OverDrive - OverDrive - December 27, 2024 - Hour 2

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

Join Michael DiStefano, Jason Strudwick and Dave Feschuk for Hour 2 on OverDrive! The guys get into another edition of Strud or Dud and discussed Steve Yzerman's hot seat in Detroit, the NBA's Christmas slate and more. Josh Lewenberg joined the guys to chat about Darko Rajakovic’s ejection, the NBA’s search for the next generation of stars and the Raptors' lacklustre defence.

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The smarter way to book travel. Mail-in Friday brought to you by Boston Pizza's new game day menu. Stop by our local BP for $7 touchdown pints, shareables for the whole crew, and weekly prizing up for grabs. Football game days are better at your local BP. Hour two of Overdrive underway. Mike DiStefano with Jace Strudwick and Dave Fasciuk of the Toronto Star.

Got a Leaf game tonight. Back in action after the holiday break. See if they can break their two-game losing streak. Losing a couple of games. They'll have no Austin Matthews tonight. Chris Tan have a game-time decision after missing the game against Winnipeg uh but an interesting thing happening on the other side of the ice derrick lawn out todd mcclellan in strutty do you believe in the new coach bump i do because as a player you you knew where you stood with the previous coach with the new coach you're trying to

angle for you know some some kind of love from so you'll play more or play where you stood with the previous coach. With the new coach, you're trying to angle for some kind of love from him so he'll play more or play where you are already or not, or even worst case, he'll move you down. So I think that there's a lot of attention and a lot of energy you bring to the rink because you want to have a good first impression with the new coach so it gets you off to a good start. I have a question.

Do you think that role players or star players are maybe the guys who are more extra motivated in a game like this, first game under the new coach? Well, you're going to be surprised to hear me admit this. I was more of a role player when I played. So I think for me it was a big deal to really get off to a good start because you don't get a ton of chances. You know, usually as a role player, you know, it's kind of they make the decision on you, and then that's kind of it.

It's hard to change it. Whereas a star player, I think you have a bit more, you know, rope to use as far as the way that they view you, because they need you, right? You know, like a Patrick Lainey, right? He's going to get multiple chances, because he's such a dynamic goal scorer. So I think that the role like that

your bottom half of the lineup would be very motivated to live with good first impression whereas i think the top end players are probably looking and they're evaluating the coach as much as he's evaluating them but this has to be eyes have been sending a message to that dressing room too right where hey guys you know we'll change the coach we'll give you this bullet but if this doesn't work we're going to be changing a lot of you guys, we'll change the coach, we'll give you this bullet, but if this doesn't work, we're going to be changing a lot of you guys. We'll be moving this roster around really quickly because it's clearly not working. And so I don't know how much guys like playing in Detroit,

but if they want to stay, they better play for Todd McClellan because Steve Eisenman is under a ton of pressure here to get this thing back on the rails. It's never been on the rails since he got there. And there's no time to waste here. I mean, look, Ottawa's making moves. I mean, Ottawa's moving up in the standings. Detroit was considered a team that should be in that same kind of league,

of an up-and-coming team that should be vying for a playoff spot, and they're going the opposite direction. But what's crazy is that we all talk about how much the Sabres have struggled. Detroit is barely above them. So Detroit is kind of getting a free pass on maybe the more national markets because of the fact that the Sabres have been so weak. But when you look up and you're behind Montreal and just above the Sabres, as a team, you expect more from yourself. I'm not sure.

Are they really a playoff team? Who are they knocking out? I don't think so. I don't think so. You've got to fight for it. So if they had six more points, would you be maybe seven, eight more points? How many more points are we talking about here? You would have to be there.

Because at this point, how many teams are going to have to climb there because like at this point it's it's how many teams are going to have to climb if they're going to turn the season around i mean they're ninth right now in the wild card race like they gotta jump pittsburgh columbus philly new york the islanders i mean montreal is above them like they're literally second last in eastern conference at this point which is i mean you look at the teams who, two of the three squads who we've been talking about for years, one of these teams have to make the jump. Ottawa, Detroit, Buffalo. Well, Ottawa looks to be making that jump.

They're in a playoff spot as we sit here today. Detroit, Buffalo, down at the bottom of the standings in the Eastern Conference. It's kind of crazy how it went from, maybe this is the year we improve, to, boy, we are really taking a step back here. Well, and then you look at, like, if you look at that chart right now, the biggest surprise to me, you know, Detroit's a bit of a surprise, but Washington being where they are at 48 points. I think Columbus has actually had a pretty decent season.

All things considered. They're not making any runs. They're not going to make a run, but you look at teams that they've been taking points off of teams. So you look at Buffalo, Detroit, Montreal, the Islanders. The reason why they're not up there and higher in the standings, Columbus has been taking points off

these guys. That's a good point, but Strutty, do you think when you look at Washington, considering what we thought of them before the season began, and now we're 34 games in, do you think that's sustainable? Are they a bit of smoke and mirrors? Or do you actually think they've got a real thing going there that they can sustain through 82?

Well, first is Strom. I didn't think Strom could get to this level. Or, you know, he hadn't quite shown it. And he's really playing well. The other guy is Pierre-Luc Dubois. When they traded for him, I remember I almost drove off the road. I was like, what? So long, they must have kept 30%, 40% of the contract.

Well, they didn't keep a dime. I was like, what is going on? I've always liked Pierre-Luc Dubois. I remember when I saw him play. Remember the series? He was with Columbus. He was against Tampa. And I was like, this is his coming out party. This guy's going to be a monster. And then since that time, it's kind of been disappointing results.

He hasn't got back to that level, consistently at least, that we saw in that. In that series, I remember him being the best player on the ice against the Tampa Bay Lightning, a really, really good team, a lot of good players. He was the best player on the ice. How many times have we said that just watching him in a regular season? Last year in L.A., he was almost unplayable. And then you take on that whole contract, again, Carberry, got to give him credit, man. That guy, what is he, second or third line center there? He's got, I want to say over 20 points, I think. He's playing really well and contributing

because when he does bias, he's a big body, fast. He can do a lot of damage. Yeah, he's having a good bounce-back season for Washington. And they'll be here tomorrow night taking on the Maple Leafs. And the other Toronto team that shares the same location, Scotiabank Arena, they played last night. Not at Scotiabank. They're on the road. And they've been awful on the road.

They've been 1-12, 1-13 on the road. And they got absolutely waxed last night. Gave up 155 points in regulation. To join us to talk about it on the Maple Toyota Hotline, it's our TSN Raptors analyst, Josh Lewenberg. What's going on, Josh? Not much. How's it going, guys? Well, you know, things are great.

I mean, we're coming off a good holiday break, but then last night, Boxing Day, you flip over watching, you know, things are great. I mean, we're coming off a good holiday break, but then last night, Boxing Day, you flip over watching, you know, a few different games, watching the World Juniors, and you flip over, oh, how's the Raptors game going? Oh! Maybe flip away. We'll go back to the World Juniors. There's no point in watching this one.

They gave up 155 points in regulation last night to the Grizzlies. I mean, it really doesn't get much uglier than that. Certainly not in franchise history. Yeah, the most that the Raptors have ever given up. Funny how in the franchise's 30th anniversary season where we're celebrating the past, there's been a few historic moments, but

not good history. A lot of them have been bad history, and yeah, this was another scenario where you don't want to be on this side of history uh it's been a tough stretch here you mentioned the nine straight losses look i think even that and obviously the record itself are a bit misleading for a few reasons i mean one the injuries have been brutal like there aren't too many teams in recent memory that i can remember that have been this decimated both in terms of like the volume of games that have been lost due to injury,

but also who has been out with those injuries. A stat that I'm sure you guys have heard a number of times recently, and we'll continue to hear it because it's pretty astounding, is the Raptors' three best and most expensive players haven't played together since March 1st. So I do think like you can explain some of the way that the season has gone to this point through injury. And then I also just think like the way that we've seen this team perform most nights, not every night, but most nights they're better than the record would indicate. They've been in a lot of close games. They've lost a lot record would indicate. They've been in a lot of close games.

They've lost a lot of close games. They've been competitive most nights, the last couple games notwithstanding. So yeah, it's been a bit strange these last couple games. I think there's probably an explanation there too, where you talk about the game right before Christmas and the game right after the Christmas break, where maybe some of these younger guys that aren't playing for as much as the teams that they're facing are losing focus a little bit. And maybe that explains the very uncharacteristic rant or the ejection that we saw from Darko Ryakovic yesterday. Maybe just trying to fire up his group.

Because, yeah, the last couple games, it's not the Raptors team that we've been used to seeing just in terms of compete level. Josh, you know, and it feels like a lot of that lack of compete has been on the defensive side of the ball. So is it the personnel? Is it just the intensity? Is it the program they're playing, that they're just getting lit up for points?

You know, they're, but not always defending. Yeah, I think the Raptors have allowed 40-plus points in seven quarters this year, and four of those quarters have come over the last couple games. Again, I think a lot of it is just the time of the year. And just like the reality of the situation here is that the Raptors don't have a ton of talent compared to a lot of these teams that they're facing. I mean, they've only been the favorite team once this year. That was last week against Brooklyn, and they lost that game.

So they're at a talent disparity on most nights, and that's at the best of times. Like even if this team was healthy, which as we talked about, they haven't haven't been even if they were healthy they'd have a tough time with some of these teams like memphis or new york two specific games that we're talking about but then when you subtract key players like the margin for error here is really small which means that for the raptors even have a chance for them to even be in these games and again they have been in a lot of these games they've got to play really really hard they've got to be really focused there's got to be a strong attention to detail which for whatever reason probably a variety of reasons over the last couple games we haven't seen so i think that probably explains it on the defensive end of

the floor and then personnel is a big part of it as well. I mean, they're playing most of these games recently without who I would actually call their most irreplaceable player. It's not their best player, maybe not their second or third best player. But Jakob Pertl is just somebody that they cannot afford to play without. Some of that is based on like what he brings to the table doing all the little things in the dirty work and then the other part of it is just like the way this roster is constructed they don't have much behind him so especially last night against the guy like Zach Eadie like you throw Kelly Olenek at him and that's not the answer and then okay well Scotty

Barnes is giving up nine inches and nearly 80 pounds to him jonathan mobo an undersized rookie uh they just can't afford to be without yakup pearl and the record without pearl over the last two years reflects that so yeah i mean i i think there are a number of ways that this could have gone sideways this year and it could continue to go sideways but subtracting pearl from the lineup whether that's in this case due to injury or if you were to get traded ahead of the deadline or they were to sit him down towards the end of the year if that's the path that they want to go and if they really want to bottom out here and they're on the way to doing that right now I think the best path to that that is subtracting Pirtle from the line,

just based on how important he is. So we know, Josh, that the Raptors are in a tough place, and there have been a lot of people making an argument that the NBA is in a difficult place right now. There was a lot of talk about the NFL eating their lunch on Christmas Day with the big two-game extravaganza and the Beyonce halftime show. LeBron pulled one out of the fire there.

The Steph-LeBron matchup was a barn burner. Highest rated regular season game in some five years in the NBA. LeBron made the point that, hey, I love the NFL, but Christmas Day is our day. What do you make of the idea that, hey, good news was LeBron and Steph did it again.

Bad news is those guys are old. LeBron turns 40 on Monday. Steph is 36. And maybe the next wave of NBA guys won't be able to carry that torch. How do you see the transition beyond LeBron, Steph, NBA? Yeah, no, that's a good point, Dave. And, like, Steph, NBA. Yeah, no, that's a good point, Dave. And like, it's true. We've been spoiled for a long time

with these stars that were marketed and have continued to be marketed really, really well to the point where like, yeah, LeBron versus Steph, especially on Christmas Day, must see TV. You've got to tune in. I'm just not sure. Like, I don't get that sense

that people feel that way, fans feel that way about this new era of talent in the NBA. And it's a shame because I think the level of talent in the league is like nothing else we've really ever seen just in terms of the sheer athleticism and how dynamic some of these guys are. I mean, like Nikola Jokic might be one of the best players we've ever seen, one of the most talented players we've ever seen. And does he draw the attention that a LeBron or a Steph do? Probably not.

And then you talk about some of the younger guys, obviously, Ant comes to mind, as well as a few of these other young players. And like, I don't of our jobs but i think the way that the league and maybe just professional sports in general have cut off access to players into teams access media access has really changed over the years it's made telling the players stories a lot harder and maybe fans just feel like they don't have as good of an idea of who these guys actually are off the court as they used to that's spitballing a little bit i don't have as good of an idea of who these guys actually are off the court as they used to that's spitballing a little bit i don't know how much that would be responsible for it but then also one more thing that i'll suggest is like there's been a lot of talk about style of

play and how that has changed over the years and obviously the over reliance on three-point shooting that part of that is a result of thank of one of the guys we just talked about, Steph Curry, but not everybody is Steph Curry. And when you have all of these teams launching three after three after three after three, I just think the game maybe isn't as competitive, as fun, as aesthetically pleasing as maybe it once was. Josh Lewenberg, our TSN Raptors reporter, you mentioned earlier the amount of games

that a lot of these players have missed. I mean, Bruce Brown quickly has been out pretty much most of the season. Is there any updates on when these guys might be ready to play? We'll start with quickly. My sense is that he's making

progress, but the thing is like this is such a bizarre injury for a basketball player like it's a pitcher's injury it's the the the injury that most pitchers sustain and end up having tommy john on and then they lose their their season for a basketball player like i'm not really sure we have a blueprint on normally like a player sprains his ankle or something. You can go back and look, okay, well, these are all the players that have sprained their ankle recently. How long have they been out for? I'm not sure we have that here. So they're being cautious with them probably for a few reasons. Um, but I don't get the sense that

his return is imminent. He hasn't been cleared for contact yet. He's not practicing with the team. Let's talk about Bruce Brown, because this is a bizarre situation. It may be one of the longest reconditioning stints that we've ever seen. Clearly, they're being especially cautious with his return from offseason knee injury. It's been suggested to me that most of that caution is coming from the player rather than the team, which you can sort of understand given that he's on an expiring contract and his preference is probably to play for a contending team after the trade deadline here, whether he gets traded or bought out.

And I'm sure the Raptors' strong preference is to get smash sets for him, whether that's future picks or whatever. So I don't think they're in any hurry to throw him out there and maybe risk further injury or risk other teams seeing that, okay, well, maybe he's not completely healthy. I think he's dealing with it the right way and saying all the right things. Like this isn't a Goran Dragic situation where he doesn't want to be around or they feel like they're better off sending him home.

By all accounts, he's been a good presence around the room. But yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if we see him for a few games before the trade deadline just to show everybody that, hey, he's healthy and he can still play a little bit. But I also wouldn't be shocked if he's played his last game as a Raptor and maybe he's moved at the deadline. Maybe not. Maybe he's bought out. But yeah, this is a strange one. We haven't gotten an update on him in a long time. My sense, again, was that the team was kind of expecting him to be back on the floor earlier this month. So it's probably a bit of a surprise to them, too, that he's not back out there ready to go.

Josh, what do you think of Zach Eadie and his development as an NBA player? Yeah, that was a lot of fun yesterday watching him play and just kind of seeing the evolution in his game. This is clearly somebody that takes a lot of pride in proving people wrong. He's done it, certainly at the college level, where he was one of the most dominant college players, certainly in recent memory, but maybe that we've ever seen. And then, yeah, there were a lot of questions about how much his game would translate to the NBA. And I think most people understand, like, he's not going to be Shaq. He's not going to be the same dominant type of player. The offense is playing through him that we saw at the college level. It's just a different game, and it's a different era.

Put him in the NBA 20, 30 years ago, it would be a different story, but this is a guy who's really talented works really hard again has put in all of the effort to to make his game versatile to the point where he can transition to the nba his first shot last night was a three he only attempted two of them in four college seasons he's already i think up to like 16 attempts or something like that he's shooting like 50 percent from three this year so he's shown that he can do that I was impressed last night at his ability to get out close out on shooters I still think like look a seven foot four guy in the NBA today as I talked about earlier with the style of play all the threes that are being hoisted up. I just think the nature of the game,

he's probably going to end up being a situational player, especially once we get to the playoffs and teams are going smaller, maybe running them off the court a little bit. But there's a role for a guy like that. And I think more often than not, more often than those scenarios where he's going to be at a disadvantage are going to be situations where he knows how to utilize his size

and strength to put the Grizzlies in an advantageous situation. We saw that an awful lot yesterday against the Raptors without Jakob Pertl. Josh, appreciate the time as always, pal. We'll chat again soon. Alright, guys. Take care. Happy holidays. You as well. Josh Sundberg,

our TSN Raptors analyst, joining us on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Build your next dream Toyota at Maple Toyota. Check out the Maple Toyota's pre-owned inventory, inventory arriving daily. It's time to Toyota. Visit mapletoyota.com. Zach, you looked pretty good last night.

You looked pretty solid. I mean, it's an incredible story. Like, we used to see, you know, my son's a couple years younger than Zach, he looked pretty good last night. He looked pretty solid. I mean, it's an incredible story. We used to see my son's a couple years younger than Zach, and he played baseball at the North York Blues Complex, and Zach, he was out there playing baseball growing up. And I used to say, like, why doesn't that kid play basketball? We saw him. He was playing double-A hockey with the Toronto Penguins,

and I was thinking, kid plays hockey and baseball. He probably should be playing basketball because he was 6' him, he was playing double A hockey with the Toronto Penguins, and I was thinking kid plays hockey and baseball, he probably should be playing basketball, because he was 6'8 when he was, you know, 15. He started playing basketball seriously at age 15, and it's like seven years later, he's on an NBA court doing an awfully good job of looking like a dominant

center at times. It's pretty impressive. Yeah, 21.16 rebounds in just 27 minutes uh no yakupurnal last night so it's you know yeah that makes things a lot easier an nba game but it's still an nba game but like last night i saw 24 offensive boards for memphis it's not like why do you lose by 30 points you're giving up that many second opportunities to the opposition that's gonna happen i'll tell you what the strutty like we we talk about we don't have goaltenders to play for Canada on the national team stage.

The big problem in Canada in basketball is we don't have big men to play for Canada in the Olympics and the World Championships, and Zach Eadie might be that guy. Well, he doesn't get much bigger. Like, how much bigger do you want? That guy's a fungus. I remember reading a story about him. I can't remember if it was last year or two years ago.

It talked about the same thing you said, Fast Chuck. He's been playing for less than 10 years, but he's been very methodical and always thinking, okay, how do I keep developing? How do I keep improving? And a very professional-like approach to his career or his development, I guess. And I love hearing those stories, just being self-aware. What am I good at? How can I help my team?

But also adding those little pieces on the side that, you know, we talk about the three-pointers. That's pretty crazy. So yeah, I love that story. Good for Canada. I love to see Canadians doing well. Yeah, and I remember the story coming out of the draft was like, can he

play the modern-day big role? Can he do that? Are we sure that he's capable of doing that and uh so far you know so good he's averaging 11 points nearly eight rebounds a game um so so far he's he's played pretty well pretty well for this team this memphis club so not every and not everybody can be wemby right we saw you know wemby seven foot five i mean he's crazy he's going to he's only 20 years old he's going to be the best player the league, and he might be it by the end of the year. You watched that game the other night against the Knicks on Christmas Day.

That kid was unbelievable. Like, he took over the game in that second quarter. I think he finished with, like, 41 points, something like that. But he went on a run where I'm pretty sure he scored, like, nine or 11 points in a row for the Spurs. Like, this Wemby kid is just unbelievable. You know what's crazy is when he goes for a layup, you think his arms are going to stop extending,

but they continue extending. It does it. We all have tall friends that can reach out and do things, but just the reach. He could grab across a massive table set for a king, like six people over. I'll get the salt and just pluck it over. Not even flinch got it

i mean i i don't know if you had the experience because i mean i've talked to people that have played against them and it's and this and there's this recurring thing of when you play against them it feels at times like it's not fair like this is like you know what i mean like i don't know did you ever have a guy that you played against where you're like this guy's just too good for us we cannot compete against this guy well i i remember remember working out. Charles lived in Edmonton in summers. His angel was here and we trained together

and it was crazy. Like he, I'd be doing bench press and I'm not like, crazy, I'd have 250 pounds and say I was doing bench press and I'd be struggling

after whatever number of reps and he'd be spotting me. He'd just reach down with one hand and just pick it up. Where do you want me to put this? Well, why don't you put it over there with my ego

for now and then we'll figure out what we're going to do later. He was so big and strong and just covered space because his arms are long, and then he had a longer stick than everybody. So imagine just in your men's league, if you had someone that was, let's say,

eight inches taller than you and his stick was another six inches, he could reach almost a foot and a half further than the guy you're used to playing against. Yeah. When you start doing the numbers, it's really hard to get around a guy like that. Well, Lindros was a guy who I've heard a lot of players back when you were playing say

that guy, when he was at his height before the injuries, obviously, it was just a man amongst men. Scary. So big, soaked. Oh, yeah. Scary. Insane. So this guy, one of my first games in the NHL,

we had Richie Pilon was the guy to play against him. Richie hits him from behind, kicked out right away. I'm like, oh, boy, what are we going to do now? And the coach comes down. He's like, you're playing against him. I'm like, what? No, I don't want to play against this animal. So it was the Legion of Doom, and I was out there against Lindros.

I was so scared he was going to kill me. I'd rather he scored than run me over. I'd never played so fast in my life. I was flying there against Lindros. I was so scared he was going to kill me. I'd rather he scored than run me over. I never played so fast in my life. I was flying around the ice like, great game, great game. I was running for my life. I didn't want to get killed by this little wrecking ball. He was so big, so fast, so skilled. Oh, man, he was so good.

Imagine the contract he could have got if he would have played against Lindros every game. I would have had a heart attack. His stress levels are through the roof. Because like I said, at least a guy like Sid's just going to dangle. He's no chance he's going to blow you up. But this guy could dang you and then blow you up at the same time. You're like, come on, give me a chance here. It'll be better at you at something.

Yeah, he was quite the player to watch. I know that playing against him would have been absolutely terrified. I couldn't even imagine where you would have been for that strutty. Speaking of strutty, I think we got a little strutter dud action coming up on the other side. Smells like there's some strut muffins cooking up. I've got one. You've got one?

I've got one. All right. And it's time for it. This is going to blow the roof off this show,. I've got one. You've got one? I've got one. All right. And it's time for, this is going to blow the roof off this show, but I don't care. It's time we confront this reality of our lives. I am looking forward to it, Strutty. It wasn't, man. You hold that.

Strutter done. Coming up next here on Overdrive, up on TSN 1050, and on TSN+. The weekend brings Hurry Up Tomorrow to Rose Bowl Stadium in Los Angeles on January 25th for one night only. and on TSM+. Enter every day at iHeartRadio.ca. You guys are beautiful. An iHeartRadio experience. The weekend in L.A. Powered by TripCentral.ca. The smarter way to book travel. Overdrive is brought to you by FanDuel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score.

We got picks coming up in just a little bit, about 30 minutes or so. Luke Wilson will join us. You guys are plus three? Plus three. Plus three. Yep. We had a pretty successful weekend. We picked all ours correct, and then they went two and one.

So that put us up a game. We are now plus three. That game last night, brutal. I mean, they took the Seahawks by three and a half. They got caught by the hook, which I love when the opposition gets caught by the hook. When I'm a better, when I'm making that play, it is the most gutting thing. But now I know how the books feel,

how FanDuel feels when they catch people. It feels pretty good. But that was an ugly game last night. 6-3. You don't see a single touchdown? 6-3. What is that, the second game of the year without a touchdown in the last week? Yeah.

We're seeing some bad football lately. I wonder if that has to do with playing every day of the week, it seems. It's got to be something of an effect. That could have something to do with it. I also like Caleb Williams. I don't know how I feel. I don't know how I feel. I watched him a little bit in college.

I was watching, obviously, the tape during the combine and watching him play some of his games last year, his last couple seasons at USC, and I thought, okay, this kid's got something. I don't know why it has not translated to the NFL, but he seems to be, every play yesterday, granted, the offensive line's quite

garbage in Chicago, so he's running around for his life, but every play, roll out to the right and just heave ho. Every single play. It's like there's just heave ho. Every single play. It's like there's just no structure there. He's afraid to make a platform throw. Can't sit in the pocket to save his life. I wonder, though, just like Strutty was running for his life

with Eric Lindros on the ice, I wonder when you don't have a line, it doesn't appear as though Chicago's got much of an offensive line. Are you not just running for your life the entire game? He's afraid to take a shot, and that's the problem. Sometimes you're going to have to take a shot in the pocket, and he's afraid to do it. Now, that's part of what made him great in college.

He was able to make something out of nothing a lot in college. But in the NFL, those linebackers, those edge rushers, they are so lightning fast. They are so athletic. They catch you. In college, you can get away with it. You can run, you can roll out, and you can get away with it. You can run, you can roll out, and you can get away with making some off-platform

throws, and you can kind of make some plays. That's not that easy to do at the NFL level, and he's got to figure it out. He's got to figure something out. Luke Wilson is going to join us in a little bit. He's going to get his thoughts on what he saw last night out of the number one overall pick. It's time for Strud or Dud.

Strud, before we went to break, you said you got one cooking in the oven. So why don't we let you kick things off here? Yeah, you know what? Okay, it's time. The role of cranberry sauce at Christmas dinner is antiquated. It should be removed. And let me just make my case.

We all make it. We make it for our curd turkey. My mom and my son made it, and they place it on the table. Nobody eats it. I'm like, why do we make it? Well, we've always made it. Well, we used to think the earth was flat as well. Here we are, still have it on the table.

Guys, it's time for us to all admit it's antiquated. Let it go. It was a great tradition. Let's get rid of this thing once and for all. No one eats it. That is a strud take right there. A good batch of strud muffins with that take.

I'm with you, Struddy, because the same thing happens every year. Every Thanksgiving, every Christmas dinner, New Year's, whenever you're having turkey dinner, yeah, the cranberry sauce comes out. But what happens at the end of the dinner? It gets thrown out into the garbage. There is one person in my entire family.

We'll have 30 people over for a big feast. And one person, and that is my mother, is the only one who ever even touches it. It's one little, little scoop. And I'm like, is it even worth it? Like, what is the point? I'm with you, Strud. Okay. Well, first of all, Al's brother has no credibility on this issue because he had prime rib for Christmas dinner.

Good point. He didn't have turkey. All right. So you're out of the conversation. And this is a dud take, Strutty. What? Because here's the thing. Okay.

Now, if you happen to be in a household where you get a nice moist turkey, okay, maybe you don't need the added moisture and sweetness of the cranberry sauce. But if you've got a dry turkey and i've had many gravies in my day yes the gravy okay that's a great role but sometimes the gravy's terrible too you need you're in a hydration situation you need the hydration of the cranberry sauce to absolutely make the turkey palatable if it's dry as a bone and i just think you need it there you need it as a as an emergency moisture source and i just think throwing it out i could get dangerous you could have some very dry turkey you could be you could just a choking hazard who's in charge who's in charge of the cooking in the fest truck house yeah look i want to talk into many houses i've

been to many households with dry turkeys and it's the best of cooks can make the worst of turkeys it's a very yeah no you're right you're right i don't know try these turkeys and it's the best of cooks can make the worst of turkeys at the very end of a burger. No, you're right. You're right. I don't know. How dry are these turkeys in Ontario? Extremely. Gravy helps all.

I will say that. Gravy is a good add-on. I'm not saying you don't need gravy as well. You would love to have gravy, but I just think that cranberry sauce adds something to me. I'm not sure why everybody's throwing it out at your house. Maybe it's not made properly, but if you have good cranberry sauce, that is a nice

condiment. I think ours comes out of the can, so that might be part of the problem, too. There you go. To be fair, it's good on sandwich, though. The next day, I do put it on the sandwich, but that's where it belongs. It's a sandwich. You're killing your own tank, Strutty. No, but I don't put ketchup on my turkey, so I don't need to put the cranberry sauce, right? The next day you put the cranberry sauce on that. So it does add up well, but not at the table,

at the last supper, you don't put it on there. Yeah. The hot turkey Sandy the next day, love it. Absolutely love it. All right, Strud or Dud? We'll start with you, Struddy, on this one. The Toronto Maple Leafs would still make the playoffs even if Matthews sits out for the rest of the regular season. I think this is a Strud. They can do it. They probably wouldn't place as high.

I think their aspirations are top spot in the division. Without Matthews, those dreams would be gone. Yeah, it's a strut take. I mean, they've been playing at 110-plus point pace without Matthews for the season. Now they've lost the last two, I understand. But they've figured out ways to weather the absence of Matthews. When Morgan Riley's been out for stretches, they've

weathered that. They've been able to do it. It's a funny thing in the NHL. Ovechkin's been out 16 games. The Capitals have gone 10-5-1 without him. Pretty darn good record. They're the top team in the Eastern Conference despite missing

their top goal scorer. Teams in this league find ways to step up. The Leafs are no exception to that, and I really believe they could take it home if indeed the choice was made to sit Matthews for an extended period here since the nine-game absence that he took to take the flight to Munich didn't seem to help much.

What do you think the likelihood is of this being a legitimate conversation inside the Leafs brass right now? Has to be. I mean, how can it not be? I mean, this is a major crisis. Like if this guy has got this lingering problem that nobody wants to talk about but everybody knows is there, I mean, that can't be come April.

It's got to be corrected by the time the playoffs roll around, and time is running short. Yeah, no one's talked about surgery, right? Is there any chance of that happening? Hasn't been discussed. Not yet, not publicly, at least. But at this point, if you've been out this long, in my mind, I'm like, okay, is there perhaps a surgery that's required?

And if you do, what's the timing of that? Because if he wanted back for the playoffs, you're pretty damn close to when he can't do it anymore. Yeah. So you just have to roll with it. He has to play through it. I think Mark Stone, when he had his surgery, that was in like January, February, was it not?

And then he was ready to go by playoffs. I believe that was about the time. So if that is going to happen, again, no reports, no one said that this is part of the process. But, you know, if deep down, if in a couple of weeks, it's still nagging him. And Greg Berube came out and said today, it's feeling better. Now, what that means, I don't know.

He also said he's not willing to elaborate anymore because here in Toronto, we take every word and really dissect it. So I don't blame him for that. Yeah, but we've heard it's feeling better that's the thing it's been weeks weeks now we've heard yeah it's getting better oh he feels good oh it feels like he's you know getting better and better as as the days go by and then all of a sudden while he missed the last two games and then he went through a three-day holiday break comes back still not ready to go he's not going to play tonight not going to play tomorrow as well and we

don't know what the rest of the week is going to happen. Oh, they've got a Monday game. No, it was a Tuesday. They play Tuesday, New Year's Eve, but it's an afternoon game. So you've got a Friday, a Saturday, and then a Tuesday at 1 p.m. start. It's a lot of hockey and a little bit of time. So who knows? They might decide to sit them out for all three of those games and possibly it extends even longer.

It's a real conundrum. We'll see what the Maple Leafs end up doing here. All right, Strud or Dud? Gavin McKenna has a chance to be a more exciting prospect than Conor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini. Struddy? Man, it's hard for me to go against them, but I will say Dud. Those two players are very, very talented.

And, you know, I think Gavin has the chance to be as good as him. But, man, I just, especially with Macklin's doing it in the NHL right now, it's a Dud for me, Fast Chuck. Yeah, it's a Dud for me too, just let's not push things here let's let's give this kid a chance to develop i mean it's strutty's pointed out the guys develop quicker than they ever have in this sport and we're seeing it with our own eyes because we're seeing guys in full cages you know play like they're established veterans at what usually is a 19 year old tournament at the age of 17 but look it's a long road to get into where Bedard and Celebrini have gotten to.

And it's a very high mountain to climb. He's still at the bottom of it, as much as he shows a lot of promise and shows some incredible skill. Let's let it play out a little bit before we start anointing him as somebody at that level just yet. I'm going to say Strud, because I think he has a chance to be a more exciting prospect. Not that he will be, but I think he's got a chance because if you look at,

like, look at the goal last night. Like, that was unbelievable. If he's got that much, like, those silky mitts going, and we've seen him, too, in the prelim game, that pass that he made going through three, four defensemen to get the puck over to Easton Cowan. Although, as Freddie said, it's easy to play in front of the net when the defenseman

doesn't know what the hell he's doing. Right, for that goal, but he also went through four players. Went through four players in the game. Who was it against? Was it the first prelim game that they played? Yeah, prelim game, yes. I get that. I'm just saying, he's got a lot of skill. Lots of skill.

Macklin Celebrini, rollback a year ago, no one thought this kid even really held a candle to what Conor Bedard was going to be. Going into the draft, we always said, Macklin Celebrini, good player, but he's no Bedard. You can make the argument that Celebrini has been the better player of the two in his rookie season. And I think that you could possibly look back a year from now

and Gavin McKenna, who's not even going to get drafted next year, he's not drafted until two years from now, who knows what type of development he could undergo in that time. I think there's a chance. I do think there's a chance. I think a chance is fair, but that's not a hard endorsement here. I'm not going to give you too hard a pat on the back. Fair enough.

Fair enough, Strutty. All right, Strud or Dud, Stevie Iserman should be taking on more blame than Derek Lalonde for Detroit's struggles. Strud or Dud? Fast Chuck? Oh, this is an absolute strut. You're nothing, man is an absolute strut. I'm a muffin, man.

No doubt about it. I mean, this is, when you look at this roster, and you look at the decisions Stevie Iverson's made to bring in veterans like Patrick Kane and Tara Senko, guys in their 30s, it just hasn't worked. You know, he hasn't been able to meld this young up-and-coming team with those veteran guys. He may have jumped the gun on those.

He talked today about how he's trying to expedite the rebuilding process, and maybe the idea of trying to expedite it was jumping the gun. Maybe they weren't ready to have veterans tacked onto the top of the roster. Maybe they weren't ready for Kane and Tarasenko, and you can go down a list of other questionable moves that he's made, but to me, I guess Todd McClellan has a chance to prove us wrong here,

but the idea that this is a coaching issue seems pretty far-fetched when you look at this roster. I don't think a lot of people have been particularly enamored with the personnel here, and that's on Mr. Eisenman. Yeah, I'm with you. It's a strut. I think that after five years, you're hoping that some of those first or second year picks are really contributing in a

massive way, and not just the first rounders. They're helping you out. He had some of that happen, I believe, with Tampa Bay. It hasn't happened with these guys yet. And you talk about speeding up the rebuild. It's a real pet peeve of mine because I don't think you can force these things. We saw the Oilers at one point trade a first and second rounder for Griffin Reinhardt. And that's a really hard one to swallow when perhaps the pick may have been Oliver Eck. No, what's his name? the name barzell turned out to be barzell though barzell yeah it could have been barzell but also the guy from minnesota uh no i always say oliver eck and larsman oh erickson x erickson there you go yeah i was in the right ballpark so you know

those are the type of decisions that really hurt you so i think you have to let it build percolate and get going and maybe steve is hoping to do that uh but i think his seat is getting fairly warm. Yeah, it's a strut take as well. From this exact same points that you guys made, I think you look at the roster construction, you look down the pipeline, it's just not very fruitful,

what we've seen from this group. I think he's tried to plug some holes. I think he tried to accelerate the process a little bit, and it's backfired. This team, instead of moving forward, seems to have gone backwards a little bit here. And I don't blame Derek Lalonde. We'll see what Tom McCullough can do.

I hope that they get a little bit of a new coach bump, and they get some sort of point in the rest of the season, and they can be competitive for all the Detroit Red Wing fans out there. But ultimately, I don't think it's a good team. And I think that there's a little bit of retooling that has to happen in order for this team

to finally make that leap that we've been talking about for a couple of years. I got one more strut or dud, but we're going to do it on the other side. I'm Mike DiStefano with Jason Strudwick and Dave Feschuk. You're listening to Overdrive on TSN 1050 and on the TSN+. The weekend brings Hurry Up Tomorrow to Rose Bowl Stadium in Los Angeles on January 25th for one night only.

Get there with iHeartRadio. Two tickets to the show, flights, and hotel from tripcentral.ca, plus $500 cash. For your chance to win, enter every day at iHeartRadio.ca. And iHeartRadio experience. The weekend in LA. Powered by TripCentral.ca. The smarter way to book travel.

Don't forget to make your prediction for the final week of First Up's Monday Night Jackpot. Head to TSN1050.ca and predict the score and winning team of next Monday's game. Lions versus Niners. You have until 7 p.m. on Monday to make your prediction. If you're right, you can win the $500 jackpot. Full details at tsn1050.ca. And I got to make that pick coming up in about 15 minutes or so. Luke Wilson going to join us and Team Hazenborough on that gate.

So we'll have to make that pick pretty shortly. I got one more Strutter Dud for you guys. NFL related. Strutter Dud, despite the NFL's attempt, the NBA won the Christmas Day slate. I think that is a strut. Strut take. Because they did. Like, the best game of the day was, you know, Steph versus LeBron.

Yeah. Lakers-Golden State. I wish it would have gone to overtime. You know, if Andrew Wiggins would have guarded somebody down the stretch there instead of letting Austin Reeves have a straight line drive for the winning bucket. Poor Andrew Wiggins did not play particularly great defense on that. We would have had overtime.

It would have been an even better game. But, I mean, neither of the NFL games were particularly compelling. Not at all. I think maybe the most compelling thing the NFL did was pay Beyonce ungodly amounts of money to stage a halftime show that was better than any Super Bowl halftime show, or at least more involved than any Super Bowl halftime show I've ever seen.

But outside of that, I think the NBA won. Yeah, I think it's a stride, too. I made a point to go watch some of the football games on the streaming, and I liked Drew Brees kind of instead of a commercial. I liked him there. I thought he had some funny stories and talking about Jimmy Graham and what it was like to throw to a guy like that. I liked that little – because it was like a second analysis he had.

The main guys that were at the game, then Drew doing it kind of right after in between his little commercial break. So I like that more information from a guy who is as good as he was. Yeah, that's a good point. I think that it was different. Good thing is, the Netflix production kind of went off without a hitch, I think, for the most part. Nothing that I saw, at least. I didn't have any

problems on my end. Well, I watched it on TSN. Yes, they had the Netflix broadcast that was on TSN. We're all kind of worried about that but you know to get back to i think strut um i you know the the games were not as you mentioned compelling 29 to 10 for the chiefs and then 31 to 2 the uh the baltimore ravens laid an absolute beat down on the houston texans and what's crazy about those two games, those are four playoff teams, and there was that big

of a discrepancy between the haves and have-nots, like your contenders and your pretenders, which is what I believe both Houston and the Steelers are at this point. Both playoff teams, I don't think they have any hope in hell of doing a whole lot once they get to the dance in a couple of weeks from now. But I'm

going to say Strutt, to your point, I made sure I watched that game, and it kind of lined up perfectly right into the primetime game for them to have the game of the night with the Warriors and Lakers. And Steph LeBron, it's always going to be compelling. It's always storybook. And it went right down to the end. And the Oracle, whatever the new place to go was just buzzing

absolutely buzzing when uh you know the warriors made that comeback they're now at nine with like a minute to go in the game they came all the way back and then to your point the lakers with a bit of a dagger with a second to go bad defense cost them the the comeback on the attempt but yeah i thought the nba there was a lot of worry that the nfl was going to come in and steal their thunder on christmas day but as lebron put it christmas is still our day yeah yeah that's it put it on lebron's turning 40 though he is can't last forever i'm not sure like when be showed out in the in the noon game but i'm not sure the next generation can carry uh the same kind of torch or a torch that's quite as bright as Stefan LeBron. I guess Luke is going to be out for a month, too, now with an injury.

So no Luka Doncic as well. What a shot. Yeah. Luke injured. Wow. Yeah, well, this is what it is. Luke Wilson is going to join us up on the other side here on Overdrive. TSM Plus is taking game day to a whole new level with NFL Red Zone.

Absolutely incredible. Subscribe now for every touchdown from every game every Sunday afternoon. NFL Red Zone, available on TSM Plus.