OverDrive - OverDrive - May 30, 2025 - Hour 1

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

Join Aaron Korolnek, Jamie McLennan and Dave Feschuk for Hour 1 on OverDrive! The guys discuss the Maple Leafs' outlook for the team, Brad Treliving's priorities for the lineup and the importance of creating a strong DNA across your roster in Toronto. President of Edmonton Sports Talk Dustin Nielson joins to discuss the Oilers advancing to the Stanley Cup Final, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl's mentality and the redemption against the Panthers. They also dive into Max Scherzer's impending return and Anthony Santander landing on the IL with the Blue Jays.

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I'm Aaron Korolnikin for Brian Hayes. Alongside my friends Dave Festchuk and Jamie Noodles, McLennan, gentlemen, great to be here. How we doin'? Ah, all good. And how's everybody doin' today? It is actually a beautiful day. A.K.A., I don't know, Fest, if you guys have been golfing,

you know me, I'm not a big golfer, but it looked like, or at least felt like it was golfing weather today. Noodles, I couldn't stomach the idea of playing golf today I'm not a big golfer, but it looked like or at least felt like it was golfing weather today noodles I couldn't stomach the idea of playing golf today because I was glued to my phone waiting for the results of the Canadian screen awards Whether or not our boy Brian Hayes was going to take down his first best host nomination and James dot the one for like the 17th time well it sounds like he was runner-up though That's why I'll definitely runner-up. But very close, very close vote. Can you imagine there was transparency on those votes? Like

whoever's voting for it. Dave, you probably know who votes for the Canadian Screen Awards, no? Uh, you know it's a very secret, secret society that nobody is really privy to. So, but you talk about sporting dynasties, fellas. I mean, you know, we're talking about are the Panthers going to be a dynasty here in their third straight run to the Stanley Cup final? Duthie might be the most impressive dynasty in the history of sports. That's a very good point. That's a very good point. Deserving. I mean, his work at Copa America. And you guys know I love James Duthie. You guys know I love Brian Hayes equally, of course. I think both were very deserving. But James by a nose this time maybe Brian's year next year. I hope so. I mean that way I don't know how Monday's show is going to go now because if

Brian loses and then I don't know I don't want to start a rumor but what did O shoot yesterday a 64? 64. I heard there might be a slight caveat with it. Oh, really? So I spoke to Koliakov this morning, and he confirmed the 64 said it was unimpeachable. I saw the scorecard, right? But I don't understand the score.

There was an X beside one of them, which, you know, I think it was believed his partner may have had taken the score or whatever, but they had given themselves a birdie. And usually if you get an X, it's a higher number. So I don't know, like it might fall under protest. I don't I I need clarification because I understand the cards, but not so much. And I want Brian Hayes to probably go through the card to see if I know if You know if oh can back it up or whatever or they might get in a fistfight over it Who knows but I I mean we all know Oh's an amazing golfer and 64 wouldn't be a stretch for for him to do it on

A good day, but I do believe the believe there might be one hole in question. That's what I'm concerned about. When I spoke to Koli Akhavoh, he was almost giddy talking about the round and said that there is video of the entire round. They had camera crews and if you're unaware of what we're talking about, which some of you may be, there was an RBC Canadian Open NHLPA Day yesterday up at TPC Toronto ahead of the RBC Canadian Open, which begins next week. We'll be live on location first up. That's my show, Monday to Friday, Overdrive, Wednesday to Friday, Golf Talk Canada all week. And they did some kind of tournament and they recorded everything. So all those shots of O'Neill Dre, I think he made seven birdies yesterday.

That's all going to be available for public consumption at some point in time. I think a lot of people are looking forward to it. I would love to watch it and go through the tape. I just want to see what the hole with an X beside it, what happened on that side. I am curious. Dave, you're a golf aficionado. What does the X mean? Yeah. Well, look, I mean, you know, we, my son is also a golf aficionado and I were,

we were pouring over that scorecard last night after we heard O-Doc shot 64. We could not, we are not mathematicians, but we could not make the math work. We could not come up with 64 on that card because there was an X i think i've read sick audit by the law firm of haze noodles and the role that might be a order here because i think is a selfish ego what concerns me if you've got cocoa using his fingers in his toes like i do in the the adding up the good point we might have some you know discrepancies put it that way but seventy

four and offer offer all you know the political acrobaty You know discrepancies put it that way 74 I think we might be bearing the lead guys I mean, you know on the day that Brad tree living came out and said the Leafs need to change their DNA What is William Nylander do talk about? Performing in critical moments William Nylander drains the birdie putt on the rink hole to win the NHLPA face-off over Coco and O'Dog. How about that for William Nylander in Clutch play? Well, I mean, so maybe Brad Treeliving wasn't talking about him. Like I do actually want, I want both of your opinions on it because it was kind of fresh when we went to air yesterday. So you're kind of going, okay. And after sleeping on it, I feel,

I felt like I woke up with a little bit different interpretation and I would ask, you know, fast truck, you've been in those scrums. You've asked a lot of questions. You know, you watching the press conference, were there any questions that were omitted for you that you would have liked either a follow-up or maybe liked? the DNA one was very interesting and I think you know if you look at it Brad Tree Living was being honest and I respect that a lot but if there's a follow-up in there going okay well if you're going to change the you know the make or the DNA of the group you know is it addition by subtraction and will we lead to believe if

it's Tavares and Marner's that aren't signed, is it those two you felt that they didn't have the DNA? Like there was probably a follow-up in there. I don't know if anybody, Dave, if you felt there might have been a question in there, but it was interesting. Well, look, first of all, yeah, no, I think you're right, Noodle. Like I wasn't down there to be fair. And, you know, to, Noodle. I wasn't down there, to be fair. And to be fair to the reporters who were down there, just the format of those season-ending press conferences, it's a relatively controlled environment where you're not, it's not like a regular scrum where you can just sort of shout out. You're called upon by the director

of media relations there, Steve Keough, and it's one question per person, essentially. You can eject a quick follow-up probably But Steve keeps it moving pretty good, and it's it's a limited time frame so look there were questions that were left unanswered But I'll to be fair to it was like there were a lot of questions You could have asked that probably wouldn't have gotten much of an answer Yeah the one I wanted more clarity on was the Austin Matthews injury because to me this looked like a case of The Austin Matthews injury because to me this looked like a case of injury mismanagement by this franchise We find out now that this guy had an injury in training camp and played game one, you know play played throughout the regular season

I missed some games and obviously made the trip to Germany to get the mysterious German Fountain of Youth treatment That didn't seem to work But I just don't understand how if this guy could be better in a few months which he said at the end of the season he will be better in a few months he's a hundred percent confident he'll be fine with some rest why didn't he rest it out of the gate fellas yeah i i don't know and i i don't a k i i i i i don't think anyone has an answer on that one i think it's a very reasonable question almost ties in like what the blue jays announced today right anthony santander placed on the injured list i think they called it shoulder

inflammation that guy has been an abomination at the plate for the blue jays since finding that big money ticket in the offseason and you're wondering why did it take so long to put the dude on the injured list i mean he's hitting one eighty and i'm not doing anything and you wonder if the maple leaves had been a little bit more proactive with matthews how that could have affected their fate in the postseason. Without knowing the nature of the injury, this is the frustrating part because, you

know, in fairness to what Tree Living said yesterday, he said, you know, they didn't feel like him playing could make it any worse. So it's basically like either pain management or managing going forward. What scares me or worries me for this is if they're not talking about it, that's two years in a row, Matthews is at an injury and he's been, and it's his body and Tre even said, he goes, it's individually if guys want to share the nature of the injury. So that's fair. But it leads me to believe that this could be chronic, like this could be something that

reoccurs the rest of his career. That scares me for if you're a Leaf fan in the media, even if you're Austin Matthews in the organization, again, without knowing the nature of the injury. But if they felt comfortable, because they have a great medical staff, if they felt comfortable letting him play right up to four nations, into four nations, down the stretch into the playoffs,

that he wasn't gonna get worse, this just leads me to believe, I don't know what is the answer. Is he gonna get two months of rest or three months of three months arrest Start training and then when he starts to if it's you know if it's a shoulder or if it's a wrist or a back or whatever Starts to ramp up his training or gets hit the wrong way or does something in training camp again Are we gonna go through this again next year? That's my biggest concern totally reasonable concern and I would say the next year for Auston Matthews, pretty important season because his running mate Mitch Marner almost assuredly won't be back with the Toronto Maple Leafs next season

so you could see a world in which Matthew Nyes will be on one side and who knows who Auston Matthews right winger could be William Nylander, could be a free agent, could be someone they trade for but Auston Matthews might have to carry a little bit more of the load offensively, not that he's not capable of doing so, of course he is, but without Marner there, riding shotgun with Matthews, you might see something a little bit different. I think that's when you talk about the DNA conversation that has been rampant in the city here for the last 24 plus hours, that's going to come in different ways and a guy

like Matthews would be directly affected by that because Marner's gone and they're going to have to find someone to play alongside Matthews. I'm sure there's a long list of players. I think about some of the dudes on one-year deals you might be able to snag. The name Patrick Kane was brought up to me today and I thought, hmm, that could be interesting. One-year deal wouldn't be overly expensive. You plug him in on the right side next to Matthews. Part of worse ideas than that. I kind of think that's what the Leafs are gonna be looking at here because whether or not you believe that Sam Bennett's in play, you look at

some of the other big name free agents, the trade targets, a big edition of AK's list coming up at 630. Oh I love it. The Toronto targets, whether it be trade or free agency that I would advocate for the most from five to one. So you're gonna want to stick around that for that at 630. But yeah, it's a massive offseason for Toronto, not only with Matthews getting healthy, probably priority number one, but they got to find someone to play next to them. Well, I agree. And I think if you believed, and I did believe that Brad Tree Living and Brendan Shanahan were very close. Keep in mind, Brendan Shanahan brought in Brad Tree Living,

so they worked closely together. Regardless if you believed in the Shana plan or not, Brendan Shanahan is a very smart hockey mind. So you could argue today, the Leafs organization is weaker from a resource standpoint than it was a couple days ago because you haven't replaced that, that brilliant hockey mind. You haven't replaced that. Now, if they just forge ahead, there's lots of smart people there, Shane Doan, Dare Clancy, a lot of, you know, a lot of people around Brad Tree Living.

But I will say this, I feel like now he has the freedom to do exactly what he wants to do. And maybe if what he wanted to do didn't mix with Brendan Shanahan, now there's nobody saying, hey, we want you to keep this guy, we want you to do this. I've always envisioned this core for it. It's Brad Tree Living's show. So you know, he gets an opportunity to kind of put a stamp 100% on this team without anybody kind of over his shoulder telling him, you know, what they feel type of thing.

Yeah, that's, that's a big point. Noodles. I mean, nobody questions Shanana hands brilliance and intelligence i think you know what we came to question down the stretch of his run of eleven years in toronto was his stubbornness ran maybe it maybe his heart had it is what made him a great player in it incredible stick to it in this incredible belief in his beliefs uh... he believed in the wrong guys the end and that came back to bite him

But you know the thing about you said AKI I completely agree with like there's going to be a lot more on Austin Matthews next season than just the weight of a brand new spanking see on his sweater You know, we're going away from the core for era. What are we gonna call it? Probably just gonna call it the Matthews era, right? It's we gotta go out with a name and he's got to work on that yeah we do need like i don't know if we're gonna call the matthews neelander team because it doesn't feel like neelander is anywhere near as big a figure as matthews and you know to me who he plays with

yeah that's going to be important but it's about how he plays and i'm with you noodles like that whole thing about it couldn't get worse and that's why they played him through this injury throughout the season well it couldn't get worse but it didn't get better and it didn't get better throughout the whole season you it makes you wonder if maybe it'll ever get better we know he had a back problem before he started going completely silent on what particularly was ailing him. He's had a back problem, he's had shoulder problems, obviously we know he's had wrist problems. Some of those can be chronic. And back to what you said

about the team's DNA and Tree Living's commentary, the thing that fascinates me the most about what Tree said at his availability yesterday is, oh we need a change in the DNA. But this is, reportedly, the same guy, and I understand Brendan Shanahan at the time was still in power, that wanted to sign Mitch Marner before the trade deadline. That was only a couple months ago. So I suppose there's two ways to look at it. Number one, he fundamentally altered his perception of Marner as part of the team's DNA. Or the other most logical explanation is that of Marner as part of the team's DNA or the other most logical explanation is that Mitch Marner didn't want to come back and Tree Living just said, well, Marner's

already out the door, then we need to change the team's DNA. It's one of the two. Well, and I'll throw in a third there potentially because John Tavares. So if Mitch Marner signs an extension at the deadline, you could probably suggest that Tavares is not coming back in any way, shape or form. If you are going to get away from the core four, then you would just really be stuck with, not stuck, you would have three and headed in different direction. I just, I think it's a very refreshing point of view from Brad Tree Living because a lot of times, listen, you know, Jonas asked

him a question, he talked for five minutes and then he even said to Jonas, I don't even know if I answered your question. And he even kind of chuckled because, you know, Brad's brilliant at speaking and he's very affable. But in the end, you know, the follow-up would be, you know, do you view that some of these guys as, you know, can't get it done their DNA They're just not in their DNA to push through at the most important times and if you if he Affirm that yes

Then you could say well, who are they like who? Who did Craig Berube identify or who did you identify from being behind the curtain? That you just can't win with player X or player Y? That's that's the multi-million dollar question right now, right? You know who does that would be if I'm answered that if a GM answered that sort of interrupt a cave a GM answered that one Noodles, I would be shocked. I mean if he starts listing off guys, yeah, we can't win with this guy There's no freaky way this guy disappears every time it matters Unlikely to answer but you know, the point is we know the answer like we've seen

We've seen the fact that the captain number 34 has never scored a goal in a winner-take-all game We know we saw William Nylander do the flyby in a big moment in game seven We've seen these guys be irrelevant you know well uh... a real championship contender dominates a game in front of them uh... on their own ice while their fans boo so you know it's not really a mystery right exactly and and the but what is the mystery noodles to your point

and i think that long answer to jones's question gave you some insight into it is that there is no answer. Like how do you find clutch guys? How do you find guys who are going to show up? Like Brad Treelove had Sam Bennett in Calgary and gave up on him. You know, albeit that was quite a few years ago, he's a different player now than he was then, but he didn't exactly see the guy who's leading the NHL playoffs and goals in his cat his own Calgary dressing room a handful of years ago And I'm not putting fault on that

I'm just saying that's what it is like he was in Calgary then tree living said he ain't here anymore I'm trading them for you know for some other assets So it's not easy to pick out the guys that are gonna show up for you And that that you know Bennett example probably illustrates it best of all There was a group of dudes last night in Dallas that definitely showed they have the championship DNA and I'm talking about the Edmonton Oilers What a performance what a great game I mean so much controversy and we'll talk a lot about Pete DeBoer's comments and his decision-making with regards to Jake Ottinger I know you have a lot of thoughts on that Jamie

I mean what the Oilers were able to do and to get Hyman's out of the lineup right you wondered all right what's the trickle-down effect of that well the guy who replaces him on the top power play unit Corey Perry scores the first goal the guy reprises him in the lineup Jeff Skinner who never scored a playoff goal scores the third goal and of course Connor McDavid does what he did on the fourth goal which was perhaps the goal of the playoffs what a great win for Edmonton, man. And setting up just a cup final that will be unreal starting Wednesday night. And both teams playing so well right now.

And there'll be so many storylines coming out of it. But you're right. This goal by McDavid was all world. And what I loved about it was Ray Ferraro's call. I don't know if you heard it, depending on what broadcast you're watching. But he was talking and then McDavid going, he just goes, uh-oh. Literally, that was it. He was like, oh my.

Because he could see the puck bounce off at home and McDavid is coming off the bench fresh. And I give Hintz credit. Hintz caught up to him. It's just McDavid powered coming off the bench like fresh. And I give hints credit, like hints caught up to him. It's just McDavid powered through the move. But there were so many storylines coming out of last night's game, you know, from a positive standpoint for the Abington Oilers. Because Stuart Skinner, yes, he did the Robertson third goal. I think got everybody a little bit tight.

Fair enough. But you know, Skinner looked rock solid again, like he looks like that the team's working well with him and he's working well with them. But then it was, you know, maybe not the cast of characters that you would expect, but Corey Perry at 40 years old, we ran a board on this last night on on Sports Center. He's over 40, he's got seven goals at 40 and over in the playoffs. This is so impressive what he's doing. And maybe this is a conversation for next week or whatever,

but Corey Perry, a Hall of Famer, I kind of feel like he might be. I think he is. It just, it's amazing. This guy is 40 years old and he's a rink rat and he just loves it. I think a lot of us probably thought he was done five years ago. All this guy does is go to the finals. Now, you hope that if you're an Oilers fan and you just want to see a little retribution

that Edmonton pulls it off, but this Florida team is not going anywhere either. I think it's going to be a hell of a series yeah you know you talk about it's not a boat sort of what what tree living was talking about uh... about how when the leaves got down one nothing in that game seven i thought this was limiting for tree living basically like to you know looking down from the g m's box at his own team he sat in the look like it was down for nothing

in that moment to the Panthers. And you see the opposite of that in McDavid and Dreisauter, right? These guys, you look at the all-time list of playoffs points per game and there's McDavid right behind Gretzky on the Mew. And it's amazing that the leadership quality that that guy seems to have of, I'm going to drag you along with me, guys like and if you're not coming with me I'm gonna I'm gonna read you out in the dressing room in in ways We've heard and seen in various behind-the-scenes videos We haven't seen any evidence of that Toronto guys like we just haven't seen it might have happened

We just haven't seen it this stat the stat with McDavid Scoring two or more points in more playoff games than he's had one or zero is simply preposterous think about that is that is Insane behavior Gretzky's the only guy and Lemieux are the only guys that are close dry Cytle in 44% of his playoff games has had two or more points as well. Again, what the Oilers have, and they work in conjunction of course, are two of the greatest players of all time in McDavid and Dry Sido. Playoff performers without a shadow of a doubt and they're gonna need to carry a very big load to beat a team like the Florida Panthers but there was a part of me, I don't know if you guys felt the same

way, just watching McDavid score that breakaway goal last night that had me thinking maybe this is just destiny for McDavid and you hear the the reflections back Gretzky losing his first cup final in 83 then winning in 84 and Crosby doing the same in 08 Into 09 winning after losing everything is lining up But that the opponent in Florida is a daunting one for Edmonton I think these are the two best teams in the NHL at the moment. I'm not sure anyone's even close.

No. And you're right. Like, they've peaked at the right time. Health is still a question. Obviously, I felt bad. I don't know if you saw it online last night. They had clips coming out of the Oilers' dressing room where all the guys were FaceTiming Zach Hyman, right?

And, you know, like, you can genuinely tell the guys miss him and love him and he's a key part of that team. But here's something just kind of on the side of that. Chris Knobloch is a really interesting coach. He really presses buttons. You look at it, he could have easily gone 11-7 last night and said, you know what, I'm going to bleed Ekholm into the lineup and just play him a couple shifts here or there because he hasn't played in a while. But he puts in Jeff Skinner, Jeff Skinner scores.

He puts Ekholm in but he puts Ekholm on the top pairing, which he is a top pairing defenseman, and Ekholm didn't look out of place. And what he does is get a game before he gets into the finals. Like a lot of these moves by Naublok, placing guys in situations to trust them, and in Edmonton it has been kind of next man up and I thought Arvidsson played really well in the games coming back in. He was very noticeable. He's not a big guy, but man he plays hard. So you look at what Edmonton's done. It was very noticeable. He's not a big guy, but man, he plays hard. And so

you look at what Edmonton's done, it could be destiny. McDavid, you know, he, I think he says and does all the right thing. He looked crabby, like he looked grumpy on his, in his media last night because it's all business. He doesn't care about anything except winning. Everything else is secondary. But this Florida team's going to have something to say too. So that's the thing. We can all paint this storybook finish, but he has to do the job and that team has to do the job because this Florida team is no joke either. Yeah, and they pick them on fan duel between the two teams. So it's minus 110 both sides for Florida Edmonton I think

that is spot-on because good luck trying to pick a winner between these two juggernauts going toe-to-toe starting Wednesday night we've got Dustin Nielsen live from Edmonton coming up in about five minutes looking forward to that MJ on the show just after five o'clock Keegan Matheson live from the dome where the Jays taking on the Oakland slash Sacramento slash Las Vegas A's. No one knows what they're called and they did get smashed by Ernie Clement and the Jays last night, 12-0.

So some positivity from Blue Jays Nation which has been desperately in need. Ryan Worsofsky coming up as well, the coach of the Sharks, coach of Team USA at the World Hockey Championship, who won gold just earlier this week. It's hour one of Overdrive here on this Friday afternoon. Melodyne Friday was brought to you by Boston Pizza, Canada's favorite sports bar. This playoff season, Boston Pizza is planning the parade.

It has a new all-star playoff menu for you to enjoy. For pizza, pints, and puck drops, visit your local Boston pizza today. Hour one continues here on Overdrive. You're listening to TSN 1050, watching on TSN 2, and on TSN's YouTube channel. Pink Pony Club, the song that the Oilers play in the room. I'm sure your daughter plays Pink Pony Club

all the time at your house, no noodles? Well, the best version I've heard of it was keith urban singing and i don't know if you've seen that that's a hipster that's a hipster answer right there actually keith urban does a rendition of it like on the guitar it's unbelievable uh... i'd i actually have never listen start to finish the actual real song i don't know who sings it but chapel ron

chapel ron's i've i've i've i know the chorus it but chapel ronan chapel runs high five i've i know the course put it that way has played everywhere and people are fired up fired up in yes by twelve-year-old guarantee knows what every word of it but uh... i like either i saw it came across like analog u two burn is a grammar something that i i've watched it he was unbelievable saying it lot of covers what it covers a pink pony out there, because it's a great song

and the Oilers love it too. And all they have to do is play it four more times in the room and they will be Stanley Cup champions. And I'm sure our next guest is very cognizant of that. He is Dustin Nielsen from Edmonton Sports Talk. He's the president of the Nielsen Show and the CFL and TSM. We'll bring him in in just a moment But I oh there he is. Oh, there's dusty. Look at this guy. I'm good sports. I he got the hat on. What's up, man?

You got it. I got to represent the brand. I'm actually just that right when I'm done with you guys I'm going to get a haircut for the first time since right before breakup. Well, it's time to get her mopped up I got to be a fancy TV boy for CFL next week so I gotta clean myself up a bit. You do. So I know it's extremely hot in Edmonton right now. What is it, like 35 degrees every day? But I mean, just like... I'm sitting in a black pickup truck right now so it's like 45 degrees where I am right now. I can't even imagine just the level of excitement for this upcoming series after everything we've seen from the Oilers here. Since the first two games against LA LA I mean this team has been

dominant they throttled Dallas in that series I mean how are Oilers fans feeling at the moment Dusty? They're pumped I mean they should be you're right like they killed Dallas they've won four games in a row by three goals or more and it was a little it was closer than that but that's how it ended right four straight games with three goals or more after And it was a little, it was closer than that, but that's how it ended. Right. Four straight games with three goals or more after falling apart in game one, where it would have been maybe just a sweep. And you mentioned it. They have the first two games against LA were awful. They didn't look like a team that was going to get back to the Stanley cup final. But since then, the only two games they lost was the

one against Vegas when dry subtle put that puck into his own net. And then that penalty kill collapsed at the beginning of game one. So they just they defend so much better than they have over the last few years. And I think there's a belief in town that Connor McDavid will refuse to lose in a Stanley Cup final this time around. So they're excited. Florida is obviously a different animal than I think anybody they face in the West, but good reason to be excited here right now so so does the uh... you know you talked about that this starts against the l a kings

uh... you and i talk a lot especially down the stretch it didn't it in a look at me there was injuries to its skinner was injured mcdavid was injured dry saddle i mean there was all different question marks. Frederick, you know, I even John Klingberg I think was wearing a ball cap for the most. But you know, how do this all come together? And is it just, it was it almost like game three there's a TSN turning point or you know if you have to go back, could you point to one thing that goes okay that changed the fortunes of either their season or their playoffs here?

Yeah I mean you're right Noodle's like we talk every week and down the stretch the whole question was well can you just flip this can you just flip a switch can you just flip a switch and it didn't seem like it'd be reasonable even a good team to flip a switch but you know game one against the Cains happens and then in game two they get Cain, they get Frederick and then Klingberg. We didn't even talk about Klingberg as a possibility to really play in the playoffs, let alone factor in as much as he's had. You know, I think what you have to look at, we still talk about the Jim Hiller coaching challenge in that King series. And then the fact, I mean, if Byfield just clears a puck pastouchard Your others they would have been down three nothing in that series

So, you know kind of got fortunate there in game three against the Kings, but since that moment they haven't looked back and Dallas Dallas just isn't built to beat the others I was more worried about Vegas than I was about Dallas and the others have just owned Dallas for a couple of years now so Vegas than I was about Dallas. And the others have just owned Dallas for a couple of years now. So they managed to get some bodies healthy. It's weird going into the playoffs, they can game two of a playoff, putting together a lineup that had not been together all year. That's risky, but it's worked out very well and Knoblock's got a good feel for the group.

He is Dustin Nielsen, Edmontonsportstalk.com, The Nielsen Show. And you mentioned Knoblock, that's where I wanted to go next because seemingly the man could do no wrong at the moment. Hyman gets hurt, like all right why don't we just move Corey Perry up to PP1? Oh well we need a spot in the lineup. Jeff Skinner come on down, both those guys score last night. Matthias Janmark scores for the Oilers. You see Evander Kane scoring. The Dagger late in the third period. I mean, Chris Naubach deserves a lot of credit for what's going on with the Oilers, no? Yeah, Edmonton Sports Talk exists to talk about line combinations and like criticize coaches. But after he brought in Kapanen, and I remember when he was putting Kapanen in the lineup, I was like, wait, Kepernick? Really, like this is the move?

And Kaepernick's been great. In fact, Kaepernick had the most goals by a Finnish player in this last series. And think about the Finns that were on Dallas. It's ridiculous. But Kaepernick managed to do it. So the moment that the Kaepernick thing worked out, I've just said on my show, like,

I mean, I got opinions, but I will not criticize Noblock for any decision he makes with the lineup because it's been masterful. It's been a masterful performance. I mean, even I mean, the Skinner thing's wild because we didn't think he'd even play another game. And then when when they lost Hyman, I think a lot of us thought they might go 11 and 7 before even putting Skinner in. And then he puts Skinner in and he scores like eight minutes into a huge game. So whatever he does works. It's almost beyond criticism at this point. I think most of us would look like idiots if we call out any of his moves because he's... And even he admitted to it. We were talking about this the other day. He talked about it starting the playoffs that they tried a lot of different line combinations through the regular

season. And he actually said, he goes goes probably even more than we should have like we probably move things around too much and now they've sort of locked it in and everybody's contributing and I mean that's what you're going to need if you're actually going to finish this job. Dustin the Leafs could probably say a similar thing to Jim Hiller in LA they could have had the Panthers down three zip in their series against the Panthers, had two nothing lead in that game, had a 3-1 lead in that game, couldn't hold on. And the talk around Toronto has been about the DNA of the group.

And Brad Shreving, the GM, was trying to put his finger on yesterday what this group needs in terms of playing well in the critical moments. What do you observe about this McDavid Dry Cytoled team? Can you kind of get inside that a little bit and what is the quality that those guys bring? Is it them dragging their teammates along? Is it them injecting their teammates with inspiration and making guys better? How do you see that? I think with what this team's been through over the last few years and for

the most part being together, you know, I don't, I'm not going to take away anything from the leadership of McDavid and dry. So I think the core of this team has been together. Like they've all been through it. I think, I think if we had to put a figure on what those guys have done best for this team and that, you know, a DNA or a culture perspective is they've remained extremely calm through the ups and downs over the last two years like McDavid and Dry Settle there's no panic in those guys after any of these four losses so far in the playoffs you know they get sick and tired of talking about defense they get sick and tired of this and that but like those two guys are

on a mission right now like it is all business. After last night's game, it was all business. McDavid was angry. He came across as angry after they knocked off the goal that night, and five. You're just like, man, it's OK to smile a little bit. But I think we saw the disappointment last year. And Connor McDavid just seems like he's a man on a mission right now.

And I think that's an easy guy to buy into and when he is calm and when he is Leading the way DVA he's been one of the best defensive forward so far in the playoffs I think so when he's when he's doing little things I just don't know how anybody else in that team can't be like I'll do what you're doing because if you're doing it I think we'll probably win looking ahead to Wednesday night when game one goes down from Edmonton Oilers Taking on the Florida Panthers in a rematch of last year. I think this is a really unique Situation in that I think you can make a pretty compelling case that both teams are actually better this year than they were last year Florida adding Marchand and Seth Jones and Edmonton just looks like a team that's possessed

How would you handicap this one? FanDuel has it as a central pick them. How do you pick a winner between these two right now? I mean I can't. I said it this morning like I can't. I think this is gonna be a phenomenal series. Like it might come down to a bounce here or there, a bad goal here or there. We had somebody this morning on our show and said Dusty, you know what I'm'm most excited for the black arts of Perry and Marchand in a series going head-to-head and I thought you know what that's gonna be highly entertaining I simplified it probably too much on our show this morning but I mean

to me if you had to put everything together and find one X factor come back around to 97 and I just I mean it's the whole Gretzky loss and then one X factor, come back around to 97 and I just, I mean it's the whole Gretzky loss and then one, Crosby loss and then one. I just don't see Connor McDavid losing a series this year. I just, I mean and that's an okay guide to back in this situation. Florida's an unreal team.

Florida, they're looking at their lineup today and what they've done so far. I know people don't like to hear it in this market but there's no shame in losing to Florida market, but there's no shame in losing to the Florida Panthers and there's no shame in losing to the Oilers if it's the Panthers on the other side. This is going to be a hell of a series. But I think if I have to side one way, it would be with Connor McDavid not losing two

Stanley Cup finals in a row. Yeah, it makes sense. But you look at it too. Like I could simplify it and say, is this really going to come down to the goaltenders? And I don't know if you talked about it, Dusty, but Darcy Kemper had a Vezna type of season. He allowed five goals once all season long, and the Eulers did it like three games in a row against him. Aiden Hill was a Stanley Cup Cup champion is their number one and Vegas is a

rock-solid team they got to Hill now they got to Autinger that's the biggest thing that that's the X factor for me if Stuart Skinner he doesn't have to steal the series but he can't cost them that and I look at you know that's where the Oilers they've been so good at getting to top-tier goaltenders and Bobrowski might be at the top of the mountain right now and that's the biggest challenge for them. Yeah, I think you're probably right. I mean that second line of Bennett and Kachuk and Verhegg is kind of insane too and that's

going to be a tough line to deal with but yeah I think today we were kind of going over some numbers live on our noon hour show. And I actually technically until this morning did not realize the Emmet and Oilers are averaging four goals per game in the playoffs. Like they are averaging 4.08 goals per game in the Stanley Cup playoffs, which now Florida is at 3.88. So both of these teams can score in bunches. Bobrovsky, you know, if it wasn't for Bobrovsky, early in that series last year, the Oilers probably win the Stanley Cup. Bobrovsky was outstanding and they kept at him and kept at him and eventually got to him. And the joke in town here is if you can get to a game four with Stuart Skinner between the pipes, then it's shutdown time because he's the greatest game four goalie statistically in the history of the league which doesn't make any sense but

it is statistically he's been amazing from games four to seven he really has so you know we were talking about it on the show and like depending on who you talk to in town some people want to try to say it's a wash but Bobrovsky's Bobrovsky man and I think you have to respect him until you can get to him. The Reullers are three for three in rattling goaltenders, so we'll see if they can do it to Bobrovsky, but he's just a different beast.

Can't wait. Next Wednesday night in Edmonton, you guys will be covering it on Edmonton Sports Talk. Ton, probably not a lot of Elks talk these days, Dusty, I imagine, ahead of the CFL season. Preseason game tonight. Yeah. I felt bad. I mean, we're pretty good partners with the

Yolks but I just couldn't find time for a preseason game this morning. Great board Cody Fijardo. What a quarterback do you have out there in Edmonton. Thanks for doing this buddy. Enjoy the haircut. Yeah, yeah you know what? I will. It's been a long time. I look forward to it. See you later boys. Alright that's Dustin Nielsen from Edmonton Sports Talk. Hasn't gotten a haircut since, what do you say, the Grey Cup, which is in November. It is now almost June. I do a show and I didn't notice a man bun or anything like that. Maybe he's got it pulled back or I don't know because he always, like he wears a hat so

seems like he's got a decent salad but I have no idea if he's got like a long ponytail that he talks it in or something I didn't know that like that's a haircut since November that's a long time you used to have them the mullet back in the day Jamie I mean how long how long between haircuts yeah you still do glorious hair no now I'm hanging on by a thread it's but like day, when I played for the Florida Panthers, I grew my hair out all one length down to my shoulders. I thought it was cool. I bought a Cadillac, 1975 Cadillac El Dorado convertible.

Had nine people, because it had a rumble seat in the trunk. So you could get nine people in the car. You just drive it, leave it at the bar, pick it up the next day. It was unbelievable. And I actually bought it. It was white and I had it custom painted. It was called the SS Noodles. It was a boat. It was 22 feet long. It was unbelievable. I couldn't fit it in my garage. I had to keep it at a separate garage because it was so long was, that was my Florida style. And then, you know, I had to, I had to grow up and cut my hair and, you know, my hair is falling out.

So I mean, now, now it's a point where you're just hanging on by a thread, but I wish I could have that long locks. Like a lot of guys have them now. I have so many questions. You, you drove a car that could carry nine people in it? Yes, I've got a picture of nine people in it. Please send it to Joe from the bridge and we'll show it on we'll show it on TSN2 and some other pics that you may have from back in the day. I'm very curious to see what's cooking.

It is hour one of Overdrive here in this Friday afternoon. Kurolnik, McClennan, Fesschuk, TSN2, TSN1050, TSN's YouTube channel. Overdrive is brought to you by FanDuel, bringing you everything from the opening line of the final score, Karelnick, McClennan and Festchuk. I thought it was a little peculiar, Noodles, that Joe from the Bridge already had the picture of you in your, what you call it, your rumble car? Yeah, the rumble seat in the trunk. There it is. There it is.

A rumble. That is what it's called. Nine people. Nine people in the car. There's nine people. Now Now Strudy's directly behind me with the hat on. I'm driving there with the tuque. I had a John Deere tuque that I would drive with. Because, I don't know, I don't drive it at night. It gets a little cold in Florida if you're driving at night with the top down. In the middle, Blair Betts is right beside me. Blair played in Philadelphia and in Calgary. His wife is one in the middle. Struddy's wife is there.

And my best buddy in the middle in the second seat, he passed away in 2009, but that's him and his wife is the third girl in the trunk there. Wow, what a picture. There's nine of us. We were heading out for dinner. Jumped in the SS noodles. That's old school, man. And sometimes in downtown Toronto, there are those like pedal bike pub things that people

drive around. I don't know if you guys, in Nashville, they're very common. In Toronto, they have them as well, but you're not allowed to drink, which confuses me as to why you'd want to jump on one, understandably so. Those are the only vehicles that can rival the SS noodles, in my opinion. Yeah. Well, I've left that out. How much did that thing cost to fill up?

Oh, I don't know. Nowadays, who knows? It would be, I'd have to take a mortgage out. But, yeah, I had a few incidents in it. One time we were driving, it was myself, Greg Campbell, Jay Bommister, and Stephen Weiss, and we were driving down the beach and there was like black smoke. I was like what is going on? Is the car on fire? I had an incident too where I was driving about 65 miles an hour down the highway and I went depressed and I had no brakes so I had to run it off the road. It was a scary situation. I had to go off the highway, up a ramp to try and slow it down.

As I was heading towards the lights, there was a guy with a sign. Maybe a homeless guy wanted money or whatever. I was screaming at him, get out of the way, because I was trying to run the car into the curb to slow it down. Then the car got up on the curb and he had to dive into the bushes and I went into an intersection and down a hill I ended up stopping in a Walmart parking lot as you just I just circled it to a stop because I had no brakes. It was crazy like the brakes went on it. I guess you shouldn't be driving a car from 1975. I don't buy them. You know it was it, uh, it was certainly, uh, it interesting ride, put it that way. I loved it, but it was, uh,

a few times it was a death trap. It sounds like a little bit dangerous, a little bit dangerous, but I mean, the nine people is what really gets me. I was awesome. It was awesome. You think, uh, you think Max Scherzer drew, drove one of those cars back in the day? I mean, he's getting up there in the years. Maybe, maybe he could have had something like that. He's into his 40s Well good news Max Scherzer did throw a live BP today down at Rogers Center

So 20 25 pitches on the road to recovery is Max Scherzer has one Free agent signing goes on the IL and Santander another seems to be close to making his return to the lineup So good news for the Jays as they get ready for the A's tonight. They need it though, don't you think? Like they need something, like yes a big win last night, but you know they need something positive. They got to go on a streak, like you know win five of six or eight of ten type of thing to really get us buzzing about them, because I honestly like daily are like, oh, you know, they lost again, they lost again, oh, they won one and then, you know, but it is a good story.

I mean, you know, Bo had a home run the other night and Vlad had Dinger, it was Dinger-Gallore yesterday but I'm happy for them if they can settle in and get into a groove. Well let's hope it turns out, you know, the way that fans hope it's going to turn out with Santander getting the sit down he needs here, right? Like, AK, you and I were on the morning radio yesterday, right? Talking about like, why is this guy who clearly is struggling with an injury in the two hole and why is he in the two hole? Why is he even playing if he's injured?

I mean, it's May I mean sit him down and get him rested and right for the stretch run And they finally came to their senses the Jays and they decided to do that. They call up Alan Roden So he'll be on the roster tonight ahead of the game against the A's We've got Keegan Matheson joining us at 530 looking forward to that Ryan Warsaw The coach of the Sharks who might have the most interesting hockey DB page I've ever gone through some leagues I've never heard of Ryan Warsaw we'll get into that when he joins us just after six Mike Johnson TSN hockey analyst on the Oilers on the Stars as well we got to get into this DeBoer-Ottinger fiasco from last

night and I had looking to the Stanley Cup final as well which begins on Wednesday night. Kurolnik, McClennan and Fesschuk on this Friday afternoon. It's Overdrive, TSN2, TSN1050, TSN's YouTube channel. You've been listening to Overdrive powered by FanDuel. FanDuel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. I heard radio live with Three Days Grace. Hey, what's up? bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. to win. The more you enter the better your shot at joining us in Toronto for an unforgettable night. I Heart Radio live with three days grace. Enter daily for your chance to win at I Heart Radio dot CA.