OverDrive - OverDrive - May 14, 2026 - Hour 1 - Richie Laryea

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Join Bryan Hayes, Jeff O'Neill and Jamie McLennan for Hour 1 on OverDrive! The guys discuss the Avalanche advancing to the Western Conference Final, the Canadiens and Sabres' series, Kris Knoblauch's dismissal as head coach of the Oilers, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl's impact to the organization and Ryan Johnson and Daniel and Henrik Sedin's hiring with the Canucks. Canadian Men's National Team and Toronto FC Defender Richie Laryea joins to discuss his experience with Canada for the FIFA World Cup.

Catch everything soccer with Bell's game time bundle. Get 5 TV with TSN plus 5150 internet, all for $99 a month. Price guaranteed for two years with a two-year internet and TV term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for more details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. This hour of overdrive is powered by Fanduil. Fan duel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. All right, here we go, overdrive, off and running TSN 1050 on the TSN app,

your home smart speaker, up on TSN4. We're up on YouTube live, Brian Hayes, Joe, Jeff O'Neill, Jamie Noodles, McClennon. Going on today. How we feel in this afternoon? I feel like we played with one of the greats of the game today.

Did you? Which one? Because we played with two of the greats. If there was a raffle and you could play with the great Stumpy Thomas and the Matador Greggie, how much would you pay for it? As much as I

possibly could. You were the best guys of all time. You asked leave fans. Stumpy is right near the top. Yes. If not the top. Stumpy had so many incredible goals in the playoffs in 99,000. Legend.

And one of the greatest guys, we had the privilege of being in a all-time great guy. At his course, the legend. Yeah. And he looks like he could still throw a couple of hits and a couple of punches. He was tough. Tough as nails. Yeah. Stumpy was taught. Remember Ray's told us that story where he thought, oh, I'll take on this guy.

When they got into a strong. Pomp. Pomp. Pompteray. But, yeah, him and Gregie are the best. Dude, great. Too awesome guys. There's not a, like, there's just not a better guy to play golf with him. He helps you look for your seed. Yes, he does.

And we need a lot of help. Complementary, the best. Tell noodles what he brought to you on the first tea. What did he offer you up as an ice spray? breaker on the first. Gregi the Matador brought me a bag of sourkeys. So Snickers for me, sour keys for him. You may have been away when he announced that he used to take down 23 sourkeys in one sitting.

But that filled my timeline where I watched that where I was horrified when you admitted to 23 to 24 sourkeys full size. One night laying down. And we did, didn't you guys do? You did the calorie and sugar intake of the. that, which was like 3,000 calories or something. Way higher than that. It was like 5,000 calories and enough sugar to take like a large dog down. Yeah, an elephant.

An elephant down, possibly. Like that's how much sugar. That was your nightly routine or not nightly every second. Dude, it was every other night. Yeah, it was like a playoffs in the 90s. Yeah, every other night. Yeah, every other night. Like run through the red wings and then the next.

night you got to play Detroit. Yeah. Borchewski on a Tuesday night, Game 7, Dougie Gilmore against the Blues on the Thursday night. And that's you, Sourkees, 23 or 24. Absolutely. And so we're at one of the great establishments in the city throughout the country in terms of clubs

and just unbelievable place. Connor was there. We saw him and met him and this guy's walking around with a bag of Sourkees. So it was great. Stumpy is one of the best. And he's a leaf legend. He is a lead legend. Well known. I played with him. Yes, on the

island, on the island, my rookie year, and you know, you're a young, impressionable kid. I remember thinking, like, he's one of the coolest guys I've ever met, like, from a cool factor. Yeah. We had Pat Flatley, we had Glenn Healy was there, you know, guys like that were

legends and really good guys, but Stumpy had this, like, cool factor. Like, he was just, he had the long salad, like, I don't know what he's doing with this salad nowadays. Oh, he's still, it's flowing, man. He had, like, the salad go on and he had to look. Well, he was an undrafted player.

Really? I was not aware of that until I was looking up as hockey DB out of curiosity because I knew he started, he was with the Marley's, and then he started his career with the leaves. And undrafted, but played over 1,200 games in the league. He told me a story. I think I've shared it before where

this is old school warm-up. When you go out before practice, he said, I believe it was like Dave Ferris and like Gary Rivera or something. like that would skate around in their gear with a coffee. Yes. Before the coach came out on the ice. He's like he got called up from warming up.

Like that's, you're out on the ice. I love those. Clubs on the board, helmet on the board. And guys have a coffee skating around like it's leisure. Here's the best part. Probably no helmet. No, no bucket. Like there's no way.

Even if you had to play in a helmet, they weren't practicing in helmets back then. Dude, when I was a kid, I was at North York Arena. the oilers with Gretzky skated out for Pratt. Nobody had a bucket on. Honestly, nobody had a bucket on deck in that day. I love it. You think of how it was just like three on twos, two on ones, off they went. Just working out. Like my grad fewer didn't have a helmet on.

Like no bucket today. Pads are, pads and lower. Outrage. I mean, the game is changed. Oh, great. I love that. No helmet. No helmet in practice.

And no one would bat an eye at that. Well, this Nathan McKinnon. Man. Well, I got the bar playlist coming up, and I got to say he's on it. I mean, needless to say, McKinnon is on it. And listen. I felt slightly bad for Minnesota last night. Three-nothing in the first period.

And Polino's scoring. It's like, wow. And they get a goal call back and still find a third goal. But really, Blackwood got beat four times in that. And then they pull them. And then you could just see Colorado start to. Well, they. He's got 10 shots on goal.

left. Exactly. The second and third period, Minnesota just never got any attack, and it was almost as if you could hear them, Colorado say, we're not going back to Minnesota. Not getting on the bird. It's not, because I was thinking about our confirm or deny the other day, where we had a confirm a deny, will anyone

push Colorado to a game six? And after the first period, I'm thinking, yeah, I guess Minnesota, to their credit, said we're not going down without a fight. And then of all guys, Brett Kulek wins it in overtime. which is just a wild O.T. winner.

This, Natchez, man. He's a player. Natchis is a player. He can play. As much as McKinnon can skate and, you know, McCar from the back end, Natchez is all over the ice. What a crazy, like, set of events when you think

Rantan in is the, I still think the best of them all, but maybe Natchez is good. Like, maybe that's what you're suggesting. That's what I'm suggesting. just a different player. Like, I think NACIS might fit that mold the way that they like to play

better than Rantanin right now because NACCHS is a burner, where Rantan is a big strong... The Moose's nickname is, the Moose or whatever it is. Yeah. But such a playoff performer, Rantan. But, you know,

it was a lateral move, but NACUS just... I've watched them live several times this year and watch them a lot, obviously. That NACIS is a burner. Well, he could skate. Yet all of them are happy because Stan Colvin's been great in Carolina. Agreed. Agreed.

So like ranting in Carolina, Carolina to Dallas. Of course, Dallas is like, hey, we got him for seven more years of $12 million and he's a great player. And he was phenomenal in the playoffs for them last year. He was injured down the stretch this year. But yeah, I think all parties are pretty happy. And Colorado's through. I don't know who's going to slow them down. I think Vegas has a better chance in Anaheim with all due respect.

Minnesota's a hell of a team and to a man they all said afterwards they were just better. Yeah. Like the Quinn Hughes deal, I'm doing that 10 days out of 10. They're still them for another year and they're going to do everything they can to sign them long term. They get five playoff wins. Yeah, I read that too.

Five more than Vancouver. And now... In the end, five more wins in Vancouver. What they're praying is he extends. And then you've got Quinn Hughes. Totally. But he's... That team, like Minnesota's not far off. The goal is 22. And he looked 22 near the end of the game.

He did look a little bit overwhelmed. You got to give credit to Colorado. They were wave after wave. It was, like I thought, for four minutes left, I'm like, you know, Minnie might pull us off, 3-1. And like you said, Colorado's like, we're not getting on that plane. The minute that McKinnon scored, they might as well, like Minnesota should have just said, like.

Felt inevitable at that point. Oh, it did. And even Caprisoff in overtime there, he's got a two-on-one. He's four-speed in that pass. 80 feet across the ice and they don't get a shot on goal. It goes the other way and that's curtains. Like, Colorado is serious, man. Like, I still believe what you said yesterday.

Like, I think Carolina's going to give them everything. Like, I think it looks inevitable that those two teams, unless somebody surprises us, because I'll tell you what, don't sleep on this, this Habs or Buffalo team. Big one tonight in Buffalo. What do you feel on that one? I can't get a feel. I don't have a great feel. I think it's going to be similar to the last couple of games

where it's going to come down to a power play or a goalie or an individual play. Like it's a pretty evenly matched series. First goals are big. Yeah. I could see overtime tonight. Like I fully expect a close game. Like that's the way the two teams are built.

We were talking off air, though. Dobish has had such a run. Now, we've seen Buffalo change the goaltenders and, you know, lion, give up, whatever it is. 11 goals in two games. Dobish has been unbelievable. He might be due for one. I don't know if that's tonight or if it's game six or even if it gets to a seven.

That's what worries me. Because a goaltender playing that well, you're just going to have an off night. Do you think it's just his night though, or his net now? Can anything happen where Marty St. Louis looks at Fowler and thinks you're going in? I think the leash, if you believe the leash was short going into the playoffs, it's continued to extend because the guy's a player. and he's and he's he's found something there. He's become a cult hero there.

Absolutely. And rightfully so. He's been unbelievable. But as good a bounce as he's gotten, he had the bad bounce last game. And, you know, they ended up losing. But I, eventually, you're going to have an off night. And maybe the team can bail you out. Maybe it's just a six-five game where it's like, team goes and gets a bunch of goals.

That's where you need Caulfield, Slavkovsky, Suzuki, Gemadoff, Hudson, to go, you've bailed us out, we're going to bail you out. But at the start of the playoffs, I don't know how you guys felt. I'm sure we had conversations going, probably going to see this Fowler kid at some point. I'm almost surprised we're this deep into the, I know it's only the second round, but I thought we'd see him in the first round. But the other guy's been so good. Oh, I understand that.

The Fowler goes in for mop-up duty. It's like. And that's not what I'm suggesting. I'm not saying, you thought they would have turned to him. Before the playoffs started, I kind of just had that feeling. feeling that there was this aura about Fowler and, you know, maybe I got cut up in the history of the Havs with W. Very Price. Right. Pridon and Price. Yeah, you know, like young goalie's showing up with all this hype and

they'd throw the team on their back. They haven't had to do that. And Dovish has been great. So I'm with you. The leash is getting longer with Dovish. I don't, I think even if we got Shell tonight and let's say he got pulled, he'll go back in for games. Absolutely. I don't think that's a scenario where, you know, unless, again, there's some weird things and Labby laid it out for us. Start over, well, you see guys in practice. Practice and, you know, maybe a one game, hey, we're going to give a one game scenario because we've liked this guy or he needs a break physically because you're not used to

playing that many games. Game six, if it's a must one, I know it's dangerous to throw Fowler in. Unless, though, here's, again, this is a dumb thing, but say Buffalo starts quick and Dobish gets pulled and Fowler comes in and they come back and win. That's a different story. Now you go for a game six. You heard Lavi, yeah, the other day where he was like, I just had a good vibe. Right.

That's a different story. story. Like that's painting a different picture. But yes, if Fowler goes in, they win 5'4, he plays great late, and maybe it opens the door. But it's nice to have those options. Lost in all this is Montembourg played 61 games for them last year.

He was on the Canadian team. Four nations. Four nations. He was at the four nations. And he's a very good goaltender. But it's just, he's been squeezed out by their depth. They've got two younger guys. And you look at Montembo, I think he's 29 now. Dobish 24.

Fowler 21. Just packing bags. They are just set up. They're set up. He's got no future there. I can't imagine. No, but I mean, he has a future. Yes, he'll be in the league.

Yes, for sure, for sure. Yeah. So I guess the inevitable became official this morning. Chris Knoblock is out in Edmonton. And I saw the stat, and this gets into what we were talking about the other day with the leaves and just the nature of turnover in the game. But when they hire their next coach, Ryan Nugent, Hopkins will have 10 coaches in 15 seasons.

This will be his 10th coach in 15 years. First overall pick after first level. No, I know that. But like, I'm telling you. There's guys he probably doesn't even remember where his coach. Ricky Henderson style. We can talk about getting different players on a team, which some teams need.

Yeah. But there are GMs in the National Hockey League that are getting away with murder. Okay. Yes, the GMs are doing a horrible job in blaming. the coach. Is that what you're saying? You don't think that there's circumstances? You're telling me Stan Bowman can go out there. The guy that scored the game winner, Kulak, last night, they just had to get

rid of him and bring in some different pieces. They had some money with Big David kind of taking a discount. You know who they signed Jake Wallman? And Trent Frederick. Trent Frederick, they had to give an eight-year deal to. So really? There's mistakes. There's mistakes there, and you just got to gas the coach. And I get it. There's no structure, no accountability.

same players doing the same thing. But I just find that, but what does the owner look down and say, oh, yeah, I'm going to look at the other way when I look at that roster. Who put that roster together and just people just look away? No, everyone has to own it. And I think what happens. It seems like the GMs never do. It's like just fire the coach.

Get rid of them. Well, I think what you point out is it puts everybody on the clock there. Because the owner is probably not happy that Chris Knoblock is going to be sitting at home potentially for the next three years. getting paid because his extension kicks in this summer. Imagine not even making it to the start of your extension. But you know what? This is a team that they needed a coaching change.

They need something. They need different players, I agree. But they'd hit a wall. Structurally, they'd hit a wall. And I think they need something different. Different players, again, I'll come back to it. Goaltending, another D, another forward. But at the end of the day, they're in a window to win.

And we say it all the time. Cup or bust. This is bust. People's heads roll. Yes. I feel bad. The way you pointed out the other day, it should have never gotten to a point that it got public.

And they had to, if they were going to fire Chris Knoblock, they should have fired it the day after the season. Yeah. And then you start looking for coaches. Like, that's just embarrassed. That's a bad look.

That's a bad look. He was in big trouble. Now, a lot of it, what you're saying is based on the exes and O's and watching them play and all that kind of stuff. Right. When McDavid started,

McDavid's had some pretty heavy comments publicly that caught the ire of a lot of people, and I'm sure they caught the ire of the owner management. Like the John Cooper love fest, I know the next day he said, hey, just whatever. It was just, you know, that was like almost so blatant. Now, by... By the McDavid's like Tiger Woods.

He never compliments anybody else, but he went out of his way to say, they're so well coached, everybody's in the right position, and everybody knew what they were doing. And it was like, that, Leon Drysidal, after the game in Calgary, I believe it was before the Olympics saying, from the coaches on, we need to.

But everybody on blast. Yes. Everybody on blast. But when those guys say it, it's going to carry more weight. Like, you're effectively a dead man walking the second that happens. Because you're right. Drysidle had said that, like, well, it starts with the coaches.

You don't hear players say that a lot. and McDavid followed up his Cooper stuff with when I asked, well, how do you guys get there? He goes, well, that's a question for Knoblock. Go ask him. Like, in other words, go talk to the coach why we're not doing that. They need a hardened coach there that is, I keep telling you. I know you keep saying that, but again, and maybe those two players, that's what they want.

Maybe that's what McDavid and Drys Settle won. It's not what you want. It's what they need. I know, but I'm telling you. At some point you've got to say, you know what? You want to complain in the media? Get in your position. Sure.

Play better in defensively. And don't skate by things. Don't circle by things. If you want to get away with it, fine. You two, but not third line left winger gets to do that, all of that. Because we've seen it for years. You hear stories out of other markets. I'll bring it to this one.

Different set of rules for Matthews, Marner, Neelander, and Tavar's, the rest of the team. Well, that's not how they do it. These guys do it. How about a team being on the same page? You think that's the case in Colorado? Do you think there's... I think they all are on board. Like, I think Nate McKinnon or Sidney Crosby or Jonathan Taze,

I think they understood, like, I got to be the guy leading the charge in doing the right things as opposed to I do whatever I want. You guys got to do that. I don't think that's the way it works. Especially come playoff time or come winning. And obviously, they went to a game seven. They went to two finals.

They're not complete idiots. But the thing is, you can't have two sets of rules. go to the finals two years in a row, you should be building off of that going, okay, we got close here, but what do we need to adjust? What do we need to adjust? If anything, the adjustments weren't there, whether it was the coach trying or the players not executing or the lack of players that were brought in that couldn't do it. But something has to change there. It starts there with the coach. Same thing we talked about yesterday. We had a big argument to start our show yesterday. Exactly.

But again, we're kind of, I'm in agreement with you guys in some ways. But, you know, in Toronto, there's this sense that, while Matthews, you know, didn't want Perube or whatever, Matthews. Or what? You know, he, well, maybe usage for starters, like I said. Right. The guy, he's got the toughest minutes in the league or close to it. Right. In terms of who he's going up against all the time.

Zone starts, all this kind of stuff. Like, if you're always starting into defensive zone, kill him. penalties under Baroubae never used to do that. Right. And again, there's a lot of positive in that in saying, hey, you're capable of doing it, and it's going to help us win, getting back to your point, buying in, etc.

But it hasn't helped them with. And it's seen his play fall off where, you know, the play didn't fall off with McDavid and Drysettle on a knob block. They still put up outrageous numbers and statistics. It did in the playoffs. Drysettle was okay. McDavid didn't

play well. And he didn't be, and he was heard, I get it, but he didn't play well. Like, he just, you know, it didn't go so well. But I think it's more likely those two guys, their voices had a bigger role in this than Matthews maybe did in Toronto. I don't disagree with that.

I think those two are pretty vocal. 100% in Edmondson. But they, like, they are on notice there. Like, McDavid didn't sign a six-year extension. He signed it a two-year extension. Now they just shoot up a year. They got two years. You're on blast.

Drysidel said it. That was probably, if you get a chance to watch Dry Cytle's 15-minute presser, go back and watch it. You guys just candid. Very candid. This is what I see. We're on notice because that guy's got two years left on his deal here. And he's pointing at everyone. I need to be better. Everybody needs to be better. The thing is you can't have the lip service. He won that press conference. It doesn't matter. They're still sitting at home watching. Yeah. Now those two, if they're healthy, they're going to put up numbers and be a don't prominent players. For sure.

But it's going to be a crazy offseason. I said it yesterday, but I've been, I feel bad because I set up. Trade deadlines are going to be crazy. It wasn't. It was a ghost town. We sat there like idiots. Well, we said that for four trade centers in a row. It's going to be nuts.

But what about this year? This is the summer. The cap is going up. You know how many summers we said that? I'm just telling you. This is the summer that all hell could break loose. Because there's a lot of teams that think that they're either close and they've got money to spend or maybe some currency

and some teams that need to shuffle the deck around. That means lots of movement, potential movement. That's what I'm looking for. That's what I'm looking for as well. I look forward to it all. Listen, we got coach vacancies, right, in Toronto and in Edmonton. Vancouver, they announced, L.A., they're looking for a head coach. Vancouver, they announced that Ryan Johnson is going to be,

I guess the GM, he's been within that organization for a long time, but the Siddine brothers are going to play a much bigger role. Co-presidents. Co-presidents. Listen, they're legends in that town. They are. And they live there and they're committed to it. They love the Canucks.

Good guys. So it's kind of like Rutherford's stepping away and those two are going to step in. Yeah. But it's kind of like the Sundeen thing here. We've seen it with other kind of star, legacy guys in different markets that get back into their front offices. Joe Sack.

Coach's interviews are going to be fascinating. because what if you don't know what your team's going to look like? We've talked about high-end players, marquee players that possibly are waiting, making decisions. How could you possibly go through a coach's interview when you don't know what the future holds? I guess it's going to be you want to coach this, but can you also coach that?

You know what I mean? It would be difficult. Would it be fair? Let's say John Chiker calls up Lavi and says, come in, I want to talk to you. Would it be fair for Lavi to see? say what type of team are you building here? Like what type of players am I working with? I think so. I think you're preparing for the philosophy. What is your philosophy for this next season,

you know, year three and year five? What does this team look like? Are you going to be burners? You're going to go back to, you know, Kyle Dubas's style. Kyle Dubas had a style if you look at it. And Sheldon implemented that style. So they worked hand in hand together. But if you look at it, you know, certainly Brad Tree Living had a style. And it more worked with Chiefs, you know, straight line, bigger bodies, all of that type of stuff. What's John Chikas? So I think that's the question that the new coach will say

type of players you're putting in front of me. Big time. And I'm going to adjust to what you're putting in front of me. Yeah. Well, and having the first overall pick in some cases would affect the coaching conversation. Well, you've got a good thing. Yeah, but if, as we talked about, the plan in Toronto is we want to get right back on the saddle and be competitive, that it's not the same as like who was coaching Connor Bedard two years ago,

or three years ago, or Celebrini, where you knew the team had been awful, was likely going to be really bad for a couple of years. The transition. The transition. And it's like, hey,

we're building for like, we're still building for five years from now, uh, surrounding this guy where McKenna, if they, let's say they take McKenna and Matthew stays and Neelander stays. He's down the pecking order in terms of, right.

You know, impact players and marketable players and players with a voice and, you know, how the coach is going to possibly utilize that guy. So I'm, you know, but yet he is going to factor in. Like, whoever you're going to take, you're planning on being a big name player for you for a long time. Exactly. You're hoping is a star for the next 10 to 12 years. And now in today's game, you have to develop that player at the NHL level. Well, exactly.

He's probably stepping right in and playing. You're teaching him how to play. Big time. Lifetime. All right, Darren Dregor in studio, just after five, a couple games again in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Jays were the, man, Varsho needed that last night. The Jays needed that last night. Just crept over the number.

The seven and a half, I said I'm on the under. Cease was phenomenal. There was no offense whatsoever. And then, of course, a grand slam walk off to push it over the number. But the Jays were the big win. They needed that last night. And now they've got the lions, or they've got the Tigers coming up, and then they're at Yankee Stadium early next week.

Tigers are a bit of a mess. They're not playing great either. No one in the American League is really playing great. Tampa's been very good. Not a lot of separated. Yankees have been okay. Yeah, pretty good. And everyone else, it's just, it's not that good right now.

So Dregson is coming up. I've got my list coming up. Richie Lurrea is going to be in studio. Team Canada defender, Toronto, C, defender. We're inside a month for the FIFA World Cup right here on TSN. So we'll catch up with Richie as well. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and up on TSN 5.

Catch everything soccer with Bell's game time. bundle. Get 5 TV with TSN plus 5150 internet, all for $99 a month. Price guaranteed for two years with a two-year internet and TV term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.com for more details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. The newest tracks. Let's go. New music. And the next big thing. Always on the new music first. Your first place to hear it all. Because you're going to like it, love, I want to play it twice. Playing now. I heart new music. Your digital station for brand new drops. fines and tomorrow's bangers.

I think we need something new. Discover IHeart new music. Always fresh. Always first. Stream now on the free IHart Radio. All right. Dreg's coming up just over half an hour. Jay's off today in Detroit tomorrow.

Games in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Got my bar playlist still to come. Nice. And I'm going to be doing one during the FIFA World Cup. A consistent tally of who runs the bar scene in Toronto, preferably featuring members of the Canadian national team. Absolutely. The perfect segue because we have one of those gentlemen in studio right now,

obviously a big part of Toronto C as well, Richie Lurea. What's happening, Richie? How are you doing? I'm good. How are you guys doing? Doing very well inside a month. Do you believe it? It's been a big build-up here.

Yeah, I know. It's the preparation, I think, to get to this point has been great from the group. It doesn't even feel real that it's only a month out now. It felt like it was a year and two years. not too long ago but yeah I think we're ready everything's um in motion what's the anxiety like like getting close to it it's like you think about it you talk about it for so long then it's around the corner do you think this next month is going to fly or is going to take a long time no i think it's going to fly between you know the games for club are almost over for mLS and for the european guys so

we'll get together here and not too i think in two weeks or some like that it is so no i think it'll fly by with just our everyday lives within the game. I think more than anything, we're all just ready for the game to honestly be here on June 12th. Can you feel the energy, you know, building up and you will see it obviously getting closer to the games, but we were talking off air about, you know, playing against Messi and you said how big of a circus it was down there. That's going to be times 10, it seems like, leading up to the games. How are you going to be able to deal with that? Yeah, I think it just goes back to what we've done for a long time through Copa America, through Nations League through Gold Cups.

Obviously the World Cup is more grand of a stage. But yeah, just focusing on ourselves. We have this kind of message within the group that we're calm, we're composed and we're ready. So that's been ringing off for the last six months now within our group. So yeah, it's going to be a lot going on. But I think as the game gets closer, we're going to be able to shut out all the distractions and noise

and just get ready to play. So you've had, you know, a unique experience leading up to this because you're from Toronto, you play for Toronto FC and the first game is at Bimo Field. Have you allowed yourself to kind of dream of what that's going to look and feel like, kind of walking onto the pitch for the first time? Yeah, I've a lot of myself maybe for 10 seconds at most. Dream about what that's going to be like and then quickly, you know,

shut it back down and get back into the day to day of what I need to do. But yeah, it's impossible to ignore, you know, it's going to be a special feeling, special opportunity for all of us, you know, a majority. of the team is from in and around the GTA. So a lot of families have friends will be in attendance. So, yeah, it's impossible to ignore. But, yeah, I think, again, for all of us, we're trying to keep it day-to-day so we don't make it too grand.

How do you, hold on one second. You said a lot of people in the GTA. Floaters. That's what I was going to ask. How outrageous is the ticket request? I remember I played for the Toronto Maple Leafs for two years, and all of a sudden people start crawling out from rocks and they're like, hey, any

tickets? And I'm like, absolutely not. Yeah, it's been interesting. It's been obviously it's nice. Everyone wants to come to the game. Everyone wants to support. But we only get given so many, so I'm going to have to make some tough decisions even with my family, honestly.

I like that. It's hard trimming down the list, man. It is. It is. Some of my friends and extended family may have to get online and look for tickets. That's all right. Then come the fan fest. We're going to be down there. We'll be down. there, Richie Larea with us. So the group stage, you know, it's been discussed a lot over the last number of months

ever since it was established. How did you view the whole, it was a crazy show, man. It went on forever. There was some weird stuff going on there. But what do you make of your competition in the group stage? Yeah, I think, obviously, opening day against Bosnia, that's a team that just beat Italy, you know, which is a good opponent. So it's going to be a tough game.

It's a World Cup. Every game will be tough in all, honestly. but even more so a team that was able to knock off a, you know, a big European team is going to be a good match. So I think between them, Switzerland's a very good team as well, as everyone knows, and Qatar is also a good team. So I think, again, we're just going into this taking a game by game, but knowing that it's a group that you can underestimate anyone. And again, it's a World Cup. You know, everyone's come in and has the exact same idea that they want to go as far as possible. dreams of winning the World Cup.

So yeah, we just have to do as we've done the last two years under Jesse and start fast, start strong, play our way, get our crowd into the game. And yeah, just really capitalize on such a great opportunity we have to play in front of our home fans in our country in a world cup. How's Jesse as a coach? He's great. We've had him on a few times. It's unbelievable. Yeah, yeah.

Big energy guy. Yeah, exactly. That's the word I was going to use is energy kind of just beams around the group, you know, since he's come on board, he's said some things that sound borderline crazy to us because of the opponents that we had to go play against, especially in his first camp. We played Netherlands and France, you know, two giants in the world of football. And some of his messaging before the games on how it was going to go, we were all looking around like, this guy is crazy.

Like we're playing against the best teams in the world. Like, it's not going to be a walk in the park. But then, you know, as we stuck to it, as we grew, quickly even in that camp, we went from, you know, conceding a lot of goals against Netherlands, which we could have turned around and did the exact same thing against France and conceded a lot, but we actually draw zero zero and probably have the better of the chances than the world champions previously to Argentina. So, yeah, he's instilled this great attitude within the group. No one really fears who we're playing against, and we kind of just focus on us.

So he's been a great addition to our team. Richie Larea with us in studio. How much pride do you take in the way Canada, is now perceived around the world in terms of soccer. I mean, obviously getting there to the World Cup four years ago was very significant. The last time we went as a country was in 86. Keep moving up the world rankings.

You mentioned Copa, America, and the showing you guys had there. You know, as you play with the beauty of the sport, as you're playing with people on your team against, you know, your team from players all around the world, the image of Canadian soccer today compared to maybe, maybe a decade ago when you broke in with the camp, how much pride do you take in that? And what do you see yourself as today compared to 10 years ago?

Yeah, I think that's the biggest growth I've seen within the program because when I first joined, I debuted against Cuba at BMO Field and there weren't many fans. And then, you know, fast forward. It happened pretty quick, actually. But then in 2021, now we're in the HECS trying to qualify for the World Cup. And now we're the stadiums at BMO are sold out. out. We're going to Edmonton. It's sold out.

You know, so it just quickly kind of got into a really good way. But I think more so what excites all of us about that is what it means for the youth soccer here now in Toronto. You know, I think people now... Is it taken off recently? It has. It has. You know, I think whenever you're out and you see the kids, it's... It seems like everyone's gravitating towards soccer. And I know it's Canada and it's big on hockey and rightfully so, you know, we're very good at hockey. but now i think soccer is very close uh close behind so i think yeah uh these last two years i think

especially like you mentioned with cope by america i think it really got people to believe and i think even more so now with the friendlies we had like i mentioned netherlands france columbia wales we played such a big teams and they now look at us like oh these are serious competitors this is right be a walk in the park so that's i think that's the greatest um on our, especially the little camp we had over in Europe where we beat Romania and Wales. You could see after both games, both teams were like, wow, like that was a really tough game. That's a really good team. So I think every camp we've had, we start earning more and more respect.

And I think for me personally, even this last one, playing Iceland in Tunisia, you see how they view and look at you as a team and the way they speak about the team in the press. It's now it's like, I don't want to use the word scary, but they're respecting us. They're not just coming in and being like, oh, it's Canada. We're going to walk all over them. I think that messaging has left a long time ago now, which is good. Awesome to hear. Do you guys allow yourself to say, like, a goal for this tournament, or is it like championship or bust?

Like, where are we at? Getting out of the group stage? What is kind of the messaging been as we get closer to kickoff? Yeah, I think just within the group, there's a lot of confidence. So we've sat together numerous times, and if you're in a tournament, you never come to a tournament, say you just want to compete or you want to, you want to win your first game. You want to make it out of the group. We're in a tournament to win.

So that's a message, yeah. Love it. What are we hearing on Alfonso and his status? Are you going to join you boys? Or what's kind of the plan for him moving forward? Yeah, I've been heard all too much. I've been in my own bubble. Yeah, of course.

Trying to recover myself. But it seems like he should be able to. I know from his injuries he's healed quicker than most wood. He's a specimen. So I would expect come June 12th, he would be. be, yeah, in and around the team. How many group chats do you guys have separate? Do you have team, all of that type of stuff?

Yeah, yeah, we have a good couple of them, yeah. It's hard to keep up. As you should. How are you feeling in particular? Are you feeling like you're getting closer to the go time as well? You'll be ready to rock? Yeah, yeah, day by day, it gets better. It hasn't been, I think it's just been three weeks now.

So, yeah, I think any time now I should be feeling even better than what I feel like right now. And, yeah, just be ready to go. When I take this suit jacket off when I get home, I like tracksuit. That is as good as it gets the one Richie's wearing right now. Before we came on air, we declared that that's a large track suit. Yes. So what are we looking at to fit on me in that? We're 4X, isn't it?

No, I think X-all. You're good in X-O. Excel. That's a confidence boost. That's a confidence boost. The keys, the sour keys? Yeah, we've got a bunch of people that are like, what kind of snacks is this?

There was a straight X-L. I love it. Dude, that's athletic. Like, anything X-L-down is an athlete. That is an athlete, and we were going to train with your coach. I got you. Remember Jesse invited us out. Yeah, I think he probably had second thoughts almost immediately after

any type of training that we could do that you'd be like, those three idiots could make it through this drill. Or what's the one drill you do that would kill us? Is there like a down-in-back? I'd love to see you guys do a beep test, actually. Okay. That's horrifying. Line to line?

Yeah. On the ball or no ball? No ball. What level do you get to? I haven't done it in a little bit, but obviously that- I was an automatic level 12. Yeah. I'm not kidding. Excel?

No, the beep test. I got to level 12. That was like the standard. You had to get to 12. I think our test starts, like they start the beeps at 11 maybe. So you would have. I'm serious, man. This guy playing the other.

H on the 90s, dude. They were smoking cigarettes while they were playing. Exactly. Let me put this dart out and I'll start that beep when I light this thing. There was always a lazy slob that would fake blowing his knee out at 8. I can't go. Can't keep doing it. I love it.

Richie Lurray of Toronto, C, and the Canadian national team, World Cup on TSN, less than a month. We cannot wait for it. Best of luck, great seeing you, and we'll do it again down the road. Thank you very much. You got it. There he is, Rich Ulyra. Overdrive continues up on YouTube live. Catch everything soccer with Bell's game time bundle.

Get 5 TV with TSN plus 5150 internet, all for $99 a month. Price guaranteed for two years with a two-year internet and TV term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for more details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Iheart radio is throwing it back. 2010, the decade. To the days of huge hits and unforgettable albums. A non-stop stream of the biggest and best.

Great Korean. Beyonce, Katie Gaga, the weekend. And more. All your decade defining favorites all in one place. Hi, it's Katie Perry. Hey, it's Bruno Mars. This is Keshe. Find 2010's The Decade on the free IHeart Radio app.

Preset the station, so it's always one tab away. All right, overdrive continues, powered by Fanduel. And I have my bar play list that I will get to. I will get to it. I'll tell you what's not on the bar playlist. There's a meme out there where it's like, do this or rap in Jamaican. Have you ever seen that meme?

And then all of a sudden it says, the guy rapping in Jamaican. Yes. I was going to tweet out, Joe from the bridge, try to get the video of the guy rapping in Jamaican because it's hilarious. I was going to tweet out,

Hayes with a wedge in his hand to make a par, just put it on the green and coupot or birdie or rap in Jamaica. And then there was the guy, that's what I was going to tweet out. But I'm not on Twitter anymore. Yes, you're right.

That would have been a great tweet. You're driving it like Tiger Woods. You've got to work on the wedge game. You should have seen me on one today. I hit a bowl. I mashed it 40 yards past anyone, including this guy. Dude.

And I, Thumpie's like, Tiger Woods is here. First shot I've ever hit in front of Stumpy Thomas, which is a big, you know, like I love Stomby. And noodles. This guy's got 80 yards down the gut to like just a massive green. Yeah, pin that saying, come get me. Backstop behind it and you flare one.

And then he just absolutely. Gold one. Gold one over Stump's head across a road. And then he blasted it back in the fairway and Stump's like, what is this guy? It was crazy. It was a crazy scene from the best drive of the day. Because honestly, like, Stumpy and our boy, Gregi was like, they were like, man, this guy is a player.

A player. Like you would not, you couldn't place a ball better than I did on one T. No. The starter was there. People like, man, that's Brian Hayes. Like the overdrive boys are here. Man, I've heard he's not bad, but that's like, wow, what a drive. And then they watched.

I block a wedge, skull a wedge, fly a wedge. Right over Stumpy's skullet. Twice. Yeah, it went right through his skullet twice. The first one, like, beamed the tower, and Stump was like, and then the second one, I was so far away. He had to give me the hit it here move. Yeah. Like, when you can't see the green and the guys, like, just right over my head.

And then you blew that one by his ear, and you were back in the fairway almost where your drive was. And I stopped drop and roll and said I'm done. He would have torched. And he should have. Because it was... You guys did another good day. Tiger Woods, well, other than that, it was a great day. Yeah, but you guys...

Outside of that, it was phenomenal. He was shopping it around. Yeah, it wasn't here. Dude, it was wild. I couldn't believe I did that. Because I was standing over that thinking, I'm going to throw this to five feet and send a message. And I'm going to put on a show today to stump.

Yes. And you did for one shot. For one shot. And then after that, it was... You were Tommy Kite. Tom Kite. Tom Kite. Off the tea.

It was a Gerald Ford shot. That's a Gerald Ford shot. I don't even know what that really means, but remember that was the call. Like, I've never seen that before. But it went straight left. Yeah, and hit people, I think. Yes. Poor Stumpy.

Yeah. What a beauty. So anyway, now I've got to try to redeem myself in the future, because that would have been a great meme. But you're not online. Did you get the invite back, though? At some point, are you going to, will that be a... Well, we're going to take Stump and Gregy out to cop and, Yes, we'll reciprocate, get them to Copponwood someday, soon, sooner than later.

All right. It has to happen. Greg's going down, he's going down to Sabres' halves tonight. There's a lot of people going down. Yeah. I was, I was thinking about that. This Buffalo, you know, you can see their fan base is so excited. But Montreal, like the Leafs, like Gavinton, like some of these teams, travel well.

And, you know, in Buffalo, in games, one and two, if you look at it, there were a lot of fans, Habs fans there. Big time. That's what a five-hour trip from Montreal? Yeah, about that. I mean, yeah, I think you're driving through Toronto out of an hour. It's six hours. There's people doing that trip.

That's a road trip all day. And like game five tonight, is game Saturday? Is game six on Saturday? Yeah, game six Saturday, Monday, game seven. Game six. Game six on Saturday at the Bell Center. You asked me earlier, how much would I pay to play? Yeah.

that's something you would pay a lot of money. That's a bucket list thing. If you're on a Saturday night, especially if both cases, it's wild. But if the haves win tonight and that's a closeout game. Because they're running out of captains to come out with the torch, right? Like they do such a phenomenal job. I don't think it's all the captains. I think Knuckles went out there.

Did Nileon do it? Okay. I didn't know that because I saw it. I saw Carbono and Mullins, Kurt, Kirk Muller did it. Yeah, Kirk Muller. Yeah, I guess it's just been legends. but for the most part, I have seen the captains to it. I haven't seen all of the games.

Yeah. I think that's really cool to start the game with those guys walking out there. Incredibly cool. Yeah. Who from like modern day could send, like would Carrie Price walk? I think Price. I think Shea Weber would get a big pop. I think Carrie Price, I think you get them in for the net.

Like if they go back. Game six. Well, they got to go back. Well, that's it. Like game six. You wheel Carrie Price out there. Watch out. I think it'll just, and please don't come at me with saying I'm,

There's so many people ahead at Kerry Price. That's fine. I just think Carrie Price would like the price. Well, I don't think you can go wrong with Carrie Price. Sure, there are other guys who also would be big. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It's a good question.

Patrick Waugh? I was thinking Koivu? Patrick Waugh? Patrick Waugh would be crazy. But I don't think he'd do it. The owner's not having that, regardless. But Moulson didn't own the team back. I think Jeff Moulson would love to do it.

I don't know. It's a great question. I know what you're about to ask. Who gets a bigger pop? I would think it's Waugh because he's French-Canadian and he won two cups. Yeah. Like he was royalty, man. Yes.

Like that ending obviously was crazy, but he was St. Patrick in Montreal. For sure. So I would think you bring Patty Waugh out with a torch. He's not doing it, though. I think he'd say no dice. Oh, thank you. But what if it's Colorado Montreal Cup final and he does both?

Torch in Montreal. Can't you both, dude. He's got his own street in Colorado, isn't it? Doesn't they have Patrick Wallway? Possibly. There's got to be a sackick and a Foresburg and a foot boulevard or something. I'm sure there's a street that they named in Colorado after him. Let me ask you this, Hasey, because I know you don't like statues and stuff.

If Austin Matthews says, if Austin Matthews chooses to go away this year by somewhere else, does he go up on Legends Row? Yes. I say yes, too. Yeah. I think it's already been established. Heart, Rockets. Well, you look at the guys who are up on there.

You know, some of them spent, like, their whole career or close to it here in Toronto. But he's, like, 10 years, and he's got, yes, he won a hard rookie of the year, establish the goal scoring record, captain of the team. Yeah, he's going up there. Like, he's, yeah, he's, I get where you're saying that the, if there's an exit that is not clean or, you know, leaves some people with kind of not the greatest feelings. I think with that resume,

regardless of how you leave. But I think Patrick Waugh was an example. Like, I don't, I'm not sure people, Montreal love the way he went out. And yet now, 30 years later, it's like, hey,

bygones will be bygones. Let's get Patrick Waugh back into the fold. Yeah. You know what I mean? To see. Like here, you can go home again.

Like Patrick, I think would be welcome with open arms. Oh, yeah, for sure. You know, the way it ended was tough. That was the point.

Well, and it was just a weird, like getting shelled like that and getting the Bronx cheer and then saying I'm out of here. Mario Trombley, the coach, wasn't it? Yeah, I believe so. Yeah, because he was my assistant coach. He was my assistant coach. Where's that guy going?

In Minnesota. Yeah, going by me to talk to the owner. Yeah, the president, I think it was. The president and say, I'm out. Get me out of here. That was a tough look. Get me out of here. Yeah. You know who they should get at the bell center. Doug Gilmore out there. Doug E.G. on a

Saturday night. Get him to smash the penalty box glass. Yes. He's a hop. There's lots of legends there. Lots of legends. All right. Hour two coming up. Darren Dregor will join us. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and up on YouTube live. You've been listening to

Overdrive, powered by Fandul. Fan duel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. I'm Cynthia Lois and I'm Josie Dye. And we're done pretending we have it all figured out. Each week we laugh, cry, and talk our way through life's messiest moments.

things you think about but would never say out loud. The questions you are always too shy to ask. Relationships, regrets, awkward moments, and the stuff no one warns you about. It's honest, it's funny, and sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable. But that's kind of the point. This is Cynthia and Josie's Unmentionables. Listen on the free IHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.