OverDrive - OverDrive - December 22, 2025 - Hour 2 - Davis Sanchez/Chris Johnston

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

Join Aaron Korolnek, Jason Strudwick and Dave Feschuk for Hour 2 on OverDrive! TSN NFL Analyst Davis Sanchez joins to discuss the headlines around Week 16 in the NFL and TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston on the Maple Leafs' issues through a losing skid, Marc Savard's dismissal and Craig Berube's next steps and Aaron gives his FanDuel Best Bets.

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and get amazing offers on phones, plans, and more. Visit a Bell store or bell.ca slash boxing week for details. Bell. Connection is everything. It's our two of Overdrive here on TSN4, TSN1050, and TSN's YouTube channel. I'm Aaron Kournick. That's Dave Festchuk. That is Jason Strudwick, and joining us with a very festive suit. There you go.

Is TSN NFL. It was three-time Grey Cup champion. A great friend of all of ours, Davis, Sanchez. You look unbelievable. Hey, thank you. And I always wear a smoking, a green smoking jacket. It is a smoking jacket, yes. It is.

We'll smoke some cigars. This show's done at six, Davis. Stick around and we can figure something out. I love it. Let's do it. Yeah. Well, you think there are some cigars being smoked in New England after that performance by Drake May yesterday?

I mean, that was some special stuff of that second half. Where do you look at New England relative to the rest of the AFC? Do you think they're right there at the top with maybe the bills, the other teams, the Broncos? Yeah. There's no weaknesses. That's the thing when you look at New England's, right? Where are the weaknesses? And then the next thing you look at is coaching.

And I know not everyone loves Josh McDaniel. He's kind of a hateable guy, but he's an excellent play caller. You take him with Mike Vrable, the coach of the year. Really? And I think the fact that you don't have any weaknesses on that team, two great coordinators and a quarterback played out of his mind, I think, I mean, they're a solid team. Now, do I think they're going to win the AFC?

I don't know if they, I don't know if they're good enough. If any other teams can play above their weight on to get our role, I don't think that necessarily doing the best team, but I do think they are a solid team that doesn't have a weakness. Yeah, the AFC is wide open, and we were talking about this earlier, Dave and Struddy. I mean, you can make a case for six or seven teams, right? Really, seven teams.

I don't think anyone's making a case for the Indianapolis Colts, considering the way that their season has fallen apart in lieu of the Daniel Jones injury. But I think anybody who's in the playoffs in the AFC can win. I'd be hard-pressed to find an argument against that. Yeah, I think they'll talk to you're right, except for Indy, yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's, well, that's the question I have for you, Davis. When you look at this league, I mean, we've been so accustomed to just, you know, penciling in the Kansas City Chiefs into the Super Bowl,

and you just kind of felt like it was probably inevitable. If it wasn't going to be Mahomes, it would be Burrough or might be Lamar in the AFC. And yet now we're in a situation where it feels like if it's not the bills, like it'll never be the bills. I mean, is that a fair statement? I think so. I mean, would you have, when you have Burrow and you have the homes and you have Lamar and these guys who are,

it's interesting because, and it was like that, it was the same way for Cinty. You know, when we saw the chief struggle, it was okay, the windows open for Lamar. The windows open for Joe Burrow. The windows open for Josh. But they've all struggled, which is crazy. So really, what we're saying is that this is,

If Denver doesn't win it now, when are they going to win it? If Indy doesn't win it now, when are they going to win it? Because Lamar and the Ravers are going to be better. Mahomes, I think, I don't believe that the Chiefs are, it's a down. The Chiefs are not going to be down. They're going to just reload. Mahomes will be healthy after week four or five, whatever it is, and they'll be back. So I think for all those teams that aren't, you know, don't have MVP quarterbacks,

they better take their shot now, and they're best, the best chances now. What do you think at the end of inspection, the Miami Dolphins, You know, they took two out, put their young quarterback in, McDaniel. Like, it just feels like there's a lot going on down there, Sandy. What do you, how do you kind of sort this out with the next couple weeks in the offseason? With Miami. Oh, yeah. Apparently, they're bringing back Mike McDaniel.

That was the report from me in Rappapur. And then they get absolutely slaughtered immediately thereafter. I mean, don't you think that Mike McDaniel gets a tough, a little bit of tough rap? I mean, I actually think he's a smart football guy. a smart play caller perhaps as a head coach that's more debatable here's the i mean i think lots would agree i always say this if we if you win uh your goofy awkward tactics are tolerable and because i mean chris greer did him terrible that rosters they overpay for crappy players um they they're their best players they get rid of i mean they've done a terrible

job at managing that that team over there i think if he's winning i think there he's way more tolerable. I just think the quirky, the quirky, nerdy play caller doesn't fly when you're losing, but I actually think he's a smart guy. So a coach who is neither quirky nor nerdy in Pittsburgh. It wasn't too long. What were they? Six and Six people were chanting, Fire Tomlin. What's wrong with this team? They come out on the right end and probably the best game of the weekend for the Steelers with, you know, Aaron Rogers looking a little bit like, a little bit like the Aaron of MVP form not quite I'm just saying a little

showing flashes of of vintage Aaron Rogers now is that a real team in the AFC like how do you see the Steelers here as we as we come down the stretch? Yeah I don't know I don't think they can get out of this yeah I just

it's Aaron to me I don't think Aaron's good enough to be honest and that's I mean I know gets a pushback I know Luke pushes back he likes Aaron we know a lot of our people in the building like Aaron Rogers I just I call him the snowman and when as soon as there's pressure around him

he just melts and falls down. I like that. That's a good one. But, I mean, again, if you have the right... 42 years old. That's right. It's understandable. If you have a strong... That's why I didn't like to fit in Pittsburgh. If you have a strong run game

and a big old line and you can off a play action, that he would have been good in Philly when Philly had a good run game, he'd be great because he just has a football ball 15 times. And when he does, he can rip it, especially when he steps into it. on play action. But when he has to,

and the run game has been better, it was pretty good yesterday. They looked really good. But they also don't have a strong defense. Their defense is not great. I think they were near the bottom of the league and then they had 31st in explosive plays given up. The run defense has not been great. So, no, I mean, do you think that Pittsburgh? I mean, I don't know if they do. I mean, all I know is they face down a pretty good

Lions team. And you know, they played great yesterday. The Lions had 15 yards rushing. Yeah. They had Gibbs and Montgomery. They had 15 yards rushing. I know they had a ton of injuries. I know they were down to their number three center, but at the same time, you slow those guys down to that degree. That's really impressive. And I think the point I, the point I'd be making at this point, if I'm, if I'm any of these teams, is there is no great team. I was just more to say that who isn't an AFC? Yeah, there is no great team. Therefore, the hot team can win it, right? You just find

the right mix at the right time, and you could run this table. And there's a very, very strong likelihood that Pittsburgh host Buffalo in week one of the wild car round. Buffalo is going to have three road games. Yeah, I mean, what's the spread on that, Davis? What? Buffalo minus two and a half. Pittsburgh hosting Buffalo? Yeah, in round one.

Does it get over a field goal? I don't know. I think it's probably a field goal. Maybe three and a half. But again, that's pretty close to I mean, I'm not going to call it a coin flip. I think Buffalo should be favored because I think Josh Allen's the best player in that game by a mile.

I think he's the best player in the AFC, probably in the NFL by a mile. But let's ask the question right now. I mean, who's, if that's, if Buffalo is at Pittsburgh and it's minus two and a half, or what's, who are you taking? If it's minus two and a half, who are you taking? Gruddy? Buffalo's minus two and a half. Who do you take?

Well, I want to believe in Buffalo. Listen, I want Josh Allen to get it done. You know, I've seen the 30 for 30 where the guys lose, and I remember when they lost those Super Bowls, it's pretty tough. But let's talk about a team that just won in the Eagles, the NFC. Can they get themselves or go? It seems like there's a little bit of drama there, too, when I kind of read between the lines from outside. A ton of drama with the Eagles constantly.

Constantly. You've got the Eagles green on. Maybe you're a believer. Yeah. No, I'm, here's the thing with the Eagles. I'm not a believer in Jalen Hurts. And it's Super Bowl MVP. So here's the thing.

In pro sports, we have this thing. And I totally understand it. I think it's deserved. When you win championships, when you're a championship guy and a superman. MVP at that, you automatically get a pass. You automatically, it's always the, obviously the rebuttal is always, yes, but he's a champion. You know that in that playoff run, Jalen Hertz was, when he won the MVP, that whole playoff time, the three games they played, he was 31st in the NFL, the last, the last course

would be whatever he was in the playoffs. He was the lowest rated quarterback with any pressure. So without a completely clean pocket, he was the lowest rated quarterback in the playoffs that year. So it, eight teams, I guess it would have been there. He was the lowest rated quarterback. So, yes, he won a championship, but he's on a good team. I don't think that in the NFC now with the Sam Donalds or the Matthew Staffords or the Jared Goffs, whoever the quarterbacks that are ripping it there, I don't think he can come and play from behind or be good enough with his arm to win if DB, and they're not

pounding people with the run like they used to. So I'm. And again, they beat up on the Raiders. they beat up on Washington where like Marriota and Johnson are playing and against a real team I think the Eagles are going to have a very different experience and we're in conversation with TSN NFL analyst Davis Sanchez you can see his work on Broken Table on TSN's YouTube channel as well the Chicago Bears that game on Saturday night

was one of the most ridiculous finishes you'll ever see the onside kick Caleb Williams I saw a stat that the Bears have been trailing six times in the final two minutes of games this year and have won six times in the final two minutes of games this year. The only team to do that since 1970. The Bears are the cardiac kids. They come back and in spite of the odds are able to pull games out of their,

you know what, constantly, including on Saturday night. They're 11 and 4. They've got a chance to be the one seed in the conference. Nobody saw this coming. Ben Johnson coming over. Caleb Williams has made a significant improvement year over year. Are you a believer in Chicago that they could make some noise in the NFC postseason Davis.

Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely. I'm a believer, to your point, I'm a believer in Ben Johnson. I'm a believer in what he can do. He's, again, a great play caller. I thought he, at times, he tries to get a bit cute at times,

but that's part of being a young genius or whatever they want to call. What's Rex Warren call him? Kid Wonderboy. Exactly. What a throw that was, DJ Moore. That was unbelievable. Here's the thing, too, guys. do you think that if you think that

turnovers, if you defensively, so if there's any question, if you think that defensively it's sustainable, your key to success on defense is creating turnovers and that's your method of success, then yes, they can. But that's, if you

look, they're bottom of the NFL in every defensive category, but they're number one in turnovers. Yeah, the luck right might run out, but we're like Ben Johnson's got to be on that coach of the year ballot, doesn't he? Like, where's, where's he rank for you. Davis and I had a spirited debate about this this morning talking about that.

There's a lot of good candidates right now. Dave, do you want the honest answer? Yeah. I'm just for me. Of course. Okay, well, I'll tell you the honest answer. He ranked second or third to me because I just put a nice, a nice play in somebody else to be coached of the year.

Like Rayble. Yeah. I'm not going to sewer myself here and say, but yeah, I got, I got Rabel that. But no, I do think. I appreciate the transparency. Yeah. You've got betting interests at hand here. Which is most important. I do think that, I mean, I think that roster-wise, I think Chicago had, I mean,

Caleb's the number one, a first overall pick. Yeah, he's got a first-over-all-pick quarterback. He had a pretty solid. But a lot of downside to him, a lot of doubters. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. But, I mean, the talent, the talent is there. I don't think anyone questioned talent that quickly. The defense is pretty good.

I think that Mike Brable was working with a less, less talent in his roster. Well, how about my coach of the year prediction right now? Liam Cohen of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He is leading this team on a crazy run right now. They beat the Broncos. That snaps their 11-game winning streak. Trevor Lawrence, last four games, 1,079 yards, 14 touchdown, zero turnovers.

They could win the number one seed in the AFC. And the craziest thing about the Jacksonville Jaguars, they used the number two overall pick on Travis Hunter, who did nothing. Brian Thomas was going in the first round of fantasy football leagues. He's done nothing. They trade for Jacoby Myers of the deadline. He's been incredible. They've already re-signed him.

They're getting unexpected production all over the place. But it's Trevor Lawrence and his emergence. And I think Liam Cohen deserves a lot of credit because we saw what Baker Mayfield looked like last year when Liam Cohen was his O.C. Baker Mayfield's been horrible the last couple of months in Tampa. So Liam Cohen, he's live for Coach of the Year in my estimation. And he's on an incredible job in Jacksonville, a team that I think Davis, is right there as far as being a contender.

I know they're 12 to 1 on Fandul to win the Super Bowl. Why not them in the AFC? Who's not a contender? Always said so far as Indie's not Indies. It's not indie. That's for sure. It's not indie. Philip Rivers, no grandfathers are contenders when it comes to the Super Bowl contention.

Go ahead, Struddy. What about the quarterback in San Diego with, or I guess he'll set the charges, I should say, and the broken hand and all that. How impressive what he's doing. And can they, are they for real, in your opinion? Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, he's, I mean, we're talking about a quarterback that, I think if he wasn't in, not San Diego, I'd like it, though,

because I something to do the same. Great, great city. Yeah, great city. If he wasn't, if he wasn't in L.A. in the West Coast there and kind of steps, step, step, child to the, to the Rams, and he gets a lot more love and attention. He's, he's playing, Justin Herbert's playing at a pretty high level. I mean, yesterday, I don't think a lot of people watched the Cowboys game

because there was other games on at the time. They were better, including myself. I just was kind of screwing that game. But, I mean, this kid is, I was down there at training camp last year. Yeah, beginning of last year or this year. Anyway, he is, he's legit six, six, like a full, maybe close to six, seven. And he's like 240, and he can run. And he's got a massive arm, and he's intelligent, and he's tough as is-ish.

And the kid is for real. Like, he's the real deal. And so I think they've got a great defense. The charges are, again, I think I would take the charges, over the Jags. And they did lose those two O'Lyman, right? Alton Slater, which is a travesty, because if those guys are healthy, you could probably make a case the Chargers

are the class of the AFC. But you can't run the ball, right? Vidal and Hampton, they just haven't been able to do it. Herbert's great, but I don't know, I'm a little skeptical on that one. Why don't we look ahead to Monday night tonight, which is, of course, today. San Fran at Indy, the Niners with Brock Purdy. And I know you've been a supporter of Brock Purdy.

Last four games, they're averaging over 31 a game. that offense is cooking all of a sudden and the Niners are positioning themselves to be perhaps the one seed in the NFC and yet they're only four and a half point road favorites at Indy against a grandfather

explain this one to me I think it's recency bias we saw last week what Indy did in Seattle Candid do the same they can pound the ball and play good defense if they can slow down Seattle they can slow down San Fran I think that's the reasoning that being

said I absolutely positively love the Colts tonight. Oh, really? I love the Colts tonight. Okay, take us through it. What's the rationale? But my kids are also, don't listen to me because my kids are also not getting presents this year because of other people, other teams that I've loved a lot

this year. Okay. All right. But you can explain to five and seven-year-old girls they'll understand. They'll understand that dad was pretty sure it was a lot. I don't know. You sell that Jackie you're wearing right now. You could come up with a lot of cash for gifts. So, Dave, is bringing it back closer to home with the Bills. Like, you look at this team, like, if it's not this season,

when will it be with all, we talked about the opportunity that, you know, that's ahead of them here with the Chiefs down and Burrow down and Lamar down. And yet, you know, they're going to have to, that's possible they're going to have to go on the road from the beginning of the playoffs if they want to run that gaunt to get to the Super Bowl. As much as Allen's a stud, James Cook is in his kitchen, as they like to say on local bills radio. What do they have to overcome besides the road games in your mind to be the team they've always thought they could be?

Their defense? I mean, here's the thing with the bills, and this is, this is a, you guys all will understand this. You guys have all been around sport and a long time, understand. Sometimes the statistics and the numbers don't tell the true story. We with our eyes can look at things and analyze what's real. And for me, and I hate to say this because we all, I'm a Bill's fan, I like the Bill's. If I cheer for any team, I cheer for the team I play for with the Chargers, and I cheer for the bills because it's, you know,

it's a team that we have some exposure to, and I just have fallen in love with the unlucky loser over time. But their defensive secondary in particular, their linebacker core, they will be the worst, the worst secondary in the playoffs, with who they rolled out. And that's not good enough. I mean, they're, and that being said, so I talk about the numbers, they're the number two.

They're passing, passing yards allowed. The bills are number two in the NFL. They're the second best past defense in the NFL if you look at stats. But I promise you, the bill's defense is not a top 10 secondary. They're not a top 15 or top 20 secondary. The stats lie. The stats are a lie. But it's because they're the 30th ranked pass rush running defense.

So teams are run the ball down their throat and they don't need necessarily to go the ball as much as they would. So the stats don't always tell the truth. That's the big concern for me. in a playoff game with great quarterbacks out there, which luckily the ASC, a lot of the great ones are going to make it. And Josh is going to be the best one, obviously. But if teams are throwing the ball, I don't know if the bills can get stops and keep their downs

when they need to when it matters. That's been the case for how many years now, though? And they haven't been able to end there. They haven't paid a bunch of money to upgrade that secondary. Do you have any money on Jake Paul on Friday night, Davis? I don't want to sound like a total degenerate betting on that. sadly I did I'm sitting there I was in Niagara Falls this weekend what and you are in the casino again I'm just reaffirming my degenerative behavior

we're at the crafts table and we look at each other it's like should we go a bet on Jake Paul and we're like oh yeah let's do it and he I think Jake Paul thought it was a UFC fight because it gets on trying to like grab it the legs of Anthony Joshua as opposed to box him but I think by the end you knew Jake Paul wasn't winning and we're all just supporting Anthony Joshua to knock him out and of course that's what that's what ultimately transpired body on that guy. Yeah.

That guy is a unit. God. He took his thing off. I'm like, oh, this guy's dead. He is going to, Jake Paul's dead. Can you tell me,

I'm just looking at it. Let me pull something up here real fast because I'm just looking at it. You said you had, you had Anthony Joshua for a knockout? No, no, I had Jake Paul. I had Jake Paul. Just on the money line or whatever it is in boxing.

You know, you might need to send me that ConX Ontario, a phone number. I should call it afterwards. Davis, great to see you. Thank you very much for coming in. Fantastic stuff. We'll be watching time.

I was just going to pull up because I said I didn't want to sound like a degenerate telling you I bet on a Netflix boxer versus the UFC fighter. I want to show you my ticket. Anthony Joshua, winning. I was on Joshua for TKO. That's wise move. You could have sent me that. I would have been a lot better off financially, but that's how it usually goes.

That's Davis Sanchez joining us here on Overdrive. Chris Johnson. We believe, we've been teasing CJ all afternoon, having a couple of technical issues. He's going to join us a little bit later this afternoon. Stradi, I'm curious, you're a Giants guy, big Giants Raiders game for the number one overall pick in week number 17. The loser gets the number one overall pick. What are you hoping for from Pafka? I think he's the coach now, right?

Is he the coach for the Giants? They fired Dave? I'm pretty sure. I mean, that's got to be one of the most painful watches in sports. The loser gets the number one. pick. Listen, I've been on Giants fans for like 35, 40 years. I love the Giants. And I've been around a long time. I've seen us win and I've seen us at our worst. I want us to lose. I want Jackson Dart to have the play calling that he did last week. I think they had, was it 15 net

yards in the air or something like that? Like, I think I could have tossed that much. It was incredible. And I want to see it again because I want that first pick. I want options. I want a new GM, obviously new coaches, and I don't like people getting fired, but they've had their time, and it's time to start. We've got some talent. Sanchez, am I wrong? Is there some talent on this Giants team, buddy? Like, make me feel better.

It's going into Christmas. I said your jacket was nice, so. Everyone's hurt. You want me to get throw it back to you, huh? Yeah. No, I didn't know you were a Giants fan that I feel for you, but I do, I do think Jackson Dart, I mean, you probably follow them closer to I do. I do think Jackson Dart has something.

Well, you got the number one pick. You're taking Mendoza, no? I don't know. How good is. man, those. I don't know. Jackson Dark can't stay on the field. He's always concussed.

Yeah. I would say this, the thing you have to build, if you look at, here's the good news. When you're building rosters in the NFL, especially defensively, what cost the most is your defensive line. And they have, they are loaded. That front of four might be better than anybody in the league.

So if you have that and you can, you know, do something to offense, you're in pretty good show. Well, from stupid franchises to stupid players, easy way to transition to D.K. Metcalf, the ruling has come down. on Metcalf, who do you want to call a punch of a fan? He threw one. He was he being. He swung in a van. He gets a two

game suspension. Now the Steelers are in the playoffs because of the Baltimore loss and the way they win, but that may have been one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. And I've watched sports for a long time. What are you doing? And it's up here on TSN4 Metcalfe with some blue-haired

individual. And there's claims about he said this, he said that, I don't know. But regardless, you cannot go over to the crowd and swing at a fan. It's so stupid. We have a time to talk about this. Let a rip. I'm confused as to so, here's what I was saying about that.

I was saying it was in the end zone before and I thought that he walked because it looked from the shot that it wasn't in a tunnel. It looked at the end zone. It ended up being behind the bench. But for me as players, if we, if I see a guy walking to the tunnel and some guy grabs my back

of my head or he throws a beer on me or says something to me, my natural snap reaction, could be to do something impulsive and punch him or swing or do something. And that, I understand. You're still going to get suspended and you know the NFL is not playing. But for someone to be heckling me from somewhere else, and for me to hear his words and it be enough for me to turn around

and divert from where I'm standing to walk across the other way to get at this person, I just don't understand that. Like, you have to be, you have to have some sort of, you know, imbalance there with your logic, not to take the time, walk over there and do it. It's not a natural reaction thing. It's not a quick snap reaction. So I just think it's stupid as heck.

It's almost weird. I mean, I haven't seen the full footage of how it developed that he got over to that spot with nobody on the team kind of getting between him and the fan. He casually walked. They show him walking over. So the guy said something and he slowly walked over there. And nobody got in between him.

Like somebody should have been on him saying, hey, security maybe. I don't know. Again, the Tao is no security coming over or Steelers security. pulling him away. And it lasted a long time, right? Yeah. I mean, it wasn't exactly a short interaction.

Yeah, two games. I also, I thought about this. There's the, what about this for, what do you guys think about this for a rule? Okay? What about this? So if a fan is blatantly disrespectful and breaking the rules, they now have to, they take them somewhere underneath, like a jail underneath the, they have those underneath a jail or a holding cell. They take that fan down there. He has to wait for the game is over. When the game's over, he has 60 seconds.

Yeah. With D.K. to sit in there. and explain to say the same thing, exact same things you said to D.K. Out there, you can say it to him in that locked room, and then D.K. has 60 seconds to do whatever he wants. No cameras. No cameras.

And the fan has to try to find his way out. No cameras. No cameras, no lawyers. D.K. McCabe might be the last person I would want to encounter in that situation. That should be the rule. Maybe Anthony Joshua. Freddie, how close? Stradi, were you ever close to getting out of heckler in your career?

No, they wanted to be on the ice. They didn't want me off the ice. The other teams like, get Strudrick out there, man. Yeah, we want to score. Don't suspend him. Well, we have some more breaking news. Apparently, Team HBO, Hayes, Bro, and O is picking the Niners minus five and a half tonight.

So they're in agreement with me, Davis. Who's winning right now? Not Luke. What's our team name, Nudelson? Nudelson. Nudelson? Yes. Nudelson, yes.

Yeah, not those guys. Not going well for that. No, but Team HBO, a dominant force. dominant force. This was smart minds. I get it. Great minds. Sharp guys.

You're on the other side. You're on Indy. You're on the grandpa. No, no, no. Absolutely not. Well, you're not in the grandpa. I'm on Sanford. Okay.

Did you say it was on the Grandin? I was saying, I was saying, I was saying, I was fading indie. All right. We're not backing. I think what they did to Seattle was a little. Yeah, we are agist here on overdrive this afternoon.

Great to see you, buddy. Thank you very much. That's David Sanchez. You can see him on tonight's broadcast with Tika Singh with the fan duel inserts. We back with Chris Johnson, we hope, as Overdrive continues on this Monday afternoon.

Second hour continues here on overdrive. Aaron Kourulnick, Dave Feschuk, Jason Strudwick, with you until 6 o'clock. Something to chew on is brought to you by Boston Piz's NFL game day menu. Stop by your local BP for $7 touchdown pines, dialed in shareables

and weekly prising up for grabs. Football game days are better at BP. And the question today, who does the losing skid fall on the most for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the players, the coach, or the general manager slash front office, I'm going to place my vote on the players, and 63% of the voters are in agreement with me. Let's find out what Chris Johnson, our hockey insider, thinks, as he joins us here on

overdrive. CJ, good afternoon. How are you? Good start. I know. wasn't going to work. I was like certain. What Duke is like, oh, no, it's going to work. I'm like, I've worked here for 14 years, Doogie.

It ain't working, buddy. It ain't working. Anyways. Have a set of a text. Yeah, text us. Yeah, text us. We'll read it out. Why don't we just text, CJ, the questions we were going to ask them, and we'll just read them. Again, Brube. Like, what's the, how hot

is the seat on Baroubae? Maybe Mark Savard. Any other trades cooking in the NHL these days. DM, send us a tweet. this something, CJ. We want to communicate here. That's tough. It shouldn't be that hard. Yeah, and, you know, Brian Hayes always gets a bad rap for getting

frustrated by technical issue. He is there. He is there. Okay. Let's try. Okay. So let's try CJ one more time. Chris, are you with us? I'm good. I'm here. All right. All right. All right. It works. It works. All right. Let's get down a business.

Toronto Maple Leafs. How hot is the seat on the coach Craig Brubay in your estimation. I mean, it's quite hot. I don't have you seen the news. It's just breaking now, but his assistant coach, Mark Savard, has been fired by the team. You know, obviously under Savard's watch is the power play, and that's been, I'd say,

one of the main issues that's, that's, you know, led to where the least record is right now. And, you know, obviously, management is in a position where they don't want to fire Craig Brewery. I think that's pretty clear at the stage that, you know, if they were looking for any reason, reason two. They've probably had them during the season, but they, you know, still believe in, you know, the success the team had last year and that there's a way to work their way through this. So, you know, when you lose five or six as they just have and go through the road trip and, you know, sit at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, you know, entering the holiday break, you know, it's not a comfortable time. I don't think for anyone with the organization. And, you know, there's a consequence to losing. And so I guess one of the first dominoes is falling in this moment. And, you know, I think that ideally the lease would like to, you know, turn the corner, and they believe that Craig Brubay can still do that as the head coach, but obviously he's, you know, facing some significant questions as well.

All right, so just to refresh here, and this is breaking news, Mark Savard out as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Now, one of his primary tasks was running the power play, a power play that has been one of not the worst in the NHL all season long. Chris, any indication as to who would replace Savard? Is this an internal hire, or would this be someone, external to the organization. I don't have that information at this time,

but I think an interesting aspect of this is, you know, Marks of Ard did work with Craig Brubay and St. Louis as well. So, you know, this isn't just a random assistant coach that ended up on Brubay staff. It's someone that he had a history with. And so, you know, move like this, even though it, you know, might not be from a front-facing perspective, you know, the average fan might not be tuned into wide significant,

but I think it's still, you know, a significant move for this, coaching staff, and we'll have to see how things shake out. But I just got a tip right as we were coming on that Savard was fired, but I didn't hear what the plans were to replace them either on a short or longer-term basis. C.J., you know, AK and I were talking off the top of the show about how, you know, you only have so many levers to pull when you're struggling like this, right? We all know the trades are very difficult. We all know they don't have a lot of trade capital, even if they wanted to make a trade today.

And so the coaching staff becomes the easier lever to pull. I mean, but what does it say to you that they've pulled it? It says to me that there's a different level of urgency than even there was earlier in the season. You know, it feels like this season's kind of hanging on a cliff's edge at the moment. I mean, it's such a strange year around the league, obviously with the standings more compressed, I think, than you typically see.

I mean, just by the points, I mean, you can look at it and say the Leafs aren't, they're certainly not out of the playoff race, but they haven't put themselves in a very favorable position. position here with almost half the schedule down. And so, you know, this is a season that they were intending to compete for the Stanley Cup. I don't think they're waving the white flag on those ambitions yet, even though, obviously, they haven't played anywhere near a standard, you know, internally that they're happy with, let alone, you know, what we're all opining on externally.

So, you know, I see this as a move that there's some symbolism to it. And there's basically a consequence for, you know, what's been 35 games of, you know, of the worst power plays in the league with, you know, still a collection of talent. You know, granted down Mitch Marner, again, he was a huge part of the success the league's had on the power play over the years. He was the facilitator largely, you know, at the point and, you know, was kind of the central cog there, but you still have a collection of forwards that I think should be able to have success.

So I think it's sort of what I view it as is almost like a warning shot for what might still yet come. And also it's a chance, I suppose, to try to refresh things. and, you know, find some solutions here to dig themselves out of this. Well, I truly believe that offensive players, if the power play is not going well, they feel a lot of pressure or disappointment. I think that can bleed into your five-on-five. So with all that being said, you know, we're not sure who,

or you're not sure who's going to take over. Would Craig Barrupe perhaps step into a more of an active role in the power play, maybe it has? Because usually that's what happens. When things aren't going well, a head coach dives into the penalty kill power play, defense or whatever it is. Yeah, I think it's possible. I mean, you know, Craig

isn't really known as as much of a systems coach I think is more of a motivator, but you know, given where they're at, I mean, I think some fresh ideas are needed. And, you know, we saw in these last couple games, you know, it gets kind of overlooked obviously because they end up

sort of one-sided losses in National Dallas. But, you know, they did make some tweets to the power play and move personnel around a fair bit. And, you know, even that I viewed as a sign of, okay, that they can't just assume that, you know, things are going to, that players are going to naturally work their way out of it. So, you know, if I'm guessing, I still think that there's, there's either someone else

on the staff that maybe takes us over, you know, they got Derek Hollande on the bench, was hired this year and has pretty extensive coaching experience. I mean, I think it might be, you know, could fall to someone like that, but, you know, I'm obviously just guessing with, with this news unfolding in the moment. Chris Johnson, TSN Hockey Insider, our guest here, an hour two of overdrive, the breaking news. The Toronto Maple Leafs have fired assistant coach Mark Savard. So I would look at this as kind of like the sacrificial lamb, right? There's a lot of angst in the fan base, the media, everyone's yelling and screaming. The easiest possible move to make is fire the guy who's running the worst powerplay in the NHL

with 40 whatever million dollars on your power play and they're 31st in the league. It makes all the sense in the world. But I do wonder, is this just passing it down the line? Okay, so the power play guy is gone. you bring in somebody else who knows maybe someone else from the coaching staff takes his spot but what if the power play continues to suck and that's Savard's primary role with the hockey team there and clearly it wasn't going well in the slightest

but what if this remains status quo they still can't find a way to get anything going on the PP Chris what's next well more changes I would I would suggest I mean you know as I mentioned I don't get any feeling the least or are you yet ready to sort of turn the page on this season as an organization. I think they still want to find solutions. And, you know, I do see this as kind of speeding up the urgency to finding

them. Obviously, they'll play the game tomorrow afternoon against Pittsburgh, and then there's a couple of day break, and they're back against Ottawa on the other side of it. And, you know, if things don't change, if they keep losing every game, I mean, there's going to, there'll be some other changes. I just don't see any other way around it, given what's at stake this season. I mean, don't need to remind the most loyal fans of this team, but for anyone listening, that maybe isn't dialed into the Leafs, I mean, they don't own their draft pick in the first round this year unless it winds up in the first five picks that already is in Boston

in the possession of the Bruins. So, you know, there's a lot of incentive, I think, internally for this organization to try to find a way out of this, to try to find a way back to the playoffs. You know, I recognize, you know, what you've seen on the ice doesn't suggest it's about to happen, but I think, you know, what you've seen over a lot of years is if, if some things turn

that might not be faulty belief and so I think that they'll be pull more levers as necessary but you know there's naturally been a lot of questions about Perrube specifically I see this as kind of a I guess a first step to you know what they hope leads to some better

results and if not then there's either going to be players out the door or managing people out the door or another coach at the door I mean I think it's that simple DJ I think it was a significant moment this week after the loss to Washington Craig Baroube essentially turn the question on to his players. You know,

in other words, don't ask me what's wrong. Ask them to paraphrase. And I thought, you know, that's a bit of a dangerous move when you start doing that as the coach, as much as we all probably believe

it's the player's fault. It's the coach's job to find solutions. And when you start, you know, acting as though you don't have them, I think that's a big kind of, a big kind of watershed moment that doesn't speak well to your future.

But how did you see that? And I'm asking, you know, when you talk to people around these, players, you know, what is the sense of the system and how much it's, you know, either hurting or maybe suppressing the stats that we're all looking at that are kind of up to snuff? I think that the toll of it is kind of starting to be felt a little bit. I mean, look, last year that the team had kind of, you know, it had success playing that way. It wasn't always pretty and there's reasons that that might have led to all that

winning, but when your team's winning, even if it might not be the system you think is perfectly soon into your game, I think it's one thing, you can kind of stomach that or get behind that, because, you know, I think at the end of the day, especially for a lot of the league's top guys, I mean, they've been in the league a long time now. I think that they're, they are wanting to win more than anything individually, but then it gets a little tougher when you find yourself in a year like this one. And, you know, especially lately, the offense has dried up. I know that necessarily isn't going to, in all season. kind of issue, but I think of late, it's been part of, you know, the losing they've had.

And I think it's fair to question whether they play in a style that basically gets the most out of guys you're paying, you know, a lot of money in William Elander and Austin Matthews, and they've been two of the colder players on the team. And obviously when things are going well, they're usually at the heart of the success. So, you know, I think it's taking its toll. I sense a lot of frustration around the group. And, you know, what I saw both in Washington and even I think back days, to that game after Edmonton on the Saturday night,

you know, Broubae put it squarely on his leaders. Like, I see it as him sort of trying to challenge those guys, you know, in a short sort of sample since then. It's not actually the most encouraging response you've seen. It's not as though, you know,

you've seen them really rise up and, you know, basically, you know, make the coach eat his words. But I think that that's a little bit of what's at play there in terms of, you know, what he's trying to do. Because, you know, Barube in his year and a half in Toronto.

I mean, until this last few weeks, I feel like he's been quite careful, generally speaking, to not do anything that might be construed as him, you know, challenging or publicly criticizing too many players. I mean, obviously him and Nylander have had a lot of back and forth, you know, over the season and a half. But in general, I think he's been pretty careful and you've seen sort of a change in what he's doing publicly.

And I think he's trying to basically play at these guys' character to see if they have, you know, another level that they can get to, whether, you know, he believes it's a mindset thing, as he said quite often. So, you know, you're right. It's a dangerous spot to be in because if it doesn't turn, then I'm not sure what your next, what the next card to play is, but, you know, that's kind of where we're at right now as I see it. You know, CJ, the news today, you mentioned the assistant coach out, runs the power play.

How much do the injuries on the back end into the Netminder kind of buy this group time? And when I say this group, I mean managers, coaches, and players. I think it's a factor, but, you know, Brad's living himself when he spoke in November, you know, said basically that he doesn't see it as an excuse. So, you know, definitely, look, at least you're down their top two right-shot defensemen and Chris Tanna and Brandon Carlo, and they have for some time now. I mean, over a month in each case, you know, the good news is it does seem as though, you know, they're not too far off.

I mean, kind of early New Year perhaps. We'll see what with Carlo, Tannab's a little bit more day-to-day and obviously a lot of discussion. about, you know, what's going to be with him. But, I mean, you know, there's a path where they at least get those two guys back in the relatively near future, I think. You know, that's definitely played a factor in where they're at. But, I mean, it's hard not to look around it pretty much every team in the league, including those having a ton of success right now and say, you know, there's a lot of key pieces

missing. I mean, there's a number of players right now, for example, that are going to be U.S. Olympians that are, I think, six or seven guys that are currently injured. I mean, top players all over the league, you know, we just saw Jack Hughes come back in New Jersey. the, you know, with the compressed schedule, there's been a lot of injuries this season. So, you know, I don't think it, I don't think it saves anybody. It's not a full excuse, but, I mean, it definitely is factored in. I mean, and you go all the way back to, you know, Joseph Wall missing the first month, you know,

and then Stolar is being out kind of since Walls come back. I mean, it's, there's been a bit of an imperfect storm, but I don't think it's enough to fully explain the decline we've seen in the team's play. I mean, you know, even when they've been winning games, it's not been a team that's filled you with too much confidence. And, you know, they've left a lot to be lacking that I think, you know, isn't just, you know, the guys that aren't in the lineup, that's including those that are. Chris, we'll let you go.

I'm sure you got a lot of work to take care of, trying to find out who the new power play coach is for the Toronto Maple Leafs. They'll be in a lot of speculation until you guys break that. So we'll let you go, and we thank you for doing this for us tonight. Right on. Thanks, guys. All right. That's Chris Johnston, TSN, Hockey Insider. Any guesses, Dave? You know the name that Allee fans are clamoring for, right?

Our guy. Our guy. He sends own. Bruce Boudreau. That's right. Bruce Boudreau. And I want, maybe it's, I guess it's possible. It's possible.

I don't know. I mean, look, I mean, you pointed to Derek Lalondeam, and he's obviously, he's been an NHL head coach. He's run power plays. I mean, every, you know, it's not exactly rocket science. There's only so many approaches you have. And every coach that's ever been in a, in a room strut, you would know the basic tenets of running a power play.

But strutty, like, when you look at how we analyze. who's running the power play and how that directly correlates or doesn't to the success of the power play. Do we make too much of it? Is it just between the players to figure it out or is coaching a significant factor in it? Well, I think, listen,

the biggest thing for a coach, for anything, any scheme, anything, is to make the players believe in what you're doing so that we believe this is going to work because if they don't, now you've got a real problem because some of them might do it, some might not, and now you've got a hybrid of things going on the ice. And it doesn't

It doesn't matter if it's your forecheck, back check, penalty kill, power play doesn't work. So getting us to believe in what you're doing is job number one. Then after that there are different approaches, and then I think the biggest challenge is once you have success to tweak it, because teams will start reacting to what you're doing. So they see, you know, they'll show you 10 games worth of whoever, Austin Matthews shooting from a certain spot. Now we're taking that away. Okay, can you adjust on the fly? And I think that the power plays are successful, the ones that continue to,

kind of change over time and evolve, not completely overhaul everything, but just little tweaks to keep the defending teams off their mark. And if you don't have that, it gets pretty stale. Yeah, and this is not a surprising move. This was the most obvious move by far. We were talking about it at the time of the show. I brought it up, and more and more I thought about it. It seemed like almost an inevitability for a couple of reasons.

Number one, their power play has been horrible. He's the coach in charge of the power play. it's the most logical decision to make a number two you needed to do something the heat was rising in the fan base fans are out for blood right now they're irate as to what's going on with this hockey club so they went out and they made a move is it that substantial earth shaking of a move it's not is it going to pay dividends tomorrow afternoon against pittsburg

they're not practicing the power play before so no it's going to be the same idea i don't know if there'll be a new guy behind the bench maybe there will maybe there won't be tomorrow afternoon but they need to imagine there will be it's most like this will just take it over internally yeah 100% maybe maybe you know Patrick O'Sullivan's on the staff maybe he's been rumored

potentially to be involved here too I don't know but it's a fascinating decision because they again they needed to do something there is a bloodthirst in this market right now for the way this team has been playing and the power play's just been so bad just he's the fall guy but strady like the point I keep making

is like there's only so many ways to run it right I mean and when I look at the team you watch on a nightly basis in Edmonton, they've had this historically great power play for how many years, I'm not giving the coaches all that much credit for Connor McDavid and Leon Dreisettel doing their Globetrotter routine. I mean, am I wrong about that? That's, yeah, you've got to have the talent to make it happen, right? You can't have five slugs out there trying to, trying to make it happen. He's the greatest coach. But I do think, like, so Glenn Gullickson was here for a long time. He left this year to become

the head coach of Dallas Stars. they brought a new guy in, and the power play is on fire again. So it is talent, but I do think you have to at times, especially when things are going well, get these guys to understand. We can tweak it a bit. And you've seen some changes, some new wrinkles to those power play to keep giving the guy's new insight. But at the end of the day, they're the ones that A, have to execute, and B, believe in what you're doing. And can we actually pull that off?

All right. Well, big news in Leafland. Again, Mark Savard out as the assistant coach of the Toronto Maple. leaves. We back on the other side to wrap things up and I'll give you my Fandual Best Betts next. Something to chew. I'm brought to you by Boston Pizza's NFL game day menu. Stop by your local BP

for $7 touchdown pints, dialed in shareables, and weekly prising up for grabs. Football game days are better at BP. All right, today's best bets are powered by Fandu. Make your picks and assembly. Same game parlay in seconds on the Fandual Sportsbook app. That's exactly what I did

during the commercial break. I took the Niners, minus four and a half. Brock Purdy, who's been on fire over one and a half passing touchdowns and my guy, Juan Jennings. Key part of my fantasy football team. That was sadly eliminated this week. Over 54 and a half receiving yards. That SGP plus 321 on Fandul.

Today is best best powered by Fandul. The Overdrive, same game parlay, available on the Fandul Sportsbook app. Please play responsibly 19 plus physically located in Ontario. What a show, boys. I love breaking news. I usually work in the morning.

Nothing ever happens during my show. But we got some breaking news today. in the dismissal of Mark Savard. And Struddy, I'll tell you, before you got on here, AK essentially called that Mark Savard needed to be fired, and what do you know, Mark Savard was fired. Yeah. Yoma thank, or sorry, a sorry card, right?

Yeah. Goodwell card. Our condolences. That's tough. He'll be okay. Gentlemen, it's been a blast. Overdrive, off tomorrow for the Leafs and Penguins game, but they'll be back on Wednesday afternoon.

Until then. IHart Radio, everything holiday, all in one place. From 24-7 Christmas music To the stories behind the Christmas hits with Drew Savage Listen to the podcast on the free IHeart Radio app Your Destination for All Things Christmas These are the songs that get you in the spirit Keep listening for all your Christmas favorites