OverDrive - OverDrive - March 17, 2026 - Hour 2 - Mike Johnson

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Join Bryan Hayes and Dave Feschuk for Hour 2 on OverDrive! TSN Hockey Analyst Mike Johnson joins to discuss Auston Matthews' injury fallout, the player safety landscape and Leon Draisaitl's injury for the Oilers. Plus, they play Confirm or Deny and Bryan gives his FanDuel Best Bets.

With corporate traveler, you get a dedicated travel expert and 24-7 support. So business travel feels effortless. Big meetings land. Business grows. With corporate traveler, the booking is just the start. Search corporate traveler today. Hour 2 overdrive continues, powered by Fandul, bringing you more ways to play your game, your way. Brian Hayesday Festruck of the Toronto Star.

Confirm with deny later in the hour, Mike Johnson coming up from Scotia Bank, Leafs Islanders tonight. St. Patrick's Day. I don't think they sell Guinness down at Scotia Bank? I mean, I don't know if they do or not. I've ever seen it down there. Yeah, like, I'm not generally a Guinness drinker, so I've never really looked into it.

They do have that one pub where they got a lot of different beers. I'm sure they've got it. I mean, I'm sure it's somewhere on top in the building. Or a can. Yes. Gotta be. Got to be. They bring it in today.

Come on. For a night like tonight, you've got to make an adjustment. Right. Although they all, you know, all these buildings, they've got deals with different. companies. I don't know who even owns Guinness. You know, if it falls under the umbrella of Molson or Budweiser or whatever, I don't know.

The global behemus of beer. There's a lot of them. There's quite a few. Less and less, though, right? They're like, they all get bought up eventually. Yeah, true enough. Yeah, true enough. But, uh, Leafs Islanders tonight.

Um, big trade in the NFL today, Jalen Waddle on his way from Miami to Denver. Like Miami is, you talk about taking it down to the studs. they are just fully committing to being effectively the worst team in the league for a couple of years. But I understand why. They haven't been competitive in so long. Well, and when you roll the dice on a quarterback and it doesn't turn out, I mean, you got to get another quarterback and how do you get one? Right?

You got a tank. Got a tank. you're kind of kidding yourself. Yeah. And this is not the draft where they're going to likely get them. I mean, there may be, Mendoza's going to likely go first overall. There's other arms in the draft. They could take them. But they've got two picks down the first round, a bunch of picks, I think in the second, third, fourth round.

They're loaded. They've gotten rid of their GM, new coach, Tua's gone, all their weapons. Tyree kills out, waddles out. They've lost linemen. Like, they're basically just saying we are fully committed to this. it kind of is the way it has to go in the NFL. I think so. Like when you have Drake May and Josh Allen

within your own division, the jets are loaded with picks. Now they'll screw it up because they're the New York Jeds. And I can't sit here and say, I have a ton of faith in the Miami Dolphins either based on what they've done in the last 20 or 30 years. No. But if you're Denver, if you're Bo Nix,

man, you got talent around you. Like you got a coach who is ubers smart and it's going to put you in a great position to succeed they got a really good defense, a great defense in Denver. You know, they were right there. They were the number one scene in the AFC this past year. And now you add Waddle, it's put up or shut up time, I think, for Bo Nex.

And that's the question, right? Can he get it done? Bo Nix really scare you, right? In a big game, yeah, the defense is great, and they've got, you're right. They got weapons. They've got weapons. And Peyton's one of the best in terms of, you know, scheming, out scheming the guy on the other sideline, for sure.

but and look I mean hey Bill's fans will tell you you know it's you know beat the bill no guarantees there's no guarantees it's no guarantees and like that game

I mean Bill's fans will replay that game in their mind a million times right and they had that game three point game should have had it on a number of plays some controversial controversial calls and that's the NFL right

but the question is like I guess I guess you can win with Bull You can probably win with Bownex. Well, I mean, you just won with Sam Darnold. And Donald's been really good the last couple of years. And I think he's proven he's further along than Bo Nex. But Peyton likes him.

You know, and Nix, he's got a live arm. And if you put weapons and everyone around you, you're going to get that. It's not always Mahomes that wins. We just proved that. But he likes him, but what's his option? Like, he's got to like him. He's stuck with him. That's the NFL. Russell Wilson was his option.

Yeah. And he made the right choice. But you're right. I mean, what else are you going to do? Bo Nex is your guy. You've got to hope. You're hoping you can bring the best out of him and get him to a level where he's not hurt. Absolutely.

Leas Islanders tonight. The Islander is one of the surprised teams. Like I was trying to put a list together today. Pittsburgh. Yeah. Buffalo. Buffalo's number one. Buffalo's number one.

Like, without question, because it's not just that they're in. They're the best team in the league the last three months. And how much fun they are to watch? They're incredibly entertaining. They're the top. seat in the east, or top seeing the division. But Pittsburgh, I think

San Jose is right there. I think the ducks are right there, although most people thought they take a big step forward, but they're leading their division right now. Columbus, if they get in, would fit the mold of a massive surprise. But the islanders, I think, have to be pretty high on this list. You know, I mean, Patrick Waugh,

you bring in Schaefer. They weren't horrible last year, but they haven't been great for a couple of years. The guy will be making a call tonight, alongside Gore Miller joins us now. Here's our TSN analyst Mike Johnson joining us on the Maple Toyota Hotline. Johnny, where does this Islanders team rank for you in terms of kind of the surprise rankings of the NHL? They would be in like tier two.

I think if we're going like the teams that overachieve the most, to me, even more than Buffalo, it's San Jose and Pittsburgh. I had, I think, both of them in last in each conference. Like that's where I thought they were going to finish. And even though Buffalo might be better and have a better chance to go further, We thought Buffalo would be around the playoff pitcher, 84 points, 86 points. Now, they might be at 92 or, sorry, 100 to 2 now. But the Islanders, yeah, you're like, well, what's changed?

Because they do just roll over so many of the same players year after year. What's changed is that Ilya Seroquen has had a Vesina caliber year, that David Riddick has come in and been a really good backup. And that Matthew Schaefer may have bearing the lead, Matthew Schaefer has come in, and it's not just the 20 goals of the 47 points. he has been a franchise altering in how they play and how they feel the energy that they have their perception around the league all of it

he has changed all of it as an 18 year old and guys maybe the best story I think I've ever heard my first game in Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens I'm from Scarborough my hometown I probably had a hundred people there I didn't get 100 tickets but I had 100 150 people there that I knew Matthew Schaefer is pushing upwards

of 1,000 people at the game tonight. And as a jaded sort of locker room guy, like sometimes rookies, they get so much oxygen, you want to say, okay, enough with the Shaper show. We get it, he's good. Like, we're a team here. That's not the case with him, not because the person he is and the story that he's,

everything he's been through. Like, I think legitimately his team, we'd be looking at, say, we have to do this for Shave tonight. It's not important to them to make it good for him. but like a thousand out of the 18,000 people. Five percent of the crowd is going to be somehow there to see Matthew Schaber, which is mind-blowing and so spectacularly amazing.

It's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah, that is incredible. And, you know, there's certain players that roll through town where, you know, they create a buzz with their presence and it becomes a game that you're going down to see them as opposed to even see in the Leafs. It's obviously more highlighted now because of the way the Leafs are playing, and the fact that their season is effectively over. But, you know, I think McDavid's held that title for a decade.

Comes through town once. Got to have a ticket. If you have access to it, got to have it. Sid, Ovi, have had that, you know, kind of presence for the last 20 years. Schaefer's pretty high on that list for me, Johnny. Like, if I could pick one kid to watch play, it's probably him or Celebrini. And, you know, we saw Celebrini roll through town about a month ago. Schaefer might be at the top of the list.

Like an ISO can go down to the rink. It's incredible. You want to watch him? you get to watch him for 27 minutes. He's going to be out there for half the game. He's whatever he is, 14th in the league and average minutes. 24 something as a rookie tonight. I'm sure if it's a close game,

he'll play 27 or more as Patrick Waugh. Maybe the right coach to play a superstar young player to let him do his thing, be aggressive, live with his mistakes. But yeah, he's amazing to watch. He's that good. And I think he only played 17 games last year with the injury and everything else. He's been an incredible story. MJ, we were talking about the Leafs

and Hayes and I were saying you know, it's tough to sell winning right now and maybe even winning next year. It's tough to sell hope because you don't have a young guys and yet you look at the Islanders as sort of a team where what would happen let's just say the Leafs theoretically you could

somehow get Matthew Schaefer next year. Like how much in your mind would one good young or great young puck moving defensemen make a difference on this Maple Leaf team? I mean, if you could put Matthew Schaefer on their team, it would make a massive difference. Of course. Of course, offensively transition,

breakouts, all those things. But what, it almost feels like there's two separate conversations going on around Toronto right now. One is, can they bounce back and be Boston? Can they turn it around and be the islanders? Yes, they can do that with the same group next year.

Absolutely they can. But I'm not going to suggest, yeah, for sure. For sure they could. If their goal, like, if their goaltending plays really well, if they have better health, they're going to change their team,

bit for sure. But I'm not mistaking the Islanders or the Penguins for a Stanley Cup contender. That's an entirely different conversation. And I do think the Leaf for the last three, four years have warranted being considered a Stanley Cup contender. I know they never got there. I know they struggled those big games. And there may be some reasons why that we're sort of identifying after the fact. But they were legitimately good enough to go multiple rounds and challenge for a cup. Scraping into the playoffs in eighth spot doing with the Boston Bruins this year are doing. The Leaves could do that, but that's not a cup winning team. So I'm not exactly sure what the objective is. If it's to get to the playoffs, they could do that with the core as is

and nibbling around the edges and things falling into place better. But to be a cup contender again, that is a far larger project for them to take. So Craig Barubei said today that they're still talking about the Goudis on Matthews hit daily around the team. Now, it has been less than a week, but it was last Thursday that happened. We're into the following week. It's Tuesday. I was off yesterday. I figured by yesterday it was kind of a dead story.

It clearly wasn't. It clearly still isn't. It certainly won't be until they go through Anaheim, I think, in two weeks. Or a week and a half from now. But is this, does this have life for like 14 more games, 15 more games, whatever they have left? Or do you see this kind of after tonight, Dian, then it comes back alive when they go to Anaheim? Like how much more oxygen is in the Goudas, Matthews, lack of response conversation? Feels Hayes like it has to maybe be in the periphery every game.

In that whether it's a reminder before they start or word on the bench or just the reality that if anything even remotely happens, everyone's piling in. I think in that sense for the next 14 games, if there is anything, anything at all, that goes on, it will be part of the overreaction that they had. So yeah, that will last till the end of the year. I can't imagine what more they can say about it. Whatever speeches they're going to have, and I agree that they should have had them. There's not much more you can say, we should have done this, we will do this in the future, you can call out guys individually, you can teach them how to fight, whatever you want to do. But after that, they got to just go out and play and then react differently. And then the Anaheim game will be the other flashpoint in this year where

I mean, I guess I'm expecting Michael Posetta to come up and fight Someone's going to fight Or go to Joshua Or fight him Multiple times Like yeah, I might have to fight him three times

And get him out of the game Or fight him and then go fight Leo Carlson Like I'm not calling for guys to get hurt But this is sort of the reality of the jungle That is the NHL at times Then it will be a story but I don't know And if hey, what if you're one of the guys in the bench

Say what you want about Max told me. He would have been in there, right? He would have been in there. And at some point for guys that would respond that way, you'd almost get tired of hearing these talks about lack of reaction or lack of this, lack of that, you're like, but it's not me.

I would do it. It was the guys on the ice that have to do it. So the whole thing has been an awkward, unpleasant, sort of humbling, emasculating experience for the guys that were out there and for the team. So it'll be in their awareness, but I can't imagine they talk about it much more

after today. Well, the league doesn't stop talking about it. MJ, obviously Matthew's agent made a lot of noise about the suspension not being adequate said that George Peros and the player safety department should be suspended for giving him a five-game suspension.

Good line. Yeah, very good line. Very good line. It's got an agent you want on your side for sure. And Peros spoke today and I'm sure you were tuned into you're a U.S. college guy. He's a Princeton guy. And, you know, he basically he reminded me to Eric Spolstra's response to the Bamatabia

83 point game the other night when the coach of the Miami Heat said, I apologize to nobody for nothing. I thought George Peros was essentially saying, we're good here. We do what we do. And if you don't like it, well, sorry. Part of George Peros's job is to take the arrows. Like that is absolutely part of the job.

You know, take it for the league and take it on the chin and be criticized and scrutinized and everything else. and he knows that. He also was very sort of confident in himself in the process they have. You could see when he was asked about his little presser today. There wasn't a lot of room for doubt that maybe they weren't doing exactly how they should do it.

Also, two things worth noting. One, the rules of the suspensions are not George's decision. He operates based on what he's told to do by the GMs and the clubs and the league. Like it's all a function of what they want the suspension to be. the same way that used to be able to jump over the boards and get a jump on the ice in the fight and then it became a 20 game suspension and then it never happened if they wanted stuff not to happen they would change the rules or the implementation of the rules to make it not

happen so while he is the face of it it is not strictly his decision on how kneeing penalties get penalized that's not just for him the other thing though is that you could have softened the stance by offering up like you know what we're always open to new ideas as good as we think we're doing with it we can always get better we're always willing to take Connor McDavid to input players want to get together we're happy to have a talk like there's none of that that could have showed a little bit of

not contrition but just openness to conversation but maybe that would be also a can of worms he doesn't want to deal with the rest of the year with Mike Johnson or TSN hockey analyst So sticking in Edmonton, obviously McDavid is healthy in playing, but dry settle is not. It was announced earlier this afternoon. He's out for the rest of the regular season. Connor Ingram's been announced as the number one starter, Tristan Jari. You're officially a backup if that.

They're hanging on by a thread. That said, they could still win the Pacific. You know, they're two points out of top spot in the Pacific and four points out of being out of the playoffs. How big of a blow? beyond the obvious, try settle out. Like how does it change your math on whether or not you believe they're going to make it, whether or not you believe they end up with home ice, winning the Pacific? What does this change in your eye in terms of the projection of the oilers the rest of the way?

So the thing they got going for them, as you said it, Pacific. It's terrible. And so they can probably get in with a low point total. What changes is the idea that we've been waiting all year long with the assumption, not the hope, but the assumption, they'll figure, it out. It'll be fine. They'll get rocking and rolling. They'll dial it up. They've been to these finals in a row. They'll last 20 games and then they'll go

in the playoffs and whether they come first or second or third or fourth, much like Florida last year would be okay wherever they end up. So the idea of them finding their best game, well, that's out the window. Because without dry settle, their best game is going to be 97 go, 97 go. And I hope for the rest. So that does change. If he's back for the playoffs and he's

100% healthy, do you not like them in a first round matchup against Anaheim? I would. Yeah, of course. You know, I would like them against L.A. or, like, you know, anyone but Vegas, I suppose, that would be a pretty heavy favorite. So that doesn't change.

But the whole thing, which we thought would smooth itself, will continue to feel scratchy the rest of the way. No dry sidels on our Ingram, Annette. We talked about this for like a month ago. Remember what I said? Would not surprise me if Ingram is playing in the playoffs. Well, sure enough, there he is. it's going to be a grind and they won't look very great the rest of the way

until maybe he gets back until maybe the playoffs and it will be harder for them to even make the playoffs or maybe get a whole mice to the playoffs given this injury well what's your level of concern mj because hayes was sort of sketching out an idea that maybe this is where macdavid goes ballistic right he he just he drags them into the playoffs you know playing 27 minutes a night and scoring like he's never scored before and maybe he wins the heart because of it. But what's he got left in the tank when game one rolls around? Always a believer in that heart.

Go ahead, Johnny. Chime in, please. Who cares? As long as he wins the heart, that is all that really matters. I'm hedging. I'm hedging. I'm calling the heart. I've hedged.

It's an official hedge. Do not maybe get Daniel Dale on this show again. We see what he can do with old video. Yeah, I mean, obviously, McDavid is. is as uniquely qualified as anyone to go out of this world and run up a ton of points and go on a tear and a heater and get to 50 goals

and get to 130 points. It's all right there that he could do. Now, he usually does that with dry saddle there. He doesn't often do that because dry saddle has really been pretty durable even when he gets hurt, he plays and he plays actually quite well when he's hurt, which maybe says something about the fact

that he's missing the last month of the season. But yeah, that that is, the great luxury they have. They have McDavid and they have their power play. So you figure that they'll be able to score three goals a game, almost on those two things alone. And if they can do the rest enough, they'll be able to win enough games to get enough points to get in the playoffs.

It just won't feel like they are a legit contender. It feels like if they were to bump in under the current state to any of those central teams, even with Minnesota not playing great, they would lose that series. That's the way it feels today. Right. And I think that's the big change with dry saddle out. Well, if you move to the east, you know, Edmonton's the lone Canadian team in the playoffs at West, the haves are the lone team out east.

But they are also not necessarily breathing easy right now. Like Columbus is chugging. Ottawa is chugging. And the haves have Boston in town tonight. They're at Detroit on Thursday. And those are the two teams directly behind them within the division. You know, even Tampa is not exactly breathing easy right now. like this is a real race, but, you know, Marty St. Louis, he sat, healthy scratch, Brendan Gallagher a couple nights ago, first time in his career.

Yeah, they brought Fowler up, they're going to play him, they don't know what to do with Montaubo. They've got Columbus, I'm looking at their schedule here. Now, they're not directly competing with Columbus because Columbus could still catch the Islanders or Pittsburgh and, you know, get him through the Metro with how Red Hop they are right now. But the haves have got to play Columbus two more times. So they've got Columbus twice. again, they don't play Ottawa again, which I think benefits Montreal, because Ottawa would probably love to play them again

and get a chance to possibly pick up points, maybe a four-point game. But where do you stand on the halves and, you know, many jerrys on them pulling this off and sticking in a playoff spot? I mean, there's so little time left. Many jerry still feels 70%.

Because they have multiple paths, right? They can beat Columbus. Columbus could jump the islanders. Havs could get islanders. There's a lot of different ways they could get one of those spots. But what is interesting and what I'll be curious to watch, I'm going to do the game on Thursday in Detroit with Montreal,

is that it has been largely in the last two weeks such an overwhelmingly positive vibe check in Montreal this year. You know, the party in the building and everyone's scoring and it's just, let the good times roll. Like, here we go, Damidoff's greats and cap, like all the reasons to like that team. And so what will be curious to me is if they were to lose tonight and Columbus wins, if they get down in one of those, wild card spots. It's the first sort of real

adversity and pressure that they will face all year long. And what do they do with that? They are still a very young team. And most of their best players don't have a ton of down the stretch or playoff experience under their belt. So that will be interesting to see.

I just think, though, you know, three, four points with a game in hand. If you look at those games played, they have more than Columbus. They're not, they have more than Detroit. They have more than Boston. So that does work in their favor. So yeah, it's still probably 65, 70% they make it. But it's gotten a lot tighter.

And you can feel the tension for the first time all year in Montreal. And that's a very different atmosphere for the guys to go play in. Yeah. And it was the opposite this time last year where they were Ottawa, right? And they took off and they didn't lose and they were clutch. And Suzuki was phenomenal. And Montembow was great down the stretch. Now it's, you know, you're the pace car effectively.

I mean, Buffalo, Tampa, notwithstanding. But yeah, they got a really interesting schedule because they play Detroit, they play Boston, they still play the Islanders twice, they play Columbus twice. So, like, those are big, big games. Yeah. Like, big, big games, man. It's kind of crazy. Like, there isn't a Canadian team that you can sit here and say, I definitively know they're making the playoffs. Yeah.

Feel good about Montreal and Edmonton. Yeah. Feel okay about Ottawa, although they're running at a time. For this time last year, there was three or four teams you knew we're making it. it's it's been a wild season speaking of well one more thing before you go mj we we had a conversation Doug armstrong basically saying hey

it's over for me as you know the the chief player picker of team Canada and we're looking at the world cup in 2028 and then an Olympics after that is there a name that pops to mind for you Hayes made the point that it's you know the history of

Canadian hockey's been great players running it from bobby clark to to to Wayne gretsky to steve eisman was an outlier. Who pops to mind for you as the man that might be good for 2028, 2030? I mean, I saw you guys kick around Sid. I feel like he would be too near removed. He'll probably be playing.

And if we don't sit, he probably would say, I don't want that. I'm not ready for it. He might be on the advisory board. Like Ryan Getslap was on the Olympic advisory committee. But he wouldn't be the head of it, right? He might be a support staff. To me, it feels like Jim Nill. He's been around it a lot.

a guy like that who's put together some pretty good teams who understands how hockey Canada operates and what those international tournaments are like you're gonna hate to. Kyle Dubus he's been involved a lot in the world championships four nations. That would be wild Yeah, he's synonymous with excellence

I know, I hate to tell you. Doing good job this. I think he's your Jim Gregory winner this year, very close to it. He might win the jam of the year. Yeah, he might. Well, you know what Fass, you say tongue and cheek synonymous with excellence. I think he did win the caller cup. Yes, he did. With the Marleys.

Celebrated very loudly. Yes, he did. Listen, I'm not going to partially I never want to call their cup. Celebrate as loud as you want, who cares? Don't be too cool for school like Fast might be. I don't know a problem with that. And with what the least might be embarking on,

past you might be longing for those trappy dubous days in the next couple years. I mean, like, let's be serious here. The team, they didn't win, but they were pretty good when he was running them. Yeah. Pretty good. All right, we're going Dubus running the show.

Let's go for pretty good in Team Canada, 2028. Pretty good to do for us. Let's get too, this running the whole operation. Who would you like to pick Fess? Who would you pick? I like Nill. I'm with you.

I like Nill. I mean, I'd go with experience. I mean, Jim Nell won in Detroit, but he didn't win. He hasn't won in Dallas, Jim Nill. Like, what does he want? He won in Detroit, but he was Ken Holland's assistant

when they were winning. You have a big Julian Breezebois? I mean, yeah. Yeah, Breezebrisbris is right there, too. Let's get a former player. Just make it, because it's more about being a spot.

spokesman. It's not tough to pick this team. It's really not that tough. And you got a committee. I don't know. You got a committee. I don't know. They could have had three or four different players

and maybe could have helped a different result in the Olympics. Although they played great, they probably should have won. But, like, I do think whoever runs the team sets the template for what that team's going to look like along with the coach. So I don't think it's inconsequential. It's like once you pick it, yeah, like you're not doing anything. You know, like Gretzky had the fiery speech in 02, whatever it was.

Yeah. But that doesn't happen very often. Like you're mostly a figurehead. But yeah, ex-player, I don't know. Chris Pronger, he seems to be out doing the rounds a lot. Pronger. Prongs might want to get into something like that. Yeah.

Yeah. Sackic, yeah, for sure. I like it. I like where this is going. All right, we'll see. We've got a couple years to the World Cup. And before you know, we're going to be back over in France, right, in 2030 for the Olympics. All right, Johnny.

Enjoy it tonight, buddy. Oh, I love it. That's going to be a big. You've got to make sure you're there for that one. That's a good one. It's a very good one. Nice will be nice. That's a boy.

There you go. Thanks, Johnny. We'll see it tonight. Cheers. Mike Johnson joining us here 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 in charges from 10% to 80% in just 30 minutes dropped by Maple Toyota today. All right.

Confirm and deny coming up. Best bet's still to come later in the hour. Leaves Sallenders tonight. Schaefer in town. Hey, speaking of guys that could have on the Olympic. team. Fafor probably should have been in retrospect. Absolutely.

Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN4. I can neither confirm or deny that this is in fact a signal. Austin trades Andrew Raycroft to Toronto in exchange for the rights to Tuka Rask. It's been my honor and a privilege to serve as the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Club. It's time for confirm or deny. Do you regret giving all those gentlemen? the no trades or no movement clauses.

Can either confirm or deny that? I can't confirm or deny that. All right, confirm and deny. Brought you by Boston Pizza Canada's favorite sports bar. Enjoy $15 lunch at BP where you get an entree, a side and a drink, and you'll get it all in 20 minutes or less. So fast lunch doesn't have to be fast food. See you for a $15 fast lunch of your local Boston pizza.

WBC final tonight, which I'm throwing a curveball at Joe from the bridge, pun intended. But if the... Americans win this tonight. Confirm or denied. Do you think this is like a big legacy moment for Aaron Judge in particular? Say he wins MVP, a couple of big hits tonight.

The Americans win it on American soil. What does this do for judges' overall legacy? You can tell, by the way, they're setting this up that they're judge himself and baseball in general are trying to set it up that way. Get the win. Yeah. Get a win for this guy. And look, I don't doubt the sincerity of the

players, judge among them who've said this is a huge event. They love it. They think actually the atmosphere is better than a world series. That's boisterous. That, that to me is absurd. But it is more boisterous. When the Dominican Republic plays. And Venezuela's been pretty good. Not when the U.S. is playing Canada or something like that.

I wasn't picking up on like, wow, that's the equivalent of what we saw at Rogers Center for game seven of the World Series. Those Japan games, even though they're not in the finals, it would have been great to see Shohey in the final. for sure. Okay. The Japan game's been pretty good, too. I'm just calling the bluff on, like, the equivalence of the World Series vibe.

Look, I mean, I'm going to deny it, because it's not the World Series. Yes. It starts with World, but it doesn't end with series. Exactly. Okay. And he's got to do it for the Yankees. Right. Like, the Americans, plus, like, this tournament started with Bryce Harper being like,

I don't know, what do we do? Like, the Olympics are way bigger and other players being like, no, no one really cares. Like, I think it's moved. I think it's moving in the right direction. absolutely isn't it. I think it's something the NHL has to learn from. Maybe 2028 when you launch the World Cup. Maybe it isn't

as big and bold and beautiful as you were hoping for. Doesn't mean you shelf it. They never should have shelved it after 2016. It should have played in 20, 24, 28, and they just said nah, it wasn't really what we thought. I get COVID hit, obviously. That goes without saying, and that affected a lot of

plans. But you've got to commit to it. Like the WBC, they're on to, what is it? How many have they done, five, six of them. You got to commit. Every four years, you got to do it. In 20 years, it may mean a lot. And that's obviously the plan, but I'm with you.

I don't think this is going to be paramount for the legacy of Aaron Judge, but it's better than losing. If he loses, he's going to take a ton of heat. Yes. Right? And everyone's going to say, look at this guy. He still can't win. Captain America, captain of the Yankees, doesn't win anything.

And then if he wins, it'll be like, hey, well, Martin set up the winning goal at the four nations. will he now perform in the playoffs better than he ever has for the Leaves? Right. No. Maybe not. All right. Confirm and deny.

The NHL should uproot the Department of Player Safety with new staff and new guidelines. A complete renovation of the Department of Player Safety. I'm going to deny it because I'm a realist. I mean, they're not doing that. Should they? Well, you know, MJ brought up a great point. George Peres is doing the bidding of a lot of different people, right? It's not George Paris's opinion here that is ruling the hockey universe,

although I'm sure it has a place and it has a voice. He's a smart guy, and he's obviously, you know, very influential. But to MJ's point, like the GMs make the rules of the game, the owners, by extension, are involved. The commissioner, if he thought George Paris was doing a bad job, but I had him fired, and guess what? The NHLPA is very influential in these hearings because they represent both players.

They represent the perpetrators. and the victims of these plays. And there are a big reason why the suspensions are as long as some people would like them, including Connor McDavid and Conner-McDavid and Austin Matthews agents. So, yeah, it's just realistically they're not changing it. And actually, practically, I'm not sure that anybody can do that job any better because of all the complications that just laid out. Yeah, you can never make everyone happy.

You know, I'm denying it too. Like, there are some fans of the game, those that cover the game, that just want violence completely eradicated from it, right? 20 games for this, 50 games for that. You're a loser if you think this. You're a loser or whatever if you think that. They shouldn't be considered, in my opinion, just as the other end of the spectrum.

We need, you know, blood baths back in the game should not be considered either. The fact of the matter is the game is softer than it ever has been. It has slowly just been eradicated from the game by osmosis, effectively. It's just we live in a different world that we did, 20, 30, 40 years ago. And it's really not that big of an issue. Like, not to the point where you need to completely uproot everything.

So I'm denying this. Do I think there are inconsistencies? Yes, I do. Do I think there's enough transparency? Maybe not. But I don't think the game, I don't think this is some big plague on the sport. Like every night, there's just vigilante justice happening all over the place.

And it's this rudderless shit. of just craziness. That's not the world we live in anymore. It's not the league. And it's not going backwards. It's not going to. With or without George Perros. So if it's your player, your team, you're going to be pissed.

If it's another player or another team, you're probably not going to care as much. That's the reality of sports as well. Yeah. Right? This one is particularly highlighted because of the players involved, Matthews and Goudis, the market. And the fact, he's out for the season. And he's out for the season, which is brutal.

I mean, it sucks. That Austin's out. He's never faced anything like this before in his career. He's been knocked out with a hit like this. It's had injuries before, but not to this extent. Not this acute. But I don't know. I think people just love hating and love, you know, a gripe in the league.

They don't know what they're doing. Except, you know, it's Connor McDavid. It's Connor McDavid suggesting they review things. But what is his suggestion? That's the thing. It's easy for Connor to say, well, we should probably review it. All right, come up with some ideas. What do you got in mind?

Well, I've looked. I mean, if it's... And he's not going to put his neck out there because then when it affects one of his players, they're going to look at him and say, thanks, dude. Yeah. Thanks for pushing for that new guideline when... Now, I'm suspended 25 games because you spoke up. Well, I do think you could probably put it in a little more of a star system to protect the star players.

But how does that work, though? It's not easy. Well, it's finesse. You need finesse. The game is fast. Yeah. Right. It's difficult to break it down. I mean, it really is.

Like, it's a fast. game, things happen quickly. The best players have the puck the most, they're targeted the most. But you're not going to put in a rule where if you heard a superstar instead of a fourth liner, you get suspended. You wouldn't write it that way. Yeah. But you might enforce it that way.

Now that is something different. But are they going to do that? Exactly. I don't know. I don't know how they would necessarily get that in fine print. All right, moving on. Confirm with Deni, both Columbus and Ottawa will make the playoffs. Both of them get in. Blue Jackets and Senators. They're both red hot right now.

They're red hot right now, but I'm going to go with the percentages and say, deny that. I think one might get in, but, you know, the percentages don't really lend themselves to the idea that they're both getting in. I mean, Columbus right now, what are they at? They're at. You know what? I'm going to confirm it, man. I know it's a difficult parlay, but you're talking about the habs, the islanders, the Red Wings, the Bruins are all on thin ice. Pittsburgh is not a lock to make it either.

They've been very resilient. That was a great win by them last night. They keep winning without Sid. They keep scoring. It's a great story. But they got 15 games to go. Yeah. If they're five or six games,

and that's a little bit different. There's still enough points up for grabs to either win or lose, where I think you can see some jockeying of positions. And, you know, post-Olympic break, I was embracing for this. A couple teams to get red-hot, a couple teams to ice out. Yeah.

The only thing that gives me pause, look, I think Ottawa's got a slightly better chance. Columbus has got, according to just strength the schedule in terms of the winning percentage of the teams you have left in their schedule. Columbus has the second hardest schedule. They've got Carolina three times. They've got the Canadians twice. They got Boston twice. They got Buffalo. They got New York Islanders.

They've got the Red Wing thing. Don't hit the road a lot, though. A lot of home games. I know. But that's a tough schedule. is, but they're a tough team to play right now. Yeah. That's a two-way street. Like, yes, it is a tough schedule, but I don't think a lot of

teams want to play Columbus right now. I just feel like there's still there's room for some craziness here. Oh, look, it's going to be a knife's edge for the final couple spots, right? Big time. There's no, there's, we're coming down to the last game. Yeah, I think so. For a lot of these.

For possibly multiple spots. Which will be great theater. Confirm with the nice, Scotty Schaffler will win at least one major this season. This I wouldn't have done this a month ago. No, nobody would. But his numbers is, you know, he's slowing down a little bit. He's not playing as well as he was.

I didn't think I'd see Scotty Sheffler looking like a human being in the way he's looking like a human being right now. Yeah. Especially early in rounds. That's what I mean. Like the irons are playoffs. The irons just aren't kind of sort of magnetic, you know, to the pin like they have been when he's playing great.

He looks just a little different, doesn't he? I heard some of the swing analysts talking about how his face is wide open. And his swing just doesn't look as fluid. Yes. Chamley did a great job on that on the Gold Channel after Thursday, I think of Friday. Like it just... Did he? Now, McGinley made up a very good point.

He said that will happen when you're starting to get a little bit jittery, right? Yeah. You speed stuff up. It's not that he's lost his swing. It's maybe more mentally. It just doesn't feel confident in his swing. But that's all you need to spin you into a dark place. Yeah.

Especially in that sport. Mentally, you start messing with yourself. That's a dark place. I'll tell you what, though, man. like just like I'm not going to I'm not going to deny this because I know like he's going to walk under the grounds at Augusta National yeah a lot of a month and there's something about that place in him like he like it's he's pretty good out there man like he's going to be hard to beat out there and and when you think about the people who are good out there like you know it's like who's going to beat him like it's it's not going to like he'll be in contention at

Augustus. So I have a hard time saying just flat out, no, he's not winning a major this year. So, you know, I'm going to deny it. Yeah, he's going for the slam at the U.S. Open. And it's being played at Chinnecock this year, which is an incredible place to play golf. Not that I've played it, but I've seen it. I have not played it. I would love to. I'm reluctant to deny it as well, because I don't want to get caught up in like a month. And let's be clear here. He hasn't been horrendous. He still making the cut. He's had issues on Thursdays. His swings a little bit off.

But he's still, you know, he wasn't really in contention in the last two weeks. But those are courses he's won at multiple times, much like at Augusta. Yeah. But it is difficult to get caught up in two or three weeks of poor play, relatively speaking, and say, I'm just going to completely scratch him off the list for four majors.

I mean, he's still the favorite at Augusta. As he should be. Yeah. As he should be. He's still the best player in the world. clear cut the number one. There are other guys coming. Cam Young, I think, is a good bet at Augusta. I think if Moracow

is healthy, he's a good bet. Rory will see if he's healthy, a good bet. Rom coming back. DeCambo, obviously, we saw what happened with him last year. It's not a layup. It's not a lot. Keppka's starting to play better. Starting to put a little bit. I'm not sure he's completely out of the picture as a major

contender. No, there's some, I mean, there's a lot of guys kind of lurking. Shafley's starting to wake up a little bit. And our guy, Sue Darshan. Yes. How cool is that? You guess had them on yesterday. Yeah. That's a really cool story. YouTube golf. Incredible. So I'll figure it out.

Hey, straight from high school to the pros, no college. I'll figure this off. No coach. All good. But he still doesn't have a ticket to the master's. No, he doesn't. No, I was just joking about that. But still. But he's hey, man. He could, you know, hopefully he'll get into a major or two. You never know. What a story. He made almost a million dollars.

Isn't that something? On Sunday. And it's, and it's, you know what's interesting about pro golf now, Hayes? That almost never happens anymore. Like all these guys that are, you know, in the top 10 most weeks, most of them have, you know, 20, 30, 40, $200 million in the bank. Right. But they've won or earned. And so you don't see that underdog story very often in golf. No, no kidding, man.

And it was a leaderboard that was like chock full of big names. Yeah. And then he just kind of came out of nowhere on Sunday. And he looked right at home. Yeah. right at home. But, you know, like, I just have a hard time betting against Scottie. Like, yeah, maybe there's probably a small tweak he's got to make,

and he'll be absolutely flagging it in no time. He's got to cut. He's still got a few weeks before we get to Augusta. And it doesn't have to just be Augusta. He could win the PGA. He could win the U.S. Open. Obviously, we know what he's done overseas. Tough to bet against that guy right now.

Last one, confirm it deny after the trade today. The Denver Broncos are the team to beat the AFC. Bill's mafia is up at arms. What are you talking about? Listen, the bills, I don't know. They're going to have to prove themselves next year. They did not win the division. No.

You know, we'll see what they do at the draft. Their GM's been taking a lot of heat there. Joe Brady, I'm curious. I don't know what that's going to look like. I don't know if they got the right coach. I'm not saying they got the wrong one. We'll see. He's never been a coach in the NFL.

You're right. It could go south on them. I'm pretty confident in what Sean Payton's going to bring to the table. Yeah. And the bottom line was, you could quibble with McDermott about a lot of things. And I know some of our colleagues here, Carlo is one of his biggest critics. Our pal Goliakovo hammered him regularly. And rightly so at times.

But he was beloved in that locker room. And they won. They played hard for him. They didn't quit on him. That defense generally got better every single year, as the year went on. And you worry about that. You're right. Like that is, but am I ready to confirm the Broncos?

as the favorite. Number one seed last year. They're better on paper now than they were at the end of the last season. I guess, you know what? It's going to have to be an underdog story for the bills. I think it is a confirm. I think they are the favorite. I mean, New England's the one that was in the Super Bowl, but they have to prove themselves again. With the way the Super Bowl played out,

the pathway they had, the easiest schedule in the league. I'm going to confirm it. I think at this point, the number one seed is Denver. They're in a tough division, but that defense is young and stout and really good. Peyton's really good. Nix is good enough, to win games and they got more talent. I think it is the Broncos right now.

There you go. Confirm a deny brought to you by Boston Pizza. All right. Best bet's coming up. Lisa Islanders tonight. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and up on YouTube live. Confirm a deny is brought to you by Boston Pizza Canada's favorite sports bar. Enjoy $15 lunch at BP where you get an entree, a side, and a drink, and you'll get it all than 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. and pizza. All right, best bets, powered by Fanduel. Make your picks and assemble the same game parlay in seconds on the Fanduals Sportsbook app. Leaves Islanders tonight. Totals at five and a half.

He's getting actually plus money on the under. I'm kind of leaning the under tonight. Like it just kind of feels like a bit of a sleepier game. Goaltenders are going to have to be good tonight. Like the Leaves, that's their best chance of picking up points, which they have been doing recently. And I'm not suggesting a lot of people are rooting for that. No.

But you look at it. Wall's been better. Stolar's been better the last few games anyway. And they're kind of playing for something, right? Like they just signed another young goalie. That's it. Exactly. We might have to get rid of somebody here.

The writing's on the wall. Yeah. You can't have all these golies. Only two can be on the team. So I'm leaning towards a goaltending performance tonight. Best Vets powered by Fandwell, same game parleyes around the NHL. Available now on the Fandrell's sports book. Yeah, please play responsibly.

must be 19 plus physically located in Ontario. So yeah, we got the lease in action tonight, and we got the Oilers playing San Jose tonight. Yeah. And that's big. Like Dry Settle obviously out. He's been out the last couple of games, but he's done for the rest of the regular season.

But whenever you get Celebrini and McDavid facing off, line mates at the Olympic Games, and both teams playing for something, Edmonton trying to push off San Jose and San Jose is kind of on their heels. it's a big game tonight. San Jose wins and reg tonight, man. Every day it's going to get diceier.

Yeah. I feel you kind of feel Connor McDavid's pain, man. Like what more does he need to do? But guess what? He's got to do more. Yes, he does. Yes, he does. And Boston, Montreal tonight, that's a massive game as well.

Columbus at home against Carolina. It's too bad the Leafs are out of it. For a decade, it's been like, what a big game for the Leafs. Where are they going to job? You know, where are they going to end up? What are they going to do? MJ is right. We like to laugh about Dubas, but, you know, there was a hell of an era.

It just didn't produce the ultimate results that everybody hoped for, but it's fun to be in the dance. They were in the dance every single year. Yeah. And you do take that for granted. Now, I don't blame anyone, anyone for saying, all right, that's enough. Let's have more success than this. Of course. But now they're going the wrong way.

And we'll see how quickly they can turn that around. All right, Dave. Good seeing you, man. Great to be. Thanks for doing this. There's Dave Festchuck of the Toronto Star. I'm Brian Hayes. Thanks to everyone behind the scenes for helping out. We appreciate it. Everyone for tuning in today, TV, radio, podcast, web, and of course up on YouTube live, every show up on TSN's YouTube channel. We're out of here. Enjoy your evenings. Enjoy the games tonight. We're back tomorrow at 4 p.m. We'll chat then. The newest tracks. Let's go.

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