a one run lead in the ninth. What do you got?

And basically the same portion of the order was coming up. You know, it was a very similar scenario, 24. hours later and this time Hoffman got through it. That's your dream as a player though. Like as an athlete, you're just sitting there thinking, I can't wait to try and redeem myself here. I wish I could get the circumstance where I could just get back after this thing. You just, you don't want to stew in it and sit in it. And sure enough, good for him. Now he's got to like, well, he's obviously got to keep performing. He's got to keep the ball out of the air and going deep out of the ballpark. Do his thing. And ultimately, like the

bullpen woes, don't you think it kind of works like this? If the closer, is doing his thing. Everyone else just kind of like slots in line under that. Isn't he kind of the head of the bullpen that way? It's supposed to conventionally, of course. Absolutely. He's got to be your best arm. Listen, they have a month.

You're not going to, you don't need seven or eight guys. That's not possible. You're not going to have six, seven guys who are all peaking in October. They need three, maybe four, you know, that you can really rely on. And they have a month to figure that out. You know, like these are the guys they have. have. Now, maybe they bring you Savage up. Like, that's possible. Maybe they transitioned

someone to the bullpen. Lauer got rocked last night. I kind of fell for him. It looks like, he's had such a good year. Then he gets thrown into the, while you're out of the rotation, now you're back in a six-man rotation. He gets rocked. That was a tough battle for him. He was. He gets 10 days rest when he had been pitching so well. It's like anything. You take something out of their

routine, man. Like, it's not easy to just jump back in, especially a guy who is not like a big marquee name. Well, that's with a lot of pedigree. What makes him more damaging is he's not he's not that's just going to be his reality the rest of the way like if they go to a five-man rotation he's coming out you know and and i don't see a role for him in the bullpen i'm not sure it's there if littles there and flue hardy's there weird long man

role but logistically he's the minor league signing who pitched in korea last year who missed half a camp having a kid right and he's been an unbelievable story one of the best stories of the year we asked john schneider who his MVP was this year and he riddled off a bunch of names and eventually gave the good politician answer of the team. But the first name he said was Eric Lauer. The team MVP. Lauer was the first name he said. And without Eric

Lauer, they are going through waiver wire arms, through 34 year old veterans who also just pitched in Korea or Japan or Mexico out of the big leagues and it's a mess. And they are not four games up on anybody raid now. So Lauer, I can't say enough about what he's done this. All the flowers

probably getting bumped. Yeah, it is. And again, at some point, either Ambassador Barrios, they're going to transition to that role as well, I think. I mean, one of them is going to go into the bullpen and do something. That's come playoff time. It's not going to happen during the season. But, you know, so anyway, you got, you got a month to figure

that out. You got to get, I think ideally you have Hoffman, it's Dominguez, it's Farland, probably little. Like, I think if you could pick the four guys, those are probably, are those are four guys? Like, if you went to Schneider and said, I can have four guys that are going to be peaking on October 1st, who would, who would, if you can have a little peaking. Yes. If you have Brendan a little like he's pitching right now.

No, he's a lot of... Yes. When you're watching these pitches, imagine standing in the batter's box against that right now. He's got big velocity, a massive curve ball, and every other pitch is in the dirt.

It's wild. His stuff is so good. But looking at this bullpen, you're right, you need three or four guys, and you're going to ride them. The problem is these guys are gassed right now. Yario Rode Rodriguez came out

throwing 92 the other day. He should be throwing 96. Right. But it's his 55th appearance, and he's been a swing man back and forth. I mean, guys, I'm gassed. I don't do anything. All right?

These guys are out there. They're working every day. They are gas. They're sore. Not injured. They're sore. A lot of baseball. And the intensity is only going to ratchet up, man.

Like, wait until Milwaukee gets here tomorrow night. That's going to have a big, big feel to it. Also, like, wait until when they do get into the playoffs, which they're tracking that way. Like, I don't know, man, you can't, you can't necessarily think it's a guarantee that whoever starts, whether it's Beaver or Gosman is going to go deep into a game. Shurzer. Like, you're going to have to maybe call on one of these guys. guys in the fourth or fifth inning. Yeah, you're right.

Pretty high leverage situation at that point. That's going to be the swing time in the game and you're like, you kind of need those guys like fresh and ready to go and not feeling fatigued at that point. It doesn't take much to lose a game at that point. What would be really poetic, Jose Barrios coming in in long relief, perhaps in the second inning. Yes. And winning the Blue Jays again. In the year that everything's gone right,

maybe that would be a... Maybe he plays a Royal Kikuchi this time, right? And he comes in when someone else is flying. But you bring up a good point about their, you know, the way that they're billed, that in the playoffs, once you get into a best of seven in particular, although best of five can, it can apply is some guys will pitch on short rest. You know, like you've got, this is the end of the road. You're going to do it. Well, Scherzer pitch on short rest.

He's going to want to. He'll be asking to pitch the next day. Okay, so there's your answer. Bieber, I don't think can. No, like Bieber, you can't. So you can't do that. Like you're going to get, let's say Bieber starts game one and game what, game four? game five, depending on off days.

But like short rest, I think Gosman could give it to you. I don't think you would be looking at that. But I guess Scherzer would be the guy. Like Scherzer, if he, let's say he pitches game two and throws 85 pitches or 80 pitches, three days later, he probably could give you a 25. Yeah, he's going to want it. He's

41. I don't know if he's pitching next season. He's probably going to, but. He'll just empty the tank and say, you know, we were talking about it yesterday. Could he come back? You know, he's got some time. He's got some time to figure that out. But, like, if he's If he's not thinking about that, he's probably going to do exactly what you said. This could be it.

I'm done after this, so let's just milk this thing. I can come in, yeah. Because that is definitely a possibility. If the bullpen is leaky the way it is, you know, and the starters are the ones that are popping, do they look to a guy to maybe close a game on short run? Like that, that's an uncomfortable position to be in, but it's possible.

It happens a lot in baseball. Especially if Max Scherzer sitting in your office, glaring you in the eye without blinking for an hour straight, telling you that he's ready. I'm ready to go. I want Bieber in game one, and I want him in the clinching game. You can line that up. But the middle is going to be creative.

I think Chris Bassett, he's made a rubber. He can do whatever. Yes. I think he can bounce around quite easily. Barrios is the more traditional straight line starter, starter, starter. That's tougher. But Bassett, he can do anything. Yes.

What's it like looking at Shurs are up close and personal? Intimidating. It is, eh? Yeah, there's an intensity. There's an incredible intensity. The Mad Max persona is real. And it's a different intimidation than, let's say, Yariol Rodriguez. When you make eye

contact with those icy blues, like I know it would take a flick of the finger for him to knock me over. Right. Right. But Max Scherzer, you are not just aware that he's incredibly intense. You are aware that you're in a conversation with someone who knows so much more than you. And there will be tests along the way

too. We were in a scrum last week, a couple of weeks ago on the road somewhere. And in the middle of an answer to my question, he's saying, blah, blah, blah. And I was happy with my pitch count today. How many pitch did I throw? And I'm saying, thank God I just wrote that in a sentence in my story and it's 96 because if I was my normal self

and kind of dozing off and he caught me on that he's probably not giving me an answer the rest you'll test you. You ever had a question in the chamber you're like, I'm going to ask him this and then you're like, I don't know, he shot me a look or he's got that something going on. I'm like maybe I won't ask that one. You read the mood with him and with Chris Bassett. Chris Bassett

will either be the most expansive, thoughtful interview, usually proposing a rule change or too much like Max Schurzer to potential commissioner candidates. But there's lots of times where I'll go down with what I think is a big, thoughtful, journalistic, flowery question. And I hear the first answer of, you know, what went wrong tonight? My location.

And I say, okay, this isn't the night, baby. I'm going to back away, and I'm going to preserve this relationship for October. Something's going to have to change here. Yeah. Make an audible on the fly. Yeah. All right, we got Mark Masters coming up. There's a pretty significant report about our boy, Michael Parsons, here.

And what could or could not happen between now and the beginning of the season, which happens to be a week tonight with Dallas and. in Philly. We'll tell you about that. We'll get into it. Continue with the Jays and Brewers. Starting on Friday. Keegan's in here. Frankie's in here. I'm Brian Hayes. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN2. All right. Overdrive continues.

Powered by Fanduel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Mark Masters here in a moment. The U.S. Open continuing down in New York and Dennis Chappalo just won his most recent match. There we go. Five minutes ago. All right. Chappos off to the third round. Love it. So that's good. I saw Leila, Annie Fernandez. and his stormback and win last night.

She was doing an interview with Masters, too. Masters is everywhere, man. He is. He can't stop this guy. He is everywhere. All year he's on the Leafs beat, World Juniors beat. Then he goes back, World Juniors in the summer, U.S. Open. Getting testy in tennis, man.

There was a battle between two women last night that were like, one was accusing the other of not being professional and being stupid or something. And then there was back and forth. It's getting a little bit crazy, man. It's so easy, though, in tennis for someone to get out of sorts in a stadium like that. Like, you have you been to, like, you've obviously watched and been. Sure. Not to the U.S. Open.

No, but like to, like, a tennis match. Yeah, sure. The national bank or whatever. Like, you're sitting there. There's thousands of people, and you're like, it's dead quiet. And with all those people there, like, it just doesn't take much for something to throw someone off. And then you throw in the opponent that you're playing against and they're doing something. Like, I'm surprised that kind of stuff doesn't happen more often.

Just there's so many. Well, you're competitive, too, right? Like, if you lose, you're just so bent out of shape. Because you're on your own, you're on, it's a one-on-one sport. It's an individual sport. Like, in golf, at least you can make the cut and, okay, you threw away a couple of strokes. It's not, someone else didn't do that to you. Or your opponent can really factor into your whole psyche.

Like, if someone's slow playing it or whatever. Toughest mental sport. Lots of ego. I really think it is, the toughest mental sport. You're out there on your own. You could look at your coach or, you know, whoever's in your seats over there, but I don't know, man. You're fighting your own battle out there.

I think it's really difficult. Big time. Lots of ego, lots of money. Lots of people going from being the best player in their town, to their country, to their circuit, to who are you on tour? You're right about looking over at, like, the coach and, like, it's like, it's a box. Yeah, but it's too much now, I find. There's a lot. I don't recall that when I was younger watching tennis, you know, I'm sure it was there,

but now it's like constant. Every point they're looking over, they're talking, they're waving people off, they're yelling at them that I can't do this, I can't do that. I find it weird. My pet peeve is the arms. The moment someone does this thing. Yeah, someone like, it's like it's the coach's fault

that you just double faulted again. Yeah. Like, how about you just stop doing that? You got to blame something else. Double arms. This one right here. I caught one in traffic today and my hand went right out the window. Not a good day for me.

As it should. You've got a double arms on the four-o-one. Got a double arms on the way back into the city. That's disappointing. Didn't handle it well. Yeah. That is disappointing. But, yeah, Masters is out there at the Olympic orientation.

And you see John Cooper's tan. Like, he looks, he looks 35 years old. Like, he's out there with a text, like an unbelievable tan. They all have the quarter zips on. They all look good. They're not doing anything. They're playing golf and doing some interviews. And, you know, because they're not a lot on the ice or they're not going to be on the

ice. But he did say, and I don't know if he was literally tipping his hand. I can't imagine he would be, and I wouldn't want this to be the messaging, but he basically said we're bringing back the same thing from the Four Nations. Now, he was probably talking about his staff. He was likely talking about his staff and Doug Armstrong and the coaches that are going to be there with him. But he kind of indicated, like, it went so well and we're bringing the same team that if you're a guy who didn't make the Four Nations, what is Nick Suzuki thinking of that comment?

Or if you're Tom Wilson or whatever, because it seems, based on the way I heard it, Like, we kind of figured it out. It worked for us, and we're just going to carry that over to the Olympic Games. We're hard to argue. But generally, there's turnover, though. Like, usually there's three or four guys that come and go. That's the thing. And that's the most.

I think that's on the high end, three or four guys. One or two, but I guess Masters is down there. He's, he should know. Here he is. Mark Masters. Mark, do you get the impression that that Four Nations team, like, they're on the team until someone knocks them off? or is Hockey Canada going to reset here to some extent?

It sure feels like the Four Nations event had made an impression. Obviously, you know, you win like that. It's going to make an impression. But, you know, John Cooper pointed out today, it's a 25-man roster for the Olympics. So there's going to be two new players regardless. So there's going to be some new blood just by virtue of that. And then he also said, you know, there's usually an injury or two.

And you hope there's not, but you have to, you know, have that on your mind. So we'll see. We'll see. There's a lot of hockey still to be played, a lot of times still to pass, but it does feel like that four nations, maybe if you're on that team, you've got a bit of a leg up there. Well, and now I guess this time around, they'll have a little more time before they decide or submit the roster, right? Like with the Four Nations, that had to be in at the beginning of December.

That's not going to be the case now for the Olympics. Do you think that extra month makes a difference for anyone, or is it kind of just, you know, if you're kind of pencil, in by early December, you're on the team. I think it makes a difference for some players, for sure. I like for some guys from some battles, why not? Yeah, every extra day, something could change. You know, I can't imagine, like, one game or one hot streak might do it,

but you never know, right? A goaltender, you know, that position, which is what, you know, Doug Armstrong today was saying is probably the most wide open or the biggest competition. Even though they only invited the three here to this camp, They've still reached out to other guys, let them know they're in the mix. But yeah, if a guy gets hot at the right time, maybe that's enough to get them on. I mean, it's going to be very interesting to watch this season to see who can kind of put themselves in the debate and maybe seal the deal. Yeah, I am surprised they only invited three goalies.

That is weird to me with all the, like the amount of players that are there. There's so many guys there in only three goalies with Mark Masters. So it's our understanding, Mark. you caught up with Mitch Marner today. I did. Anything, what can you reveal to us that, you know, stuck out from your conversation with Mitch? Yeah, you know what? I just really kind of wanted to drill down a bit on why he, like, you know,

he spoke in Vegas at his news conference, his introduction there, like why he liked Vegas, why the Golden Knights were attractive to him. But I'm just wanted to drill down a little bit more on how he got to the point where he was ready to leave his hometown team because I'm not sure he's really come out and address that. I mean, we've guessed we could see, you know, he seemed to be weighing on him certain things, but I've never heard him really articulated.

So that was kind of my thought process coming into the interview. I asked him, you know, first of all I asked him, I said, you know, like, what was, you know, you built up all these friendships, you spent nine seasons of the least, what was the hardest goodbye? He said the phone call with Austin Matthews was very emotional. He would have preferred to do it, person, but Austin had gone back to Arizona. And then he just said, you know, Riley,

you know, Riley, Nylander, Tavares guys that we went through a lot together, they leaned on each other when things got tough. And those were those were the tough guys. And then I just said, oh, well, why? It didn't have to be tough. He could have stayed. He didn't want to give a detailed answer on that. He just said, you know, needed a change, needed a fresh start, basically, a new chapter. And then I said, well, is it because the market was tough? And he didn't want to go down there. But then as we got more into it, I think you can just tell where he was at because, you know, his agent, Darren Ferris, he did an interview on a podcast, 100% hockey. And he kind of came out and said, you know, after the season ended, police, they needed protection for Marner's house security because, you know, stuff was getting dumped in his yard and there was even a death threat. And, you know, Marner, I asked him about that.

And he got into it about how hard it was. And he's a new dad. And, you know, he doesn't like not feeling safe when he goes for a walk with his kid. and goes for a walk with his dog. So we got into that a little bit more, and he was kind of open about that and just how tough it was and how he had a mental coach for the last three years to try and help him tune out what was going on in the market

and deal with it properly. Anyway, so that's kind of what popped out, and he kind of got into a little bit of how hard it was, in a way for him to deal with everything, and why he got to the point where he's leaving his hometown team, which was a dream come true. got drafted by his hometown team you know this is what you live for you

grow up you dream of being a leaf so how did he get to the point where he just wanted to leave did he speak of the leaves you know glowingly or with disdain like how did he when he started speaking about the leaves because some guys have a difficult time

like actually kind of releasing themselves from it because he hasn't been in Vegas yet he hasn't played for you know in his mind said he might still be a leaf in a way Did he speak of it as, like, a distant past, or how did he relate to even, you know, talking about the leaves? Well, yeah, it was, I don't know if even, I don't know if I got a great read on that. A lot of it was just kind of rehashing stuff and what he's gone through.

It was funny at the end. I just, you know, I thanked him. I said, you know, it was great catching up. And he's like, oh, good to see you. And I was like, you know, I'm not sure you missed this. He's like, I might miss you a little bit, and then he was like, yeah, the schedule makers didn't really do it right. Like, when I come back to Toronto, it's a back-to-back. And, like, people think that that's a good thing for you.

Less, you know, less time in the spotlight, less time in the chaos of what Toronto's going to be like. And he was like, no, I would have preferred to have a day at home. So he's already at least contemplated that. So perhaps that's a sign that he's already thinking about that and he's turned the page a little bit there. and we were yeah I didn't get a city we really didn't get too much into the leaf side of it it was more about him and his personality but it did feel at least in that part on how we ended it that he was already kind of looking forward to next year mark when you were speaking with Mitch did you get the impression that some of this reaction surprised him or if he was braced for it because you see so often when an athlete

leaves a place they've been for a long time they're so far inside their day to day so far inside their sport that they may not be as tuned into the stuff as we are but did you do you do you get the sense that this caught him off guard at all because it seems to have affected him? Yeah, it's funny. I kind of, I talked to Jeannie Bouchard when she announced her retirement, and she talked about how she was so surprised at the positivity around her now with everyone saying, and, you know, it was kind of a weird thing to say because, like, why wouldn't people be, you know, she went to the Wimbledon final, she did a lot of great things for Canadian Tennessee.

She's like, I've been so beaten down by the negativity on social media that I just, I'm so numb to it that it was a surprise that anything was positive. And it kind of feels like Mitch got to that point in Toronto. And I asked him, like, you know, it wasn't all negative. Like, you got a lot of love. A lot of people loved you. Your fifth in franchise scoring, you had the charitable thing. There were a lot of people love Mitch Marner and appreciated what he did.

And he's like, yeah, but it was always the hate comments that you heard the most or that got through the most. So I think he's a little bit numb to the reaction. He would have obviously contemplated, you know, what the market. would think of that, but I think he'd already gotten to a point where he said he had to have security outside his house for two weeks after the playoffs ended. So, I don't know, I think he just got to a point where all that just kind of blurred together and was numb a little bit in terms of, in terms of like now kind of turning into a villain, I guess you want to call that in the market.

Have you heard of players, maybe all of us can contribute on this, like having a mental coach to handle the noise? I've never heard of that before. You heard of that, Mark? Well, I hear about it in a lot of different sports. Goleys, I know, have, I think, more so goalies. I know I remember talking to Dennis Hill to be about, you know, and he was using the same guy, yes, for Brad, uses,

and like just having a mental psychologist. I guess it's mostly called a sports psychologist, I guess, and teams themselves have that on their staff and guys to talk to. But, you know, a player, yeah, I've heard that, but I did to, you know, that was, that was in response. He revealed, he talked about that in response to the question was, how much did what you're going and dealing with off the ice impact how you played on the ice?

And that's when he said that I got this mental coach. And, you know, he's still a hundred point player, despite, you know, obviously dealing with this and got nominated for the Selke in recent years. And obviously we know what happened in the playoffs, but he's still emerging, you know, he's still on Team Canada. He's going to be on Canada's an Olympic team. He still was able to do some incredible things despite that. But yeah, I have heard that before.

I just found it interesting that he brought it up specifically when talking about the market. Because obviously guys deal with pressure, but it can sometimes be a different type of pressure. You know, okay, it's not uncommon for guys to have a mental coach or a sports psychologist. But I think the thing, it's always about on the ice, or most of the time it's about on the ice, right? Right. And then when things that are happening off the ice bleed into performance on the ice, even though we look at it and say, well, the guy is a 102 point player, but he's probably not focused on the regular season portion. He's probably looking at it like, why am I road blocked in a game five or a game six or a game seven? And how do I get over that? Because realistically, it's those three games of the last, whatever it is, eight or nine years that have probably caused this whole thing. Because if you looked at it from the regular season, you're like, Mitch Marner's a great player, should be a leaf for life, should never leave. But we're so focused on a large sample size of basically three games towards the end of a series. And I guess my question to you, Mark, is, you know, if the Leafs do find a way to get past Florida, is Mitch Marner still a Maple Leaf? Is, you know, is he getting the, you know, the death threats? Or does he have to hire security or police in front of his house? And are we talking about Mitch Marner being a leaf for life?

yeah in that Florida series game two was it game two he scores the game winning goal and he's at the podium and it just felt like a really big high moment so I don't know it just feels like he'd gotten to the point with where the market was at but like I mean if they win that series I probably like them to beat Carolina and then they're in the who knows right it's hard to go down that road but just certainly talking to him today it felt like he had reached a point with where things were at the market where he was, it felt like, and you could sense it all year. Like it was, you could feel it with him and, and, and how he kind of handled certain moments that,

that maybe he was just, he needed a fresh start. It was stale. And frankly, maybe that's just part of that as the team being stale and the core being still, because we've talked about it at nauseam forever. And he certainly, I'm sure, it felt like, he didn't say this, but like it felt like he was the kind of the face of it, right? Like, he would take the most heat when the season ended up, even though it wasn't just him that was not coming through in those games, five, six, and seven. But clearly he was a polarizing guy, and, you know, Austin goes to Arizona, perhaps in the immediate aftermath of the season, William can get out to Sweden, but he was really there. It never really stopped for him, is the sense I got. So, yeah,

it's quite something that this guy, this hometown guy, got to this point with the Leafs. Yeah, no kidding. I do think it was still on both sides. It's in the best. interest for this to play out this way. Like, someone had to go, it's Mitch, lease move on, he moves on. As for, you know, the Olympic orientation, you're out there, this McDavid's story. We talked about a lot yesterday.

Is there deja vu for you? Like, in terms of the way Marner handled things last year, do you see any connection there? Like, what is your read on McDavid's approach to his contract and how much of a story that is out there at the Olympic orientation camp? Oh, it's the story. It was the story yesterday, for sure.

For him, the difference is, like, it's not the market. The market's fine. It's, does he believe that this Oilers team is going to be a contender for whatever the next contract's going to be? Whereas with Mitch, there's a lot of stuff in, like, just the market. But, you know, does he look at Mitch and say, well, you know, Mitch Marner just went through a contract year in the biggest market with all the glare, and he had 100 points, and the team won the division. and they want to rent, like, I mean, it didn't have to be like the, it wasn't, you know, it came up, of course, at the deadline, but even if Connor McDavid is, it goes into this year without a contract, they're not going to, I can't imagine they're going to trade them at the deadline, or even look into that, I guess weirder things have happened, but there is a difference there, I feel like, it was funny, like I was sitting, I was waiting, on a day like today where there's a schedule and there's 10 minute blocks, and so I was waiting outside the room where I was going to interview of Mitch and just in case it started earlier at flip-flop and he was doing a joint interview with Zach Hyman and they came out and he saw I had the US open on my laptop. I just

had it on. I was keeping an eye on and he's like, oh, you're watching tennis. I'm like, yeah, it's kind of a passion project for me. He's like, not hockey. So he's like, you know, hockey is his passion, right? Like he can't, you know, why wouldn't it be my passion? Why wouldn't it? So he's focused. That's his passion. He wants to win. He's all in on hockey even like in this moment right now. So that's what he's focused on. It's up to the Oilers to prove it. If they do whatever they can, I guess, to show him that in this next contract, they can win.

But that's kind of where it's at with McDavid. But that's a fascinating thing, too, because obviously he didn't seem to be in a big hurry yesterday when we talked to NR. Ryan Rashog was asking him those questions. Yeah, he's relaxed, man. He's the best player in the world, and he's got his feet up, and it's all good. All right, Mark, we'll leave it there. How about Chapo winning today off to the third? third round of the U.S. Open.

Huge, huge. He's going to play center next. So I'm just excited. Good luck. Yeah, good luck, but at least you get the moment. You're going to play on Arthur Ash against world number one. You're supposed to lose. No pressure. You know, Dennis, when he plays at his best, he's too, and he redlines, he can, you know, he can play at a very high

level. Consistency's always been the problem, but good for him. He needed this. He hadn't won since he won the title in Las Cabos. And I'm just watching Lela Annie Fernandez playing doubles with Venus Williams, and they're about to upset the number six season. It's just cool. I know doubles doesn't get a lot of attention, but I just find, like, this could be the last time we see Venus Williams play tennis. Like, who knows? She's probably not going to play the rest of this year. She's

45, and, you know, she's playing with a Canadian, and she's only twice played with someone in doubles that isn't her sister, Cocoa Gough, and now Lela Fernandez, and they're about to knock out the number six seed. It got moved to the second biggest court at the U.S. Open, Armstrong, and there's a huge crowd that's loving it. So that's pretty cool for Canada. It's funny. We all were focused on Vicki and Boko, right? Yeah.

Going in, and she loses, but it's almost like she kind of sparked a bit of Canadian tennis and got everyone else revved up. And Layla's going to play the world number one on the woman's side tomorrow night, and Chappo's going to play the world number one on the men's side. So it's been a fun U.S. Open for Canada. Love it. All right. We'll see how it goes the rest of the way.

Thank you, Mark. Thanks, guys. Mark Masters. Yeah, that's going to be tough trying to knock off Sinner and Oh, yeah. Tabalanka, and that's going to be trouble, probably for the Canadians. But still, we'll see what happens. Okay.

It's a long tournament. Like Mark said, you get your moment, big stage, pretty cool. Yes, it's open. Absolutely. Yeah, so Marner speaking with Masters and, you know, I don't know if we're ever going to get, like Mitch is not a guy that generally opens up well to the media. No. You know, like he's not Mr.

interview in terms of. depth and all that. He's going to do his thing and go on and I don't know if we'll get ever like a complete detail of his time here and why he left when he decided he had to leave why he chose Vegas, you know, all that kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, it is what it is. He's out and Elisa will move on and Marner will move on and he's right. He comes into town on a back-to-back, which is ridiculous. And I'm not sure I'm buying that he really wanted to be here and deal with everything for the day, but we'll see. Maybe. Maybe

just to say, listen, we're getting closure on this thing. Let's have our day. And his family's here and his wife's family and all that. And maybe now he doesn't get that and it lingers into next year. It's like, oh, God, now I got to go back and do the whole media tour next year. That's a valid point. Like maybe it's better just to get it done with, be here, do everything,

and that's it. And eventually he'll just blend in his Vegas Golden Knight Mitch Marner. And what will be interesting is if he plays eight years there, he played nine in Toronto, eight there. He'll likely play beyond that in his career, I would think. But is he known at the end as a

Maple Leaf or is he known as a Golden Night? I don't know. It probably depends on how they play in Vegas. And if he stays there the whole time. Yeah. If they win a cup, he's a golden night. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Steve Phillips in 15 minutes. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on the

TSNF. All right. Steve Phillips in 10 minutes. J's off tonight. The Brewers in town. Milwaukee Brewers, Friday, Saturday. Sunday. What a weekend it's going to be. Looks like the weather's going to be pretty good. Dome should be open. Dome, they've kind of been opening and closing at different times

during the games. A lot of mid-gamer. Yeah. In there. I don't mind it. I'm a dome open guy. Give me the breeze. Life is good. Big time. But, yeah, it needs to be over him. There's a magic temperature point of some sort. And it's you know, lots of science involved in this. Yes. My press box seat is actually

like 10 feet from the dome control room. Really these days I'm just going to snap and take over. You get in there. Yeah. You get in there. Just walk like you belong in there. Absolutely. You look good. No one of questions. Wear a suit.

Be confident. You can get a lot of places in that stadium. Absolutely. So Phillips on that and Micah Parsons and the Cowboys, according to Adam Schepter and others, the Cowboys are willing to listen on trades now. Willing to listen? Always one of my favorites.

Can't believe we've gotten. All right. We'll listen to you. Yeah. Okay. So this is where we're at. A week away from opening night, Cowboys Eagles next Thursday in Philly.

So we'll touch on that into the next hour as well. Overdrive. Continues, TSN 1050 and on the TSNM. You've been listening to Overdrive, powered by Fanduil. FanDuel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Seasoned gamer, or just video game curious, this week in 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.

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