OverDrive - OverDrive - March 16, 2026 - Hour 2 - Frank Corrado/Sudarshan Yellamaraju

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

Join Aaron Korolnek and Dave Feschuk for Hour 2 on OverDrive! TSN Hockey Analyst Frank Corrado on the Maple Leafs' roster direction, Auston Matthews' injury and the lack of response from the team. PGA Tour Golfer Sudarshan Yellamaraju on his impressive THE PLAYERS Championship performance, learning golf from YouTube and leaping up the leaderboard and Aaron hands out his FanDuel Best Bets.

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Visit a bell store or bell.ca. Blu dot days for details. Bell, connection is everything. Second hour. This is Overdrive. Coralick Feschuk in for Hayes Noodles and the O-Dog. Frank Carrado is going to join us momentarily. Sudarshan, Yelamirajou, whose name I am really getting good at saying.

You are. And this is my, was my concern heading in today's program. And Doogie told us that Sudarshan was going to join the show. Finished T-5, Dave, at the players. And he was unbelievable. This guy's playing in front of Scotty Shep or in front of Rory McElroy was just 19th on the Corn Ferry Tour, a Canadian, lives in Mississauga,

spend his formative years in Winnipeg. I mean, he is really taking a big step, and I made it my personal mission to pronounce his name correctly as much as I could. So kudos to me. And you're doing it really well, and thankfully, like, you got a little practice because the guys on the PGA tour broadcasts.

Saying it a lot. You're saying it a lot on the weekend. Yeah, no doubt about that. Well, another name we're saying a lot these days is Austin Matthews, and it's time for something to shoe on, brought to you by Boston Pizza. Canada's favorite sports bar.

Enjoy $15 lunch of BP where you get an entree, a side, and a drink. You'll get it all in 20 minutes or less. A fast lunch, doesn't have to be fast food. See you for a $15 fast lunch at your local Boston pizza. On Overdrive's Twitter account, at Overdrive 1050, why are the Maple Leaf succeeding without Austin Matthews in the lineup? The options. Increase team game, sense of embarrassment, too much focus on 34 or better lineups.

Where do you cast your vote, Dave? Yeah, I think it comes down to the embarrassment factor for sure. I'm with you. I think the embarrassment factor that they were widely, widely, absolutely criticized and rightly so for not responding to the Radco Gudis hit. And then they responded. They didn't respond, and then Baroubaik presumably chewed them out in the dressing room. And ever since then, five of possible six points in the standings,

they're rolling. and I also think there's the other thing we talked about at the top of the show. All the pressure's off now, man. The season's lost. There is no expectation. In fact, the expectation is we wouldn't mind if you lost. And here they go to say, now is the time we turn it on. Well, let's call it what it is.

The Toronto Maple Leafs were a national embarrassment for the last five days, right? I mean, everybody's talking about it across NHL on TNT. You're seeing the Kachuk Brothers podcast talk about it. We're talking about it. everybody's talking about it and no one is speaking glowingly about the Toronto Maple Leafs and their response. Inevitably, they are going to respond with, again, you saw Joe Wall get bumped on Saturday. Look at Morgan Riley, everyone grabbing the guys on Buffalo. Like, you have to do it.

If you have the slightest shred of pride in your profession, you've got to step up and play with more pace, more energy. And that's exactly what the Maple Leafs have been doing for the three games now since Matthews has been hurt. How long can they say? sustain that remains to be seen. But needless to say, we'll find out tomorrow night when the islanders come to town. Let's head to the Maple Toyota hotline where Frank Carrato, TSN Hockey analyst, joining us live from Montreal wearing his carrying place t-shirt. Chesco, great to see you. Thank you for doing this. What's going on, boys? Great to be with you. What are we talking about? Well, why don't you answer that question? There's something that you on. Why are the least playing so

well without Matthews. Do you think it is purely about the embarrassment that they have been subjected to nationally since the lack of response on Thursday against Anaheim? They're not playing well. They're winning games. Joseph Wall's playing unbelievable. Like they're shooting the lights out right now, but they are not playing well. Like they're not carrying possession. They're getting a lucky streak of hockey at the wrong time in their season. And you can't look at anything and say like, oh, they're forechecking so much better. They have the puck a lot.

None of those things are true right now. They are getting carried at the wrong time by some players that are having spikes in their shooting percentage and a goalie that is playing unbelievable. Well, Frankie, I was looking at the overall stats of this season, to your point, their second last in the league and shot differential. Only Chicago's been outshot worse than them on a night-to-night base. I mean, when you look at that number

and the point that you're making about how they're not carrying possession at all, because that's a good proxy of possession as any, I mean, how much do you put on Barouba's tactics and how much do you put on the fact that this team just doesn't play for Baroubae, you know, in terms of will over skill? So I was kind of looking back at some of the early season projections today because all these analytic companies, they have these models that you kind of punch the roster into

and the schedule and the strength of it, and it gives you a point projection. The Leafs were around 100 points on all these different things, like all these different models. And so, you know, when you look at the way that they have performed this season and you see where they're at, like, I guess they were supposed to be a 100-point team. If everyone played the way they're supposed to and they lived up to their expectations, that means power play was good, goaltending was good, you know, the guys who had to score,

scored goals, but it didn't happen. So, you know, a big part of that is do they play the right system for the players that they have? And do they really want to, like, do they want to dig in? Do they want to compete? Because you can make up for a lot of, like, lack of skill. And you can make up for a cold shooting percentage with just a little bit of will, a little bit of willingness to do a little bit more. And, you know, you can't sit here and look back at this season and say that that has been the case.

If anything, it's been the opposite way. So, you know, Dave, to answer your question, like there's probably the wrong philosophy of the way this team should be playing and some of that has to fall on the coach some of it has to fall on the GM for assembling the team the way they they are and ultimately yeah like the players are the ones playing so that has to fall on them as well because they never overcame the adversity that they found this season frank we were talking about the repercussions from the matthews injury the Goudis knee, the lack of response, everything that has ensued since. And I am curious to know your thoughts on how you think that could affect the team building of the Toronto Maple Leafs going forward. An incident like that, I would call it the crescendo of the season. I think you look at it as maybe the defining moment of the season, perhaps the era of the Toronto Maple Leafs

that has been. If you were tree living or the people above him, does that do anything? The lack of response with how you're looking to build the team this off season? Well, like, how does it not? How does it not do anything for you if you're in charge? Like, how many different examples does the group need to say, like, hey, we have to be proactive in these kinds of situations and no one can take liberties at our players. Did you guys see what happened with Drysidal last night? Like, he gets hit by Ozzy Weisblatt.

And the whole night, it was, we are getting Ozzy Weisblatt back. You know, last night I called the Montreal game, and Kirby Doc got hit. It was a clean hit. The guy who hit him was Jeffrey V.L. Plays for Anaheim. The rest of the night, anytime Arbor Jack Guy was on the ice with him, poking him, shoving him, shouting at him. Same with Josh Anderson.

It was like they made a point of making sure that, like, hey, man, we're going to do everything we can to make sure you're uncomfortable the rest of the night. Now, the crazy thing is VL had a nice assist for the winner, and he wouldn't fight any of those guys. But that's besides the point. like, A.K., do you remember when Morgan Riley cross-checked Ridley Gregg for that slap shot into the empty net? And that play was an overcompensation at the time for the team being called out for not sticking up for one another and not having that jam in that juice. And Morgan Riley took a, was it, a five-game suspension or a six-game suspension?

It was an overcompensation. And now what we're seeing is another one because of what happened with Austin. Austin Matthews, but I would say, like, what happened in between that? Like, why did it not go from, okay, we're going to overcompensate on this thing, however long ago that was, and we're not going to let up because we've learned our lesson. But now it's the same group, same players that are on the ice in that situation, and here you go, like star players down on the ice. So as far as how that affects things, I mean, put yourself in Austin Matthews' issues. if you're him and his agent and you're talking about where you want to be long term.

Like he deals with a lot here. He's been heard a lot. And now on top of it, he sees other star players and even just regular players on other teams get hit and go down. And everyone makes a big issue about it. And no one made a big issue for it here in Toronto. Yeah. So I would imagine like it would be natural to start having the conversations about like,

you know, what does this look like in the long term? I think it's just a natural reaction. Frankie, you can look at that a couple of ways, right? If you're Austin Matthews, and you want to look outwardly, you could say, hey, what's that say about my teammates that they don't come to my defense, right? What's that say about my teammates that they don't jump Ratko Gudis and make his life hell for the rest of the night? You could also say, if you were a little more introspective, what's it say about me that they don't come to defend me?

Sure. Where do you lie? Where do you sort of sit on that continuum of how much as this is on the captain for setting the culture that exists on this team? So I would put it to you this way. If Toronto was known as a team that was always in scrums and getting after guys and they never let their guard down and they stuck up for everyone, that includes Anthony Stolars earlier this season. if that was the case and nothing happened with Austin Matthews, Dave, I think you're right. I think you're, you look at that introspectively and say, well, why am I like, did I do something? Like, is it, is it me?

But we have more than enough evidence now with this group that it's not necessarily about the individual. It's about all the individuals within this group that, like, for some reason, it feels like all these, these things happen and it's muted. And it's like this vanilla reaction, whereas if that happens on, I would say just about every other team, like, there's something going down. Remember last year, like the Buffalo Sabres, Alex Tuck got hit really hard. I think it was Nason. Nason hit him at like right at the blue line.

It was a big hit. And like no one did anything. And that was, that was a big issue in Buffalo. And now you look at the Sabers, Dalline's getting cross-checked. He's fighting. He's, like, there's a lot of, there's a lot. There's been like a galvanized. moment within that Buffalo Sabres group where you look at and say, they're not looking back anymore.

Toronto never had that, like, we're not looking back anymore, galvanizing moment, and they've had plenty of opportunities to do it. And, you know, furthermore to that, it's not, like, not every player is going to be comfortable fighting Radco Gudis. Like, I could tell you firsthand, I was never a guy that wanted to get into a fight. Like, I just, it just wasn't for me. But if it's just the mentality of all the players saying, we're all in there. He can't punch all four of us in the face. He can't fight all four of us. And the worst case, we're just going to jump on them. And we're just going to say, you can't do this anymore. But maybe it just feels like if you're one guy going in alone, the pack leaves you behind. The same way that the pack left behind Austin Matthews when he

got need. So there is no pack mentality. Frank Carrado, TSN hockey analyst, our guest here in the second hour of overdrive. So Bo Gruz scores twice. last night for the Leafs. A couple nice goals, too. Of course, languished in the HL all year long, and now he's up with the big club thriving. How much can we derive from this frame?

Because you played in that 2015-16 season for the Leafs, you got a great opportunity when the games didn't have that much meaning. When you look at games like this for guys like Gru and Quillen and Cowan and Matthias Michelli would be yet another example, how much can we really take away from these games in your opinion?

Well, I think for the individual, you could take away that it means a lot for Bo Gru. Like, it means a lot for Matthias Machelli and Easton Cowan that, you know, these guys are fighting for their NHL futures in different ways. Like for Bo Grue, he wants to be an everyday guy. For Easton Cowan, you know, what is your ceiling at the NHL level? And the more reps, the more experience you get, the better off you should be in the long term. You know, so I think the bigger question you have to ask yourself with these guys that are, you know, coming up and playing well, is that from an organizational standpoint, why did you not think that

these guys could help you earlier on? Like, why do you guys sign with this organization? And they get a lot of money to play in the minors, but that's it. You never hear from them again. It's like Bo Gru is Alex Stevens and, you know, is Adam Goddette who scored 20 goals with the senators last year? And like, you go through the list of these guys that have kind of been stuck in the organization, you know, I'll give you another example. Michael Posetta, he spent the last four years in the NHL. And, you know, they've been wanting to play this like heavy, robust, four check, in your face, willing to fight. Like, that was his job in the NHL, the last four seasons. You didn't think at some point in November or December or January, like, these guys could

have helped you when we were watching terrible, stale, slow, clunky hockey. So, like, I think what you learn from an organizational, standpoint is that there's youth and there's energy that can help you. So why not go to it sooner? And for these other guys, they are hungry. They're hungry to make a name for themselves. They're hungry for another contract and they want to be NHLers. And in the case of Easton, he wants to be a really good NHLer.

So I think that's what you learn about those guys. Frankie, there's a lot of talk about the way this league does not protect its stars. And this is a conversation that goes back to, you can go back a long time. in history, Mary Lemieux calling the NHL a garage league and on down the list. And here it is again, because of the five-game suspension handed out the

Rat Code Gutus. And there's some talk to there should be some reform. And yet I always come back to, you've been a member of the NHLPA Frankie, and you know as well as anybody that there were two players involved in this transaction. Gouda's sticking out the knee and Matthew's taking the brunt of it. And the

NHLPA and those hearings represents them both, right? And represents them both. the same figure. Star player is not treated any differently than the guy who took out the star player. And for that reason, I'm not sure how you change things. How do you see it? So you bring up a good point in the sense that like we always talk about it from the sense of discipline. Player X got hit in a bad way. So player Y needs to be suspended a long time. The same group represents both those guys. So financially, the guy who made the hit, Everyone within that group has to come to an agreement that we want tougher suspensions

and we are going to be willing to deal with the financial losses that come with that. So all of a sudden now a four-game suspension is really a six or a seven, and I'm out $100,000 more on my salary. And everyone has to be okay with that. And if they are, if the PA is okay with that, they can go to the NHL and say, we are lobbying for tougher suspensions. But then the other side of it is the NHL and the GMs, they're going to have to sit there and say,

okay, well, now we have to be okay with our star, no, maybe not star players, but our players being suspended longer and being out of the lineup longer. And so both those sides need to kind of come together and say, we want to change the standard, and here's what we're willing to do. I guess until you have that kind of initiative, we are where we are,

where GMs don't necessarily want their regular players out of the lineup when they commit infractions. And if push came to shove and you asked me, like, you know, do I want more of a financial penalty because I'm going to be suspended longer? Because you're on both sides of it. The PA is on both sides of it. The players who get suspended and the players who get hurt. So what's the priority as a group? And like that feels like a complex situation for all those parties to agree and say,

okay, here's where we're moving. Well, you heard the commentary from Judd Moldaver, who's Matthews agent, also McDavid's agent, and you hear McDavid come out and talk about the possibility of reviewing what they should do with player safety. Clearly, that'll be a big topic of conversation down at the gym. That's a big deal, AK. Like, I remember playing in the league and being a guy who was not known,

like, you know, you're just a guy, right? And within our, you know, our conversations, we would always say, like, if Jonathan Taves or Sidney Crosby or Patrick Cain, if those guys speak up, then it means something. And then you can get stuff done. But if it's just, you know, if it's just regular guys speaking up about things, no one's going to listen. The fact that Connor McDavid is speaking up about suspensions,

and I think he did it in the right way, then that will get people's attention. And maybe that's how a conversation starts to happen. but that's the right voice that needs to start that dialogue. Well, it's amazing you think about the Edmonton Oilers as a whole dry-sidal. Chris Knobla comes out in the last half an hour so says he's going to miss some time. The playoffs right around the corner. All of a sudden, the Oilers have a new goaltender.

Tristan Jari is no longer their starter. They're rolling with Ingram and rightfully so. And Festchuk and I were debating during the break, Frank. Worst trade, the Brandon Carlo trade to Toronto or the Tristan Jari trade, to Edmonton. Who would more so like a mulligan on those deals between Tree Living and Stan Bowman? Well, I think the fact that you have Connor Ingram there kind of it mitigates the after effects of the Jari trade.

Like, Frasier Minton just scored the shootout winner for Boston the other day. Like he's a really good player. At times he's been like they're, he's been one of their top two centers at points this season. and a first round pick and Toronto's a bad team this year and it's only top five protected

like that is that is the worst trade at the time you know we can we can go back and do the revisionist history like a lot of people in this market were happy that there was a right shot D that was rangey that could play with Morgan Riley and Toronto had pushed their chips all in to try and win a Stanley Cup but the crazy thing

about the Edmonton one is you know they stuck by Stuart Skinner for so long. And then at the start of the season, they said they had changed the goalie coach and that was going to help out. And then they finally made the trade. But after all that time, they made the trade for a maybe. Like if Tristan Jari plays well, we should have a better goalie here.

Why wait that long to make a trade for an if? Why not eventually do it for a sure thing or as close to a sure thing as you could possibly fine. And so you were patient, patient until you weren't, and now you're dealing with a goalie that makes too much money for what he is and is not going to be part of your solution. It doesn't seem like anyways, unless things really turn around, but it has not gone well for him there. We've had that debate about should the Leafs, you know, maybe engineer a tank here, right? Can you say, hey, Stolar's and Wall, you've had health problems all year, take the rest of the year off, we're going to bring up back to him off and Hildo me and have them start.

Matthew Nyes, you've had, you know, you've been having a niggle all year. You tried to go back to Scottsdale during the Olympic break. Now, take the rest of the year off. You could sort of find a way to bring up a lot more Marley's and engineer that tank. Are you in favor of kind of getting that out of the way now? Like try and do well in the lottery, get that asset in hand? Or do you not feel, I've heard people say, it doesn't really matter because if, you know, if they don't, if the Bruins don't get the pick this year, they're going to get it next year.

unprotected anyhow. So, you know, just play and keep going and don't make it a priority. How would you do it if you were Brad Tree Living and you had the opportunity to maybe do a personnel engineering assignment here? Man, like imagine, like, just imagine this for a second, though, Dave. Like, you try your best to build a team that you think can win and compete. And, you know, the season starts. And now, what are we, six months later, you have to try and convince yourself that you have to reverse engineer it and go the other way. Like that is, that's a tough, it's a tough line of thinking.

I don't care who you are or how bad your season is gone. It's tough to pivot to that. The, you know, my experience, having been on a team that finished in last place and eventually got the first overall pick is it kind of just happened organically to a certain degree, right? Like we had, we had a bunch of players that got traded at the deadline. And then we had guys that had knicks and bruises and aches and pains and they all got shut down. Hey, you have a little bit of a strain? Gone. You took a puck off the foot. You have a bone bruise? You're done. And, you know, we played with a skeleton roster. They rewarded a lot of the veteran guys that were with the Marleys. Keep in mind, like that year, there was like, you know, Kappan and Nylander and Hyman. And there

were some, like, veteran guys on that Marley's team that really did a good job of not going to say babysitting them, but, you know, cultivating a culture there. So those guys all got rewarded with like, you know, bonus NHL games. And so, you know, you had all these players kind of shuffling back and forth and it led to some losses. And eventually the organization got Austin Matthews. How do you do that this season? I mean, you're not, you're not going to be brazen about it. You can't. But if an opportunity arises to shut someone down or you could phrase it as, we're just going to give guys looks in the minors because this is where we're at, if at least the losses, it leads to losses. But, you know, if you could, I think in a perfect world,

if you believe the pieces are there to be a better team next season, they should be, you could find a way to put yourself in position to keep the pick this year and then maybe hand over an unprotected 19th overall pick next year. I don't know. If you think you're, if you think you can turn it around that quickly. But that's, if you can't engineer a good team, how much harder is it to like reverse engineer this situation? Like that's tough to pull off. You're almost trying to thread the needle. Frank, terrific stuff.

Love the T-shirt. Our boy, Sue Darshan, is going to join us on their side. Should I invite him to men's night at carrying place? Maybe you'll be able to pick up the tab for him. What do you think? I think you should. I think you should ask him. We'll get them out in the summer.

And hey, you know the meal afterwards. Oh, it's pretty good. Veal shops, baby. Can't wait. If it only, maybe turn to, positive temperatures here in Toronto. We might be able to tee it up soon. Thank you, Frank.

Okay, boys. Have a good one. You too. That is Frank Corrano. TSN hockey analyst. Joining us on the Maple Toyota hotline. Red Tag days are here with the all-electric Toyota BZ. goes from zero to 100 in just 5.1 seconds.

Charges from 10 to 80% in just 30 minutes. Drop by Maple Toyota today. That is high-quality efficiency right there. And yeah, you know what? It's a very fascinating time for the Leafs. And I don't see them pulling the shoot, going full tank mode yet. But if they were to, it all starts in goal. You cannot be running wool installars out there.

As Frankie intimated at the beginning of that segment, because those guys are going to win games. If you have Acta Yamov in there who's a kid, very little professional experience, then you have a chance to really suck down the stretch. But wall installars are going to pick up too many points for you. We just saw it over the weekend. And guess what?

You just signed the guy, acting him off to a three-year deal. Bring him up. Let's see what the kids got. He's got one NHL game on his resume. He needs more. There is no better time than right now to give them to him. I couldn't agree more.

Matthew Nyes, you're good, buddy. You're good. And this is the prudent decision. Organizationally for the Toronto Maple Leafs. It's almost indisputable as far as I'm concerned. And we just like Jake McCabe, you're in your 30s.

You've led the NHL and block shots. Take the rest of the year off, bro. I do wonder, though, and we saw it in the NBA, Utah just sitting everybody. This was like two, three weeks ago. Yeah. The NBA levying a rather significant fine, as all things considered, to the Utah Jazz. And who's the other team also? What's about Indiana?

Indiana. So, I don't know, is Gary Bettman going to be like, well, you're shutting down all your players. We're going to find you? Well, exactly. And like, who cares? Your MLSC. It is absolutely within your best interest to lose hockey games, the final 14 games this season. but they're still running all these guys out there,

even without Matthews, and their record without Matthews is absurd. 47, 24 and 10, something crazy. First of all, the NBA's tanking punishments are a joke. I mean, the team that should have been fine for tanking is the Washington generals. No kidding. Wizards, not so wizardly, who allowed the 83-point game and who in a game against the Raptors pulled their starters late in the game

and didn't bother trying to win. Washington has Trey Young and Anthony Davis in the sideline. Exactly. No, it's a joke. It's a joke. Well, we'll see if the leaves, maybe take a page from the Washington Wizards. We have Sudarshan, Yelamaraju, joining us on the other side. Let me tell you, Dave, when Doogie sent the text of the group chat that Sudarshan was joining the show, there was a lot of excitement. This guy finished T5 at the players yesterday.

He calls into overdrive next. Something to chew on is brought to you by Boston Pizza, Canada's favorite sports bar. Enjoy $15 lunch at BP, where you get an entree, a site, and a drink, and you'll get it all in 20 minutes. or less, a fast lunch doesn't have to be fast food. See you for a $15 fast lunch at your local Boston pizza. Hour 2 continues. You're watching and listening to Overdrive, brought to you by Fandul, bringing you more ways to play your game, your way.

Coralnik Feschuk in for Brian, Jamie, and Jeff today. And what a week it was of the Players' Championship down at TPC Sawgrass. Should give our love to our boy, Luca Policelli, who won the giveaway down at TPC Sawgrass. The TSN 1050 giveaway made a hole in, at Dyes Valley, the golf course close by to TBC Sawgrass in the midst of the incredible experience down at the golf course. What a weekend for Luca. And big thanks to the PGA tour for setting that up. I did not hear that he made a hole in wood. Oh, yes, he did. On the Sunday, yes, yesterday. So pretty good weekend inside the ropes and the PGA tour hooked it up for him. It was truly

something special. And the same applies to our next guest because we saw the arrival of one of the bright young stars in Canadian golf. Sudarshan Yala Marajou, top five finish, $925,000 payday from India to Winnipeg to Mississauga, a winding road

that leads him here to overdrive tonight. Sudarshan, thank you so much for doing this. Congratulations on your success. How you feeling? Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah, it feels good, you know. That's kind of a night to kind of reflect on the past weekend I had. And, you know, yeah, it was a really awesome week for sure.

Obviously, playing in the players a big tournament, playing on TPSA Sagas, a great golf course, and then to top it off with a great weekend from finding to kind of make the cut and having a good chance to kind of come down the stretch and get in some sort of contention, it was pretty cool. Well, man, I can speak for myself, and I know Dave feels the same way.

we were cheering for you. I was so fired up. Every bird you made, you're getting closer, closer to the top of the leaderboard. And there was a moment there on Sunday when Oberg was just blasting balls into the water. You were at 10 under. And I thought, oh, my God, is Darshan about to make a run here? Unfortunately not, but you did finish T5. $925,000 payday. Any thoughts as to maybe what you might spend that?

And he splurges you've been thinking about or is it just business as usual for you? Yeah, no, I mean, you know, yeah, it's a big big payday, but I'll be honest, the main thing is the points that I got is a good chunk of points, which is huge for at the end of season, and at least right now, you know, to try to get into the bigger events, the signature events and et cetera, and then obviously the big jump in the world ranking. So those are, the money is money, but I think the main thing is the points of the world ranking jump is huge. So, Siddarshan, we know your story a little bit. The broadcast brought up the fact that you're a self-taught guy, that you mostly use YouTube videos as your main swing coach, so to speak. You know, is that, you know, a lot's been made of that. Is that, you know, when you think about that, you know,

how unusual have you found yourself to be among your peers? And how much do you get asked about that? I wouldn't say I get asked about it a lot. and, you know, to honestly, I don't feel like it's unusual because at the end of day, you're just going and playing golf, and, you know, golf is sport where there's not really one way of playing the game. At the end of the day, you just got to get the ball into the whole and the fewest number of shots possible. And, I mean, we've seen so many different players play the game and different styles of the game.

So, yeah, I mean, there's no one way of doing it, and you just got to just play the best golf you can. Sudarshan at Yelamaraju is our guest here in hour two of overdrive. So you're out there yesterday. McElroy's right there, a couple groups ahead of you, Scottie Sheffler's, a couple groups behind you. I mean, it must have just been in a crazy environment for you. And I know you've played in some professional tournaments before, but those crowds, that atmosphere in the mix at the players?

I mean, what was that experience like? Because it must have been something that you really haven't experienced before. Yeah, no, I mean, well, to be honest, played in the Phoenix Open, so that was pretty, pretty crazy. But I think it was in a different reason because it was just the whole thing of the 16th and all that. And it was kind of more the entertainment of just being there. So they're kind of watching the golf a little bit, but just they're trying to have fun.

But Zizu K was kind of, you know, when I had the stretch of birdies in the third round, actually Scotty was playing in front of me. So he had a lot of people following. And I guess maybe when I started making a few birdies, they kind of fell back and started watching me a bit. So that was that. And then, you know, yesterday I played with JJ's pawn. So again, he won the O'S open last year.

So he has fans that were kind of watching him too. And then I guess with me playing well, they just started kind of piling up and starting watching me. So it felt pretty, it was pretty cool for sure. I mean, you know, the fans are supporting me throughout the two rounds, you know, keeping me motivated, trying to keep my energy up. And, yeah, it was a pretty cool week. And, like I said, playing with all the great players around me and all that was pretty cool.

So, Sardarshan, I understand you've withdrawn from the tournament this week, the Valspar. Can you talk about that? And I guess, like, what's the biggest change in your life when you're suddenly on the leaderboard among all those great names and everybody's talking about you? Yeah. I mean, first off, I mean, obviously it's not a decision because I know as a rookie. you want to play everything and you know obviously I played well last week and stuff like that but I think I kind of looked at it as a point of view I've already played three straight weeks

up to now and then I have another three straight week coming up so if I play six straight it can be a lot and by the time you get to that fifth and sixth week or even next week it's going to be a long week especially the week I had so you know like I said I didn't want to I obviously wanted to play as many as I can, but, you know, I kind of looked at it, okay, give my chance to kind of have some rest and then get ready for the two. And then, I mean, it's a long season ahead. So when I get the chance, I should kind of take advantage of that. And I live in Jacksonville as well.

So, I mean, it was pretty easy decisions to say, okay, I was going to spend another week at home. And then, yeah, about being on the leader board. To be honest, I wasn't really thinking about it too much. I mean, you obviously have the leerboards out there and you see it, but you get used to it when you're playing tournaments, you know, okay, you play well, you're going to be up there, but, you know, I was just trying to play one shot at a time, play the best of the golf I could.

I mean, I never really thought I had a chance of winning. I mean, it almost did happen, but, you know, I had to do something pretty miraculous. So, yeah, all that experience was pretty cool. You mentioned you're spending a lot of time out in Jacksonville. When you're back in the greater Toronto area, where are you playing most of your golf? Right now it's just at the TPC. That's kind of the easiest place to go because, I mean, you know, I'm not, like you said,

I don't really get to spend much time at home because you're so busy with the season. And then obviously you can't golf up in Toronto right now. So the only time if I do would be starting, I don't know, April, May or in the summer months, but even then you're still playing week after week almost. So, yeah, that would be the other place I go to right now. Well, you're going to have a big gallery at TBC Toronto at Osprey Valley come June for the RBC Canadian Open. We can't wait to see you there.

You'll be one of the top contenders, excuse me, and we're really fired up for that tournament, very fired up for your success. So again, congratulations. Enjoy the week off, and we'll see you in June. Thank you. Thank you, guys, for having me. It is our pleasure.

that is Svdarshan Yela Miraju. And what a week. 925 grand going toe to toe to with guys like J.J. Spahn, Schaeffler's there. McElroy's there. That must have been some experience. And again, he seemed very calm and poised and composed.

And that's what you need to be when you're playing for those type of stakes on the PGA tour. Oh, without a doubt. But, you know, you have to be so happy for a guy like this because it's so tough to make that jump, right? Like, that's the toughest jump in pro sports to my mind because it's one thing. to be doing well on the PGA Tour Americas or the P. and the Corn Ferry Tour, the two rungs below the PJ Tour, but you don't really make a living, much of a living on those two tours, right? You're kind of just scraping by. This is the first time you can actually make, you know, the kind of money that will actually sustain you for a period where you don't have to stress over, you know, the little

things that most pro-golferes on that lower rungs have to stress about. And now to get that big check, that takes a lot, a lot of stress out of the system. Yeah, and obviously the points and the elevated world ranking is huge. And again, I mentioned earlier in the show how your article on Sudarsian was the first thing I read when I was Googling him during the term. And I'm seeing him pop up on all these highlights, birdie, birdie, Canadian guy. The guy, the story is incredible, right? And you could tell it better than I, but born in India, moves to Winnipeg, learns how to play golf in the Gulf Dome in Winnipeg, then moves to Mississauga and everything's just been on the ascent from there.

It's an unbelievable story. Yeah, I mean, won the Ontario amateur at 16, which is a pretty young age to win it. I mean, it's a man's tournament, right? It's not a junior tournament, and he was a junior at the time. And then he makes the really unusual decision where, you know, so many of the Canadian pros of this generation, the Corey Connors and Adam Hadwins and Nick Taylor's and McKenzie Hughes, they were all college guys, right? They all went to, they spent four years at a U.S. college honing their game playing amateur golf. He said, you know what?

I don't want to do that. I'm going to become a pro as a teenager, turned pro right out of high school. I mean, some guys do it, but, you know, it's not the regular route, right? So the thing I like about Siddarshan, he's not interested in the regular route. He's interested in the route that makes sense to him, which is why he hasn't done what everybody else does and hire a swing coach and done what everybody else does and went to college. He's kind of carved his own path and it's working for him. No doubt.

I don't know if I would have withdrawn personally. I know he lives in the Jacksonville era. While you're hot, keep it rolling, man. Keep it rolling. But again, he knows what he's doing. Again, the guy just finished T5 at the players. I don't think he needs any advice from me. We should let you know the overtrive, PGA PX,

brought to you by TaylorMade. It is time to find your new fast with QI4D drivers. TaylorMade's fastest, most fitable drivers. Learn more at TailormadeGolf.ca.ca. C.I.4D. Congratulations to Brian Hayes, who did select Cameron Young in the tournament. That's a big winner there for Brian.

I mean, I thought Matthew Fitzpatrick had a good shot at winning, but that drive, that prodigious drive from Cameron Young and 18, the longest ever drive on 18 in the shot link era, I believe is what it is, 375 yards, an absolute missile. And again, there's a world day in which Cameron Young is the RBC Canadian Open winner. If he doesn't blast that three would over the green by 30 yards on 18 at TBC Toronto, he makes an eagle, even he makes a birdie, I believe he would have been in the playoff with Ryan Fox and Sam Burns. We thought he couldn't miss.

We thought he was like he was in the playoff for sure. Yeah, for sure. And, of course, we know how that all played out. And Ryan Fox hit that iconic shot on, like, with the fourth playoff, all against Sam Burns. Man, I'm so excited for that tournament. One of the most fun weeks of the year up at TBC Toronto. Not that far away.

It seems like it when you're outside these days. But I tell you what, man. It'll be here before we know it. That Cam Young Drive is legendary. Did you hear we said after he said, I'm just going to hit the best shot of my life? I mean, the guy is completely emotionless. Yeah.

If I just won like $5 million in the players, I might, might smile. He did not smile A single time I almost respect it You know Look at this It's up on TSM 4

4.0 smile buddy You just cashed 475 Maybe smile I guess You know I guess when you got Oh there's like a slight smile You got 50 or 60 million in the bank

It doesn't mean that much anymore But there is something to it Like That guy runs really cool You know Oberg blew the tournament And he saw his press conference How did he screw that up

What happened? particularly bothered by it. Like he wasn't freaking out. He wasn't, you know, he wasn't breaking clubs and crying. He was basically saying, eh,

and, you know, hit a couple of bad shots, a couple bad seven, what's got away from me. And Sudarshan, a pretty cool customer, right? For sure.

He's not getting too emotional out there, which I think is a, you know, look, you can do it a lot of different ways, as Sudarshan said, you know, some guys play it a lot more emotional

and run with the highs and the lows of the game and use it, to their benefit or sometimes to their detriment. But there is something about these guys, that run real low and low temperature dudes. And there's something to be said for it in those really, you know, kind of caldrony moments because that was a pretty fiery atmosphere yesterday with the USA chance that certainly seemed to get to Matt Fitzpatrick a little bit,

as an Englishman. Fitts he's had a nice year. He's a guy who could make some noise at Augustine National in a couple weeks, I think for sure. Oldberg, too. I mean, I know he's at the top of the Fandu'll odds. Yeah, remember, yeah, absolutely. He and Homa a couple of years ago were right there fine for that.

tournament and it's going to be great. You going this year, Dave? I'm planning to go and won't it be interesting if the guy that we just assume is going to be at the top of the leaderboard, Scotty Schaeffler, continues to sort of look a little bit human. Oh, very human. Again, Scotty Schaeffler's game is not nearly what it was last year. Irons have been way, way worse.

Last year his iron play was vastly superior to anyone else. Now it's above average, but the proximity to the whole, Scotty Schaeffler is not the same player. He's clearly the favorite to win the Masters, but I don't know. I think it's wide open. I cannot wait. That's the best week of the year. It's hard to be. Best week of the air. You're a fan of golf. I'll have my Fandulow best bets to wrap things up. I'm Aaron Kournick. That is Dave Festchuk. You're watching and listening to Overdrive on TSN4, TSN 1050, and TSN's YouTube channel. Hour two winding down here on Overdrive, Korolnik, Festchuk, in for the usual trio of Hayes, McClennon and O'Neill.

It is time now for today's best bets, excuse me, powered by Fandul. Make your picks. Assembly, same game parlay in seconds on the Fandul's Sportsbook app. We're on the Rangers tonight, Artemey Panarin back in town with the L.A. Kings. Rangers are playing some good hockey. That top line with Gabe Perot

and Laffranier and Zabinajads looked really good and J.T. Miller back in there. The Rangers continue their solid play. Pittsburgh, plus a goal and a half. Malkin back in the lineup for Pittsburgh. They're getting Brazo back as well. I like that play. And I like the Detroit at Red Wings as well hosting the Calgary Flames. Today's best bets, powered by Fandwell.

Same game parlayers around the NHL are available on the Fandul Sportsbook app. Please Play Responsibly 19 plus, physically located in Ontario. One thing we haven't mentioned, a big win for the Raps yesterday against Detroit, which was a great game. And again, the Raptors are a team. It's been the same story all year long. They can't beat the top teams in the NBA. Detroit, absolutely, is one of the top teams in the NBA.

And Yakut Purtle was unreal for the Raptors. if they could find a way to get him to play a more consistent brand of basketball with what we've been accustomed to over the years, that could make a very big difference when competing against some of those top teams in the league. That's been the conundrum of the year, right? Like, they're two different teams. The team with the healthy-ish, well-performing Yakupurl is so much better than the team without him that it's not even close, right?

Like, it's like that's been the indictment on the management team that they haven't been able to find a suitable kind of reasonable effects. similarly to stand in for Pertil, even though you're not going to find another Pertil. But you're right. Like that's a great sign. Like, he looks, look, he looked pretty healthy against the Pistons. If he can stay that way, which has been the challenge, obviously, suddenly they're a different team. And so many of the losses have been without him in the lineup because they just get out,

they get out bolt. They get out muscled. And sometimes they get out smarter because he's the brains of the operation on a lot of possessions. Well, I think Toronto sports fans, Dave, need a pallet cleanser of sorts from the Toronto Maple Leafs, because 14 games to go in that regular season for the leaves, which are essentially meaningless. Sure, they could win out.

28 points gets them in the playoffs. But I don't think that's in the cards for the leaves. So it's essentially playing out this touring. But you've got the Raptors are going to be in the playoffs, maybe to play in, but they'll be in the mix, certainly to, you know, vie for something. And the Toronto Blue Jays next Friday, the home opener on March 27th,

amid some rather sub-far weather here in the greater Toronto area. So Leaf fans can shift their focus to teams maybe with more promising present, perhaps promising futures as well in the near future. Well, it would be fun to see a playoff run, right? If you're the Raptors, I mean, now it looks like it might be more of a play-in can't. It's going to be close. It's probably what a 50-50 shot either way. Seems that way, right?

And look, I mean, you never know, right? Like, it feels like that's what it's felt like to me all years, that there's just, there's so many unproven teams in the East. Like, like, Detroit's at the top, but yeah well again Boston gets Tateham back the Knicks are good Philly you never know what the health status but again I think a lot of people point to Boston and New York as the teams that have been there before to some extent

and Detroit's that wild card right really young team that's played unbelievable all regular season but are they going to be able to grind these playoff games the way that they've done regular season games and last year we saw Cleveland burned up the regular season and absolutely flopped in the playoffs because there is something to that whole sometimes you got to you know you got to understand that the playoffs are different and there's a learning curve there and it's not always

instant success in the regular season adds up to instant success of the playoffs. As the Maple Leafs can tell you. Very much so. Italy, Venezuela tonight in the World Baseball Classic and the winner will advance to play the Americans. I think we're all cheering for the winner of Italy and Venezuela. I will say you look at the Italian roster. It's essentially

just American. It's an American team with like vowels at the end of their last name. Yes. Aaron Nola is pitching like, yeah, he's Italian, but he just couldn't make Team USA. So that's why he's playing for Team Italy. But I'm rooting for him. It's a very quirky story. Again, they've got the espressoes in the dugouts,

and they've really embraced the Italian culture. But Venezuela is going to be a tough test for them. So we'll see how that game goes tonight, and certainly that game tomorrow night, featuring the Americans and the winner of Italy, Venezuela, will be a must-see TV. So that's something I'm looking forward to as well. It's been an unbelievable tournament to this point for the WBC.

they have to be thrilled with how it's played out. Yeah, it would have been nice of Canada. Oh, yeah, sure. Had a little bit of a better showing against the U.S., but hey, man, if we would have had Freddie Freeman and Vladdy, who's Canadian. Yeah, we'll take Vladdy. Vladdy's like the William Nylander Canadian.

Yeah. Yeah, he was born in Calgary, you know, we'll take him. He's from here. Vladdy is a Canadian technically. He wants to spend time in the Dominican. It's his choice. But imagine if we got Freddie Freeman and Vladdy for L.A. 2028.

How do you like that plan? Come on over to our side. We'll see if we could woo him. It's been blast spending the last two hours with you, Dave. Thank you very much. Thanks to Doogie and JP. Everybody behind the scenes. I'm Aaron Carole.

Brian, back tomorrow with you, right, Dave? I'll be here. All right, so that's at 4 p.m. Until then, chow. Unmistakably Canadian. It's the music that raised you. The artists raising the bar. Hi, this is Brian Adams.

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