OverDrive - OverDrive - December 27, 2024 - Hour 3

Episode Date: December 28, 2024

Join Michael DiStefano, Jason Strudwick and Dave Feschuk for Hour 3 on OverDrive! Luke Willson joined the guys to chat about Chicago's concerning offensive production and the massive matchup between the Packers and Vikings. Mike Johnson also joined to chat about Gavin Mckenna’s skillset, what makes Matthew Schaefer special and Cole Hutson’s hot start for the U.S. We finished with AB's best bets powered by Fanduel.

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The smarter way to book travel. Mail It In Friday is brought to you by Boston Pizza's new game day menu. Stop by your 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. Mike DiStefano filling in for Brian Hayes. Got Dave Festruck and Jason Strudwick with us for the rest of the regulars. They'll be back in the next couple of weeks.

They'll be back. They'll be back. Luke Wilson going to join us in just a moment, go over what we saw happen over the course of the last couple of days. And the week 17 slate of the NFL season coming up, we've got to make our picks. It's crazy how we're already at Week 17. It seems like the football season has just flown right by. It does fly by, man.

It's crazy that we are almost finished 2024 and we're heading into the playoffs before you know it. I mean, great though. Best time of year, NFL playoffs. Oh, yeah, NFL playoffs. You got the college games coming up. So you got this new playoff format too, which I guess was unveiled last week.

So we got the 12-team playoff format. We've got Saturday games. You've got the World Juniors. It really is a good time to be a sports fan around the holidays. I mean, you've got Canada going up against Lafayette tonight. Leafs, you've got Canada going up against Latvia tonight. Leafs, Detroit tonight.

Still excited about that. I don't know if you saw. I was taking a look at the lines from earlier today, too. Looks like they're going back to the McCabe and Tanev deep pairing. I'm excited about that. Johnny going to join us in about 30 minutes. We'll get his thoughts on that and about the Canada-Latvia game as well. But joining us on the line now is...

This man is cooking. Girl, you know it's true. It's Luke Wilson, former NFLer, TSN NFL analyst, and one half of the Owen Wilson team, who lost last night's game, actually, Luke. How did you feel getting suckered by the hook there last night? I mean, I was pretty annoyed, especially at halftime. We're up three, in complete control of the game.

Cale Williams looks like junk. And I'm like, ah, Seattle should at least punch one in here. And then I'm not sure if I was more annoyed that we didn't get the hook or more annoyed that I wasted three and a half hours of my life watching that joke of a football game. Yeah, it really was. It was kind of a combination. It wasn't a great football game.

And really, all three, like, there wasn't a super compelling game. Like, Christmas Day was billed. All right, you've got two playoff games, right? You've got Chiefs and Steelers. You've got Ravens, and then you've got the Texans, all four teams battling for the playoffs. But it didn't turn out to be close at all in either game. I mean, does that just prove the Super Bowl contenders

from the pretenders in the AFC? You know, Ellsbro bro to a degree, yes. But I also think, you know, I love to use the term like margin for error when it comes to winning games in this league.

And you look at, let's go with the Houston-Baltimore game. It's like, if you're going to play Baltimore, no matter who you are, you just don't have that much room to make mistakes. And then when your quarterback

goes out there and can't throw the ball to wide open receivers consistently, you're going to get smoked. That's kind of what it proves to me. The good playoff teams, they don't make those mistakes. And if teams do that while they're playing against them, they're going to blow you out of the building. And the same thing happened in the Pittsburgh game.

You know, you look at that game, could have easily been somewhat close. But Rush throws the pick in the end zone, and the next thing you know, the game starts to get a little bit away from it. And I would say also it kind of made Pittsburgh a bit one-dimensional in the second half, which is definitely not what they want to do. And that game got pretty ugly too. So I think a lot of it goes to show, like, you better be locked in earlier. This thing can get very ugly.

So, Luke, Lamar Jackson throws another couple of TDs, you know, has another great game where he shows he is a master of the sport. And, you know, we're not at the finish line of the season. There was a time a few weeks back when people were declaring the MVP race over and anointing Josh Allen as the heir apparent. I mean, do you think this thing is still alive? Do you think there is a real sort of wind in the sails of Lamar Jackson here as we come to the conclusion of the year?

You know, it's funny because I think I view this award differently than how the writers view it or whoever votes. And I've kind of learned through the world of being in the media how, quote unquote, little some of these people that are voting actually know about football. And it's very appalling. I think Josh is locked. You know, do I think that's debatable as far as, like, should he be locked? You know, no, I think it's probably him versus Lamar, but I think Josh is going to win it no matter what, mainly because Lamar now has Derrick Henry.

And, again, I'm not saying that, you know, Josh shouldn't get it because he's played out of his mind, but it's bizarre how this award has transformed into, okay, if we're not just going to look at stats, we're going to look at who people have around him. I look at Brock Purdy last year. Guy wasn't even close to winning, yet his stats said he should have most likely won.

And now it's this year. It's like Lamar probably is going to end up with better numbers than Josh. And now part of that's not Josh's fault. You look at it now, the Bills really have nothing to play for. They're pretty much locked into what they're doing. They're not going to win the one seed. Where Lamar's going into the last week of the season, if they lose and the Steelers find a way to win,

they lose home field in the first round. So it's not Josh's fault. But then also the people that voted, well, Lamar had Derrick Henry, so now that kind of lessens his case, and Josh gets it. So it is a bit of a strange award, but I highly, you know, would be shocked if Josh Allen doesn't get it. And then the next thing I'll say about the MVP award that is a bit funny to me is I look at this thing and I think, and I do not think they're going to make it, unfortunately,

but I think that if somehow Cincinnati sneaks in, you know, you've got to put Joe Burrow in the conversation. And again, to me, I look at it and say, if we're going down the route of how much help does he have, he obviously has Jamar Chase, but defensively, they're atrocious. You know, real bad. So I don't really get what the parameters for the award are, but based on what I think I know about it,

I'm going to go Josh 99%. Luke, Eric Dickerson doesn't want Saquad Barkley to beat his rushing record, and I get it. I think it's unfair that they have additional games to run the same amount of, or more yards, than guys in the past.

It'd be like you and I playing golf, me playing from the tips, of course, and you playing from the forward tees, and us comparing scores at the end of the day. So how could they make this more equal, or should they make it more equal? You know, it's funny. I don't know, and it kind of goes back to when I thought of this, I thought of I'm a bit of a baseball guy.

I thought of Roger Maris beating Babe Ruth's home run record. Right. And I believe there's an extra amount of games there. And I sat there like, you know, when you talk about the home run record now, nobody mentions that Babe Ruth played less games. So I get like right now we're probably all saying, oh, well, Saquon had one extra game. Well, in 25 years, if Saquon's record stands, which it could, assuming he breaks it,

you know, I am shocked that anybody has even come close in today's day and age of running backs and how they split carries and have much more passing in this league, you know. So I feel for Eric Dickerson. I don't think it's fair, but right now it's kind of the nature of the beast. But it is what it is. I get why he doesn't want it broken because that's one record, and you never know, but that's one record where I would be shocked if it's broken within the next 10, 15 years. All right, Luke.

It's time to get down to brass tacks here, buddy. It's time to make our picks for week 17. All right? You're coming off a pretty tough week. So you got to make sure that you can get your act together here because if you blow it this weekend, this thing's basically done. We might as well just make week 18 a buy. So are you ready to go, pal? Again, I'm just 62% shooter.

Your ridiculous quotes right there, getting a jam on a hook, bad week. My guy, I've never been more ready in my life. I live for this. I live for this stuff. All right, let's get to it. First game is Hayes and Brougham. We're looking at the 1 o'clock slate on Saturday.

Chargers laying 4.5 against the New England Patriots. And let me tell you, I'm kind of surprised that it's this short of a number. The Patriots are an absolutely awful football team. The Chargers, they're going to the playoffs. Justin Herbert's been playing at a really good level. That defense suffocates bad offenses. That's exactly what the Patriots are. You look at J.K. Dobbins.

He's coming back. I think he'll put a little bit more pep in the step of that run game, give them a dual threat to attack that Patriots defense. And when you look at what the Chargers have done over the course of the season, five straight covers versus non-playoff teams. They dummy non-playoff teams. So I am laying the points,

Azenbro, laying the points minus four and a half against the Patriots. Yeah, I don't mind. The Patriots played the Bills tough last week. It's a home game. I think the Chargers are a bit overrated. Not a ton to play for. Again, I don't

mind that pick. I don't mind. I've done the math. I think I need to go 8-4 on the way out. So that's a good start. I think I'm 1-0 there. Alright, well, how are you going 2-0? You got Broncos, Bengals. It's the afternoon slate tomorrow.

Bengals lay in 3. Yeah, I'm going Bengals all day. As you just heard me say, I'm a big believer in day. I may, as I just heard me say, I'm a big believer in Joe Burrow right now. They're passing incredibly well. I think the guy's playing at an MVP level. I will also say that, you know,

I think that the Broncos are a bit fraudulent in the sense of, should I say this? Like, you know, I think they're 1-6 against teams above 500. Again, a lot to play for for the Bengals. They've played very well. This record, as we know, could easily be different. The big worry is the Bengals' defense,

obviously, but that being said, I'm going with Joe Burrow. I like it. I think he wins this by four points or more. I'm really excited about the Jamar Chase-Pat Sertan matchup in this game. And they take Jamar Chase out of it with the best DB in the NFL. There's a chance we could see a little upset city coming from this one. I mean, the Broncos, they lose this game. They give the Bengals an opportunity to win and make the playoffs.

So there's a lot to play. There's a lot on the line for both teams here. I don't mind being on the dogs on this one. Don't mind it one bit. All right. Hayes and Breaux, we got Rams, Cardinals, and the Rams laying six and a half points. This one was a tough one. I'll be honest. This one was a toughie, and I was going back and forth with Partsy, and the Rams laying six and a half points. This one was a tough one. I'll be honest.

This one was a toughie, and I was going back and forth with Partsy, and the Rams have consistently absolutely beaten down the Cardinals, but we haven't seen a spread like this. Only once in the last 10 years has there been a spread this large between these two divisional opponents. So based on that and the fact that I don't think the Cardinals are as bad as what we saw last week. They lost to the Panthers.

I think they'll want to finish off the season strong. I don't know if they'll win this football game, but I think they'll give the Rams a little bit more of a run for their money. I do think they can cover the number. We'll take the Cardinals and the points in this one. Wow. Yeah. Wow, wow, wow, wow. You like the Rams.

I'm going to just make sure I've got this correct. You're taking a team that last week lost to the Carolina Panthers. Correct. Is that correct? Correct. That is correct. Bounce back. Big bounce back game.

They've lost four of the last five, brother. They have. But look, Trey Bentz is going to start this week. They're eliminated from the playoffs. Finish strong. Finish strong,. But look, Trey Benson's going to start this week. They're eliminated from the playoffs. Finish strong. Finish strong, Luke. I don't think they're going to win this game. Don't get me wrong.

They're not going to win this football game. I don't believe so. Although, if I'm not mistaken, they did win earlier in the year. Yeah. A lot's changed. A lot has changed. But they played competitive against that team and won. I think they can keep it to within a touchdown.

That's all I'm saying. Keep it to within a touchdown. It's just I'm saying. Keep it to within a touchdown. It's just so many points in a divisional game. So many points. All right. You got it at 6.5. Is that correct? Yeah, that is correct.

6.5. 6.5. Bills, Jets. You got Bills, Jets in the afternoon game on Sunday. Jets plus 9. Or Bills laying 9.5 here. Yeah, I'm taking Jets. And I know you probably think that's nuts but I'm gonna go from a past experience thing here I look at this thing the Bills have literally nothing to play for zero things Jets they have guys playing for their jobs

so I'm not saying the Bills are going to arrest guys but they're pretty much locked into the two seed right now so I sit here and say, okay, even Josh Allen mentioned last week, quote unquote, like we're not opening up the playbook, which I think was a bit of a, you know, he's a bit lighthearted when he said that, but I look at this thing and I say,

okay, nine and a half, certainly a lot of points. If it's, you know, 14 points in the fourth quarter in this game, there's no way Josh Allen should be playing. Excuse me? Correct. If they're up 14 points in the fourth quarter,

why would you have Josh in there anymore? I think Josh will want to play in this game, though. I mean, as we talked about before. Oh, I'm not saying that. I said in the fourth quarter. No, I get that. Even on defense, you sit here, you can't risk, you cannot risk this guy getting injured. And again, he's going to play, I'm saying late in the game, if

they're up and we get a greasy backdoor cover. Even defensively though, and offensively, this is a game where if you're a coach, you're sprinkling things in to throw teams off. We would do this all the time. Okay, game that doesn't have a ton of meaning, we'll put our starters in there. Generally, when you self-scout, or excuse me, scout other teams, you take a couple teams that you think match up with your offense, I'm talking about as an offensive guy, and then you run their last three or four games back because teams kind of shift throughout the year.

So I look at this thing and I say, if I'm the Bills coaching staff, I'm trying to break all my tendencies. You know, if we have a tendency of running this play on third and five, and that's my go-to, I'm making a point of emphasis not to call said play on third and five. Throw teams off. You know, maybe we like doing this. Again, change things up. Even things that we were working on, but we don't feel great about, we've been working on for three, four weeks, whether it's some run action, whether it's defensive structure, who knows. This is the game to go out there and try it.

If you get burned, you get burned. The Jets, this is going to be like their Super Bowl. They're trying to have good vibes going into the offseason. Nine and a half points is a lot. That's why I'm going there. I think the Bills win, but I like the idea of a greasy backdoor cover from the Jets. You talked to your Parsi about this. This is one of those games where I guarantee you Jeff O'Neill looks at you and says,

Parsi, big picture. My Parsi. Big picture. I don't know where this guy is, man. He's up in Ottawa. He's abandoned the team, man, in moments of need. He needs you on this pick because that's an absolutely insane selection. Josh Allen still has an MVP to play for.

We just saw in FanDuel. Those odds have been tumbling. You're a little simp like the rest of TSN, man. Okay? I don't want to hear this nonsense. Big game. You're going to see it happen. Big game out of Josh Allen.

He's going to cover double digit, and you're going to be losing a lot of games this week. Next up, Packers-Vikings. Figures that we got to pick Packers-Vikings because it puts Hazy B in such a bind whenever we got to pick a Green Bay game. So he put this one on me, and he said, Partsy, it's up to you. And look, I absolutely believe that the Vikings are the real deal. I think they're a good football team.

But right now, you can get points with the Packers. Points with the Packers. I think we got to go that route. What you've seen out of Jordan Love the last couple of weeks, Jordan Love's played some excellent, excellent football. That offense is starting to get it going defensively. They're starting to get healthier and they're out there playing. I think they could shut down this passing attack and do their best to pressure Sam Darnold and put up enough points to not only cover, but win the game. It's getting one and a half. I think you win this one

on the money line. We're taking the Packers and the points. I mean, it is what it is, and it's not what it's not. That's all I'm going to say. What does that even mean? What does that mean, Luke? It is what it is, and it's not what it's not. That's all I'm going to say. What does that even mean? What does that mean, Luke? It is what it is, and so it's not. You take

the points, like one and a half, you're acting like it's a huge ordeal. Could be. You could thread the needle there, but I think this is the Vikings' game to lose. I think they go in here, they find a way to shred the secondary, which has been beat up. I think they're supposed to get healthier. It's all

setting up, even the NFL. After watching last night, I am convinced the NFL is completely rigged, and the refs have no idea what they're doing. They just do what Roger Goodell tells them. I think the refs want to see, or the NFL wants to see, the Week 18 matchup, Vikings versus the Lions for the division. So I think you're not only going to have to beat the Vikings, I think you're going to have to beat the refs,

and I think that's why it's a bad pick. Wow. This guy out here claiming Roger Goodell is as bad as a commissioner as Doogie Goodell? Doogel? He's worse. Doogie Goodell. We got the Sunday nighter coming up also. You've got

the Commanders laying four and a half points against the Falcons. Choose wisely. Choose wisely, my friend. Yeah, I'm going here with the 4.5. I'm taking Atlanta. You know, you look at points per game. I mean, the playoff hopes are on the line.

The Bucs handed them a gift by losing a game to Cooper Rush. I understand, like, the wild card here is Penix Jr. What I would say and what I'm hoping is that you didn't really see a ton from him last week. He looked okay, looked good. Interception wasn't his fault. It's like, hey, maybe he's going to come out here. The offense is a little different with him in it,

a little harder for a team to plan for. I look at the commanders. They haven't really played great ball. Everyone wants to say last week, like, oh, we're going to crown them because they beat the Eagles. They beat Kenny Pickett, okay? They beat Kenny Pickett. Oh, the Eagles are, sorry, Commanders on a three-game win streak.

The Commanders beat the New Orleans Saints the week before by one point. We all saw what New Orleans looks like. They beat the Tennessee Titans, also an absolute joke. Before that, they got absolutely drilled by the Cowboys, Eagles, without any picket playing, and Pittsburgh beat them by one. I sit here and say four and a half points. It's a huge playoff game. This game probably comes down to a field goal, and we cover this thing.

Apparently it's the first time that we've seen two first-round quarterbacks in prime time go head-to-head. That was a stat that I saw earlier today, which kind of seems wild, that we've never seen that before. Yeah, that is pretty wild. Luke, I wanted to ask you about, you know, you talked about Caleb Williams looking terrible, and we were talking about it earlier about, you know,

can you really judge a young quarterback when his offensive line is as bad as the bears i mean what do you make of that so to me it's like why the guys are terrible and this is why i would say i'm a little nervous about caleb you know and obviously i'm not going to write him off as a buster and like that that would be absurd but i sit here and say it's one thing if he's back there and I feel like he's not processing the game well, which I think he's, for a rookie, what I see of him is pretty much

exactly where I'd expect him to be at. He's obviously not a Matthew Stafford right now, but he's not completely clueless, which some guys in the league I find are. What scares me is that he just misses. He's not an accurate thrower of the football. You know, and I remember, I think it was on Inside the NFL or something earlier,

it was like coming, like week one, Bill Belichick had made a comment, and everyone was like, oh, Caleb had a sick preseason. And Bill, just being himself, was like, what are you talking about? You know, the guy made a couple highlight plays, but he's like, dude, he was very inaccurate in preseason. And like week in and week out, I sit here and I'm like, man, he's missing throws that have nothing to do with his offensive line. Again, they're not helping him, but he is missing very accurate throws,

like very easy throws for this level. And I'm like, that scares me. The flip side is the guy has an incredible arm. I mean, the fork down they converted was a wild throw. I think there was a third and 17 that he threw one where I'm like, that is unbelievable. Like, you can count the number of people on planet Earth that can throw that football.

But in the same breath, it's like that doesn't really, like you don't want to live and die by Barak just throws on third and 17. We'd like you to sit here and accurately throw the football on first and 10 or second and seven so that we're not in third and 17. So I am a bit worried about just the simple stuff with him.

And I do also think that his coaching staff, especially after Eberflusch was fired, has severely let him down. Like, there was a point last night where I thought the Bears were purposely trying to lose. So that doesn't help either. No, I'm serious.

You guys think I'm – I'm not even joking. I'm watching my pops. I'm in Windsor for the holidays. And I'm like, Dad, I can't wrap my head around it. I think he's trying to lose. I think he's got something from – that's why I say I left last night. The NFL's got to be rigged. No human being on planet Earth can be an NFL head coach

and misuse your timeouts like the Bears did yesterday. For a second time. It was after the game. For a second time this year. The quote after the game was, I changed my mind. You don't get to, like, what do you mean you changed your mind? You don't get to change your mind.

You pick your pick and you roll with it. You don't blow a tie. I mean, I'm not even going to go down this rabbit hole. So I am worried about some of the easy stuff, but in the same breath, like, it'd be nice if he had some functioning human beings around him that can kind of put him in a position to succeed. Like my old head coach, Pete Carroll.

He goes there, he'll get him right. He'll get him right. Yeah, you think that happens? You think Pete's ready to get back in? I know he's ready to get back in. I mean, that's 110% if Pete's ready. Are they going to let Pete back in? I don't know, but I'll tell you this right now.

You know, if Pete gets back in, first off, he's obviously got some USC ties, as does Caleb, obviously. Pete's going to have that team rocking and rolling. And I look at him and I'm like, you know, on paper, the Bears roster is actually pretty good, minus their offensive line. You know, last year, the defense was good. You know, last year the defense was good. This year they've been hot and cold. Offensively, I'd say you've got Keenan Allen, you've got the youngster of Tuesday,

you've got D.J. Moore, you've got Swift at running back, you've got Caleb Williams at quarterback, who's supposed to be the generational guy, and you've got Cole Komet, who's probably the most underrated tight end and has been just in shambles because he was drafted to a joke of organization, but a very, very solid guy tight end. You tighten up the offensive line and get a real coach in there, and I sit here and say, what can't we do? You know the Bears will probably still find some way to mess it up,

but it is what it is. Yeah, and I remember coming into the year, it was, oh, the Bears. I mean, Caleb Williams, that's the best that a number one pick has been able to come into. Great situation. Has not quite turned out to be that.

We'll see what year two can bring for him, but year one, it's not been good. Apparently, you're going to make the Monday night pick as well today, Luke. So, Lions laying three and a half on the Niners. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Why is that? This is what I'm told.

This is what I'm told. You can yell at Doogie for this. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You got to yell at Doogie. I'm on the text thread. That was not a part of the deal. You guys pick it on Monday. We're not on on Monday.

Neither am I. Overcast. Overtapped. The holidays. My partsy's off for the holiday. We're making the pick. I'll make it quick and easy because it's an absolute lock. Absolute lock.

The Lions are covering the number. Three and a half. They're going to smack the Niners, and the Lions are going to cover the number. Don't even need to have a quick little rant. If this thing goes to four and a half, you guys are taking that number. I'm talking to Doogie Goodell after this. This was not spoken about in the text thread. You think it's going to four and a half. You guys are taking that number. I'm talking to Doogie Goodell after this. This was not spoken about in the text thread. You think it's going to four and a half?

You like the Lions pick that much? Money coming in on the Lions, you think, over the weekend? No, I would have taken the Niners. Well, then who cares? It does not matter. All right, buddy, we've got to fly. But good chat, as always. Good luck on your picks this weekend.

We'll chat to you with you on Monday. Talk soon. See you, buddy, we got to fly. But good chatting as always. Good luck on your picks this weekend. We'll chat to you with you on Monday. Talk soon. See you, buddy. Luke Wilson, former NFLer and TSN NFL analyst. We got to go. We got MJ coming up on the other side here on Overdrive. 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. Flight and hotel from TripCentral.ca. Plus $500 cash. For your chance to win, enter every day at iHeartRadio.ca. You guys are beautiful. An iHeartRadio experience. The weekend in LA.

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. Mike DiStefano, Dave Fastchunk, and Jason Strudwick in on Overdrive. And I was just checking to see if we've had any line movement in that Canada-Lapia game after we talked about it, discussed what the spread was,

I think people were listening to the Hammer of Canada talk earlier because it's gone up. It was at 6.5 a couple hours ago. Spread's now at 7.5 for Canada in tonight's World Junior matchup against Lapia. You can listen to it here on TSN 250 at 7.30. Watch it across the TSN network as well. And the man who's going to be on the call is the man on the line.

It's Mike Johnson, our former NHL or TSN hockey analyst. What's going on, Johnny? What's going on? Did you just call me a former TSN analyst? Did I just get fired on air? Sorry to tell you, Johnny. It's your pig slips. What the hell am I doing on the radio still, then?

Former NHLer and current TSN. Oh. Greatest hockey analyst we have, Mike Johnson. That's more like the appropriate email that I sent you, how to introduce me properly. Yes, thank you. All good. We're gearing up here for Canada.

It should not be a particularly close game. Latvia will play hard. They'll battle, but they will be overmatched. And I imagine we'll hear the goal song several times as we go through the night. Yeah, 7.5 on FanDuel. That's the spread tonight. 7.5 for Canada. I'd say Canada, honestly. I mean, the thing that will limit them is if they sort of ease off, as opposed to I would imagine the opposition controlling

the amount of goals they score. Plus money on that too. You don't want to bet the money a lot, MJ, because it's minus 100,000 meaning if you bet 100, you win 10 cents. Even on the long arms, I don't like the return on that one.

What's the overrunner is it 10? 8.5 8.5 again I'd probably take the over when it's all said and done but we'll see the greatest challenge of this game really guys is I think the players on Canada know what I just said to be true

and will they sort of revert back to their junior team tendencies, which is not what Dave Cameron is trying to get them to do, dumping pucks in, smart plays in the blue line, third man high, don't force plays, you know, all the stuff that coaches tell you when you want to play properly, or will they be so much better than the other team? Like, you know what?

I want to go back to junior, right? Take 90-second shifts and dangle guys left and right. That might be the thing that the coaching staff is watching for this one tonight. It feels like a tune-up game, even though I know we're into the tournament. But what area of their game, after watching them

through some exhibition last night, do you think they really need to spend some extra time on? I mean, I think they played quite well last night. I think the one thing coaches always will want to clean up is the ability to move the puck out of their own end cleanly. I think, you know, defensemen going back there, working with the goaltender, working with the forwards and making good passes and possessing it out of their own end. And then probably like a little finish.

I mean, they scored, what, six in the one exhibition game against Switzerland. And beyond that, they haven't piled up goals. So maybe just having some guys finish and a little better, you know, scoring goals would be one thing that they might be able to build some confidence with if they have a productive night tonight. So they're billing them, MJ, as the caged kids. Matthew Schaefer and Gavin McKenna, both 17 years old. Schaefer eligible for the 2025 draft.

McKenna not eligible for the draft until 2026. I mean, we saw the obvious skill both have, but what stood out to you about their performances? So, I mean, McKenna, if you watch him, like, yes, he's smaller and young, but he's just perfect with his puck. Like, his hands are so, so good that it's fun to watch. As soon as he gets it in any sort of open-eyed area, good things happen. That's fun.

But the bigger story to me was Matthew Schaefer who, as the game wore on, had absolutely zero stage fright. For a kid who's still quite young, he's got the cage on, he's not as experienced as the guys that he's playing with and some of the guys he's playing against, he was as noticeable in a good way as just

any defenseman with the puck or kind of joining the rush. I think he had five shots in the game. He played 21 minutes, whatever it might be. It's amazing. His maturity and the fact that he is still at 17, he's like six,

one, one 90. So he plays a physical game. He doesn't get bounced around physically like McKenna might. And he is a effortless skater. Never looks tired. He's, he's very,

very impressive. Now, James Hagan scored four points in America's first game. He might go first overall. Schaefer might go first overall. But he is, you know, defensemen that are underage don't play for Canada very often. I think Drysdale was the last guy to do it. He didn't play a big role.

This guy, by the end of the tournament, will likely be leading the team in ice time. That's how good he is. Who does he remind you of mj i mean some people have said stylistically like i hate making great comparisons right like i want to pick a guy who's a good player but not a great one but but scott niedermeyer right which is not fair to anybody because scott niedermeyer is one of the greatest of the last 30 years but just in in style just in style, like the way he plays, the way he skates, the way he manages the game, that sort of style, certainly maybe not that sort of skill or strength just yet,

but he's a really – he's not Kale McCarr, he's not Quinn Hughes, like that kind of stuff, but he's just so steady and such an effortless skater that he makes it all look quite easy. With Mike Johnson, our TSN hockey analyst, currently working for us here at TSN. Currently. Currently. Currently, and hopefully for a long time.

There was a lot of talk, obviously, in the last few years about Canada's goaltending issues. And last night saw a great performance out of Carter George. Do you think that he has a chance to finally kind of become one of the great goalies here in Canada? Or do we finally find one, MJ? I mean, I love hyperbole on this tournament, but I'm not sure if one shutout is going to greatness for the next decade as much as I want it to be. Now, having said that, Carter George has won a gold to the under 18s. He won a gold as a starter at the Holinka. And if he wins gold here, he will be the only goalie to win all three goals. So he is having a lot of success at a very young age.

His numbers are okay in junior. They're not lights out good, but he was really good last night, and we'll see how it goes because every year that I've been doing this tournament, it's sort of been a question mark where you weren't quite sure who it was going to be and how they were going to play and would a second guy or a third guy emerge somehow. And right from day one around this team, there's three goalies, they're all very capable, but Carter George was the favorite to be the starter, and you saw why. Not just the saves, he stopped them all, but just how he looked while doing so.

Very calm, very composed, very much under control, and that's what Canada's going to need. The games are going to stay tight when they get further down the line. He's not playing tonight, Ivan Kovic is playing tonight, but I think Carter George is the starter for this tournament for as long as Canada goes. What have you seen out of some other games that maybe you've really been surprised by or impressed by?

I'll tell you what. That American line. They had it last year, Strutty. They had Gabe Perrault, who's Yannick Perrault's son. No panic, Yannick, my old liney in Toronto. They had last year Will Smith, who's the high pick for San Jose, and they had Ryan

Leonard, who's like an eighth overall to Washington. Leonard could have left last spring to go to Washington, elected not to. Gabe Perrault returned to Boston College as well. They've been replaced, Will Smith, with James Higgins, who might be the first overall pick. And I was curious to see what that would look

like in this tournament, because they were dominant last year with Will Smith in between the two of them. And they were awesome. Against Germany, lit them right up. Higgins had four points. Perot had three points. I thought that line, and Higgins, who is pushing for first overall in 2025, showed why. Just great hands, really smart hockey sense, very good

skater. The Americans have a lot of good players, like a lot of talented offensive players. They certainly stood out. And if you've watched Lane Hudson, I can't remember the names here, if you've watched Lane Hudson play in Montreal, he's got a clone in his brother Cole. He's exactly the same, little

jitterbug dancing back and forth. And Cole had five assists and was plus seven in the game against Germany. So a pretty good start for him as well. So, MJ, Leafs in Detroit tonight for the first of a back-to-back. They play at home to Washington tomorrow. And Austin Matthews not expected to play in either game for the Maple Leafs. Kind of interesting that Alex Ovechkin, who many have compared to Matthews, or Matthews has been compared to in terms of one of the great goal scorers in the league,

coming back from a 16-game absence in all likelihood against the Leafs, Matthews will miss his 12th and 13th games of the season if he indeed misses both ends of the back-to-back what what do you make of the this thing continuing on uh through the season mj you talked the other day about you know maybe they brought him back a little too early and maybe they need to rest them longer but you know what are you sort of making of the latest development here in matthews in Matthews' long injury saga? Well, I mean, I guess given how long he was out and did not get healthy, is anyone surprised that he's not healthy now?

Yeah. And I think the realization that him playing through whatever he's got is probably not going to allow him to get better while playing. I think that was the hope when he came back, that he was improved, but not 100%. Maybe he was at 85, and they thought, you know, he can play through it, continue to get treatment, continue to get rest,

and he'll get to 100 at some point while playing. And whether it's the cross-check from Gilbert or just the way he was playing and feeling when he came back, I think they now know that's unlikely to be the case. And if that's unlikely to be the case, then I don't think he can play until he's healthy. The Leafs are going to make the playoffs with or without Austin Matthews in the regular season.

But the Leafs will not advance deep in the playoffs without a healthy Austin Matthews. So whatever it takes, if he's able, whatever time, procedure, treatment, whatever continent he's got to go to to get healthy, he can just go. Just go and do what you've got to do. And if that means it's a month, it's two. And I don't want to get too far down the line. He might be back in 10 days.

But if it goes down the road, scoocher off that guy. Spoon that guy. Take the $14 million, get a whole new defenseman and two wingers, and then have him return for the playoffs. That could happen eventually, but I think you've got to get him healthy. Whatever, however long, whatever you're going to do, however long it takes, you've just got to make sure he's 100% when he finally gets back to the lineup,

which is not going to happen over the five days of the Christmas break. Well, while he's out, MJ, how big of an opportunity is this for Mitch Marner to really step up and say, hey, I'm worth the money that I think I'm worth because I can lead a team, and he has an opportunity to do so as long as Matthews is out?

Yeah. I guess. I mean, I don't think... I don't know if Mitch needs to show that, prove that. I mean, Mitch has been one of the best right-wingers in the league for like five years. Yes, he has great players around him, and he still has very good players around him. He performed incredibly well when Matthew was out the first time, and if he continues to do so, I guess then he could claim, see, I can do it as well, pay me what I want,

and maybe that helps his cause in negotiations. But I don't think Mitch should feel like he has to prove anything to anyone about how well he can play for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah, that's probably fair. I have one question for you before we get out here. I saw earlier today driving in that Mackenzie Blackwood signed a big deal five years, 5-2-5 with the Colorado A of surprised like he's played four games with the team are you surprised that they latched themselves to him so quickly you're totally surprised I mean he must have been

a really good dude in the first 10 days ready 12 good periods impact yeah that is good in the room stay in the room 20 million dollars 25 million. $20 million, $25 million. Why not? Obviously, they've done their scouting. They've been chasing a goaltender and some consistency for a while now. They clearly believe it's him, not based on what he did in Colorado, but what he's based on what he's done, I guess, in San Jose and previously in his career in Jersey and other stops. And $5 million for a starter, if you get a good one or even a passable one,

that is great value, and that's what they're going for. get a good one or even a passable one that is great value and that's what they're going for but that did raise my eyebrow a little bit like wow that's not a big sample and then when you read the statement well we wanted to get a man and see how he's going and then maybe revisit that opportunity I'm like you waited six days

how much did you learn or maybe how much did you need to I don't know. But either way, congrats to him because he's had a long road coming back from injury, getting his game in order. And now he's on a great team where he doesn't have to be Shesterkin. He doesn't have to be Sorokin or any of those guys. He can just be Darcy Kemper and go win a cup because the team can be that good in front of him.

Yeah, and he's playing well. So, like, 931% since he got there. Yeah, he has played well. So like 931, same percent since he got there. Yeah, he has played well. So, and they need, they need goaltending desperately. So, hey, I hope that it all works out. I just thought it definitely peaked my interest as well today. So, yeah, okay. That's rather quick to jump all in, but hey,

that's what the Colorado Avalanche are all about sometimes. All right, Johnny, you got a call to do in a little bit. Good luck and appreciate it. We'll chat again soon. All right, Johnny, you got a call to do in a little bit. Good luck and appreciate it. We'll chat again soon. All right, boys, I appreciate it. AB, I'll send my resume to you until they get off the phone. Thanks.

Okay, sounds good. Sounds good, buddy. All right, Mike Johnson, former NHLer and currently one of the best we have at TSN when it comes to analyzing the game of hockey, along with Jason Strudwick. What do you think? Why are you including me?

Am I in trouble? Oh, no. You're a great analyzer of the game of hockey as well. Trying to prop you up here, buddy. You know what? I appreciate it. I always like listening to John because he and I, although we arrive often at the same place,

we see the game differently. As a forward, I're always thinking about scoring. And as a D-man, I'm always thinking about defense. Now, since I've stopped playing, I've become a bit of a minor coach, and I do think more offensively. But it's always interesting to hear a guy like himself, these other guys that are more offensively, O-Dog, obviously. Then you get the goalies, where the only good position is goalie.

They make the difference every night. But I do like hearing the way that those guys think. Even when they talk about defense and or defending as a forward, because it's a way different place to come from than as a D-man, where you're kind of the last line of defense, really. Well, speaking of D-men, it sounds like, if I'm looking at this correctly, that Chris Tanev is expected to play tonight alongside Jake McCabe. So the line rushes are out.

And yeah, Tanev, McCabe. So only a one-game absence. And that's great because the Blue Line looks very bleak without Chris Tanev. So for him to get back to be alongside Jake McCabe, to get their dynamic shutdown pair back together after a couple weeks of trying different things that look like for Chief there. Hopefully they can get back

in the saddle and get back to the winning ways. They've lost two in a row. They played tonight against the Detroit and then tomorrow they're taking on Ovi apparently and the Washington Capitals. We'll come back and we'll tee up the games and we got our best bets coming up as well. Mike DiStefano with Dave Feschuk and Jason Strudwick.

And listen to Overdrive 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. 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. You guys are beautiful.

An iHeartRadio experience. The weekend in LA. Powered by tripcentral.ca. The smarter way to book travel. Today's best bets are powered by FanDuel. Make your picks and assemble a same game parlay in are powered by FanDuel. Make your picks and assemble a same game parlay in seconds on the FanDuel Sportsbook app.

I like the over of eight and a half goals in tonight's Canada-Lotvia game. I think that we'll see a lot of goal scoring, mainly on the Canadian side. Point night, if you will, could be a good opportunity for Gavin McKenna to rack up points. I know that Celebrini did the same last year, Bedard the year before that.

And in the four meetings that these two teams have had, they've averaged 11.25 goals per game. So eight and a half. I'll take the over there. And I like Bobby McMahon to get two plus shots tonight in the game against the Detroit Red Wings. He's done this in 12 of his last 14 games this season. Two plus shots.

You can parlay those two together over on FanDuel. Today's Bets Bets powered by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel Sportsbook app today and find thousands of ways to play. Please play responsibly. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. So a couple games tonight. Got the World Juniors coming up.

7.30 right here on 10.50. And then you got the Maple Leafs in action tonight as well. Taking on Detroit. The new coach bump. Will we see it? Do you think Detroit can finally end their losing streak? Get back into the winning ways, Strud? Is the new coach bump going to come through tonight?

Man. No, I think that Leafs. They should win. They're the better squad on paper. I don't know what the numbers would suggest, but I thought going on the road for the first game after Christmas was better. I thought it was easier than staying home.

So for that, I guess that evens out the coach bump and the better team wins, especially with Tanev in there. Yeah, I like Tanev coming back. Well, this is a Red Wings team. They couldn't have been playing much worse, which is why Derek Lalonde's no longer coaching them. You've got to think there's some guys playing for their existence in Detroit

with Todd McClellan, who's known as a pretty hard-nosed coach, looking over their shoulders. It's got to change something, and if it doesn't, where does Eisenman go from there? Yeah, so they've got a lot to play for. Life after Matthews, I suppose. No Matthews tonight or tomorrow. Ovi returning for that one, so both should be pretty solid games.

Strutty, really appreciate it. It was a blast, just like it was the other day. And Festruck, always fun, boys. Always fun. Thanks, guys. Great seeing you guys. Absolutely. We'll be back Monday at 4 p.m. We'll chat then.