OverDrive - Sharp on his international best-on-best experience, winning a gold medal and the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

Stanley Cup Champion and Olympic Gold Medallist Patrick Sharp joined OverDrive to discuss his experiences competing in international best-on-best, playing in the Olympic Games, winning a gold medal with Canada, the style of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, playing against teammates and being with the Flyers and more.

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A message from the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association. The special advisor to hockey operations for the Philadelphia Flyers, three-time Stanley Cup champion, Olympic gold medalist, one of the best-looking hockey players in NHL history, according to our Twitter, where people are playing. Who is this stud coming on the show

it is Patrick Sharp here on Overdrive. Mr. Sharp how are you? Wow thank you guys what an introduction especially the last part of it there thank you for that. Our host is a compulsive liar Sharpie he's a compulsive liar. I know I know I thought he was talking about you for a second there old dog I had to listen in. Sharpie I want to ask you some about these tournaments. When the coach comes in, everybody's got to get together quickly and kind of have it together out there. What does the coach say about systems?

Is it just like, don't make it look stupid out there? Or is it pretty detailed stuff for a bunch of guys that have never been together? I think it's detailed I suppose. Hockey Canada they like the the orientation camp in the offseason leading up to two years with events like this. We definitely had one in 2010 and 2014 as well and that's a lot of you know taking pictures, hearing the details of the upcoming tournament, getting down to systems on how Canada wants to play and it's really nothing like revolutionary as far as team systems. Every every group in the league is similar to the most I guess to the same extent but a couple tweaks here and

there but for the most part it just happens fast. You can prepare all you want in the off season, but much like this event that's starting up tonight, it just comes quick. You're playing a lot of games with your club team leading up to the event, three or four a week with a lot of travel, and all of a sudden you take a long flight and you're surrounded with some of the greatest players,

definitely in the league and playing for Team Canada, man, there are some legends in the locker room the year that I got to play. But all of a sudden you're in a meeting with the coach and you're playing against Norway or Austria, whoever that first game was against. And it just happens fast. So I think the biggest thing I would advise the players

on tonight is to play fast and trust your instincts. Because at the end of the day it's gonna be a lot of great players on the ice playing the game that they've always played. So how do you control your emotions leading up to that? I mean you can talk about playing fast, you can talk about you know systematic play or just you know settling in but from a butterfly anticipation situation, was it like playing deep into the playoffs, Patrick? Was it like a Stanley Cup final? Like, how did you treat it?

I felt a little more nerds with hockey Canada than I did playing in the playoffs, even deep into the conference finals and the Stanley Cup finals. I just felt it was, everything was different. There was new teammates, training staff, the comparability of being with your group wasn't quite there and you can, make pals and come together as quickly as you want.

But at the end of the day, there's a ton of pressure on Canada. And that's what that event felt like for me. I had watched 2010, the Blackhawks send all kinds of players to the event in the Olympics in Vancouver and I was glued to the TV watching my teammates perform at a high level. Kane and Taves were on inter-level deals. They were 21 years old, not even at the time. And Keith and Seabrook played a big role as well all across. Every team had my teammates on

it and I was kind of in awe of how well they were doing at that that level of competition and then four years later I had the chance to do it and it felt very different than a playoff run you know the group that you have in the NHL you build together for years sometimes it's that particular season either way it's eight or nine ten months but the teams that go deep tend to stay together for a long time. This hockey Canada group was just a collection of great players that was put together, sent over to Russia and said, hey, go bring back the gold medal and if you don't, you know, you're going to hear about it. So I felt a lot of pressure. It was hard to fit in,

but as I mentioned earlier, at the end of the day, you're playing with some pretty great players. So don't try to overthink it just just play hockey Patrick sharp our guest of course a member of the 2014 gold medal winning team for Canada you've got a couple players on the flyers the team you're with now that are members of team Canada you have the chance to give them any advice of course I'm talking about Sandheim and connect me yeah two great players for Philly this season no doubt TK he'll surprise some people up front I think. He's a well-rounded player that gives the Flyers energy every night.

He plays at a high pace and he's got an engine on him. He plays in all situations for us. I can see him being on the ice in any situation for Canada as well. He's great short-handed. He's solid on the powerplay. He knows how to score goals. I think he's going to settle in nicely. Seems to be well liked by all his teammates as well. So I could see TK fitting in and getting excited here in this tournament playing really well. Sandheim on the back end is another player that when I joined the Flyers last season, kind of learning the roster and

going over the players he was one that that just jumped out night after night for one he can play both sides as a defenseman which is really valuable in a short tournament like this and his skating is his world-class for a defenseman of his size to be able to move as quickly as he can I think he can be an effective player as well so it's going to be a high pace I think and those two players can definitely handle it and if not push it at times. Sharpie, how was the adjustment? I mean you were a player when every all these players are when they're on their club teams, they're playing 22 minutes a night first power play unit. What's that adjustment like for is going to be like for some of these guys where it's

like limited ice time and this is going to be the McDavid and the McKinnon show and you're going to have to take a back seat a little bit but you also have to find a way to contribute. You can't sit on your ass and say, oh this is their tournament to win, you got to find a way to contribute. Oh yeah, absolutely. You can't be shrugging the shoulders and looking back at the coach wanting more powerplay time when you're on the ice on the same team with some of the great players that are on this roster. No, that's the great thing about Team Canada. I always felt growing up,

I got two world championships as a pro and then the one Olympics. That was my Team Canada career, but I always felt that just being on the roster was the most important thing and the tournament kind of sorts itself out from there. I look back, our captain, Jonathan, was the extra forward on the 2010 team and as the tournament went along he ended up being, I think, named MVP or top forward, whatever the award was at the end and that's kind of a theme that you see throughout a lot of these tournaments. It's the depth of the team. It doesn't usually go the way everyone thinks it's going to go as far as individual players. It's always someone that surprises you because when you look at the rosters, there's great players at every position. So it is an adjustment.

No doubt all these players on Canada's roster are stars on their own club. That's why they're wearing the maple leaf on their chest tonight. So I don't think egos are gonna be a problem when you put the jersey on. You just, you figure out your role and you do the best you can. Speaking of club team, how did you find, was it difficult to separate playing for your country

and then playing against a teammate? A guy you were on out for dinner with, maybe five nights earlier and he's playing for a different country and you've got to go in and battle him in the corner. It's not like pre-season, it's not like training camp or in practice. You're playing for keeps. Did you have to find a way to maybe separate that type of emotion or maybe have a handshake agreement?

Hey, we'll talk after the tournament. How did you approach that? Yeah, a little bit. You know, you just shake hands, we teach each other good luck before you go off to the tournament. We had all kinds of guys on different teams, so it was weird seeing teammates from the club team in the Olympics, but then as far as my Team Canada guys going back to the NHL, yeah, it just goes back to normal. I think leading up to it caught me off guard.

I remember noodles. We were in LA one time days before the Olympic event and Drew Doughty like absolutely buried me with a hip check coming down the wall. I wasn't expecting it. I thought, ah, maybe we're going to be teammates in a couple of days. He's going to go easy on me. He just smoked me and really caught me off guard. So you're playing hockey, be ready for anything. But hockey players have that switch. They can turn it off pretty quickly.

Patrick Sharp, our guest, what do you remember about the off-ice component of the Olympic experience? Any big nights with the team in the Olympic Village? How did that work back in 2014? Olympic Village. How did that work back in 2014? Yeah, I was, you know, nothing crazy. It was very professional. We're there to do a job and we did it. And the way that the schedule worked out, it was like games every other night. There's always something to do. So it wasn't a whole lot of downtime once we got to Russia. But I don't want to stay disappointed because it was the experience that we had, but watching how the city, the country, the province of British Columbia handled themselves when they hosted the Olympics

in 2010, it was just Canadian, you know, culture everywhere. It was a party. It was a, it was a festival. It was just such a great vibe to see from the outside. And then when you compare that to four years later in Russia, it was a long way to travel and the facility was just everything was brand new, everything was just cement buildings. There was very little music, there was very little culture, it was just like a bunch of great athletes over there to do a job and the time zone probably

messed with some people back in Canada and North America a little bit as well but I wasn't disappointed because I had a great experience and it was great to be with Team Canada but definitely wish I would have been at the one four years earlier and had some great times in Vancouver. Sharpie, how greasy, like you mentioned you got teammates on your club teams that are playing on different teams in these types of tournaments. How greasy, did you ever hear a greasy comment from a teammate where you're like if you chop that guy in the arm early he'll disappear like you ever say you ever hear anyone say anything like that about their own teammate or was that like stuff you just can't go down that

road like take away Keener's time and space on the power play. Don't let him set up. Or just anything. Cross-check him early, he'll disappear. Anything like that. Yeah, I know. We had a pretty good team there. Our club team was winning a lot of playoff rounds and going deep, so we kept our secrets as tight as we could.

But you definitely learn a lot at those events, guys. No doubt. Sitting with some great players and watching them, you just pick up so much. We played Latvia one time and I don't think we were ever in trouble. We were dominating the game. We had the puck all night. We were generating a ton of shots, but they scored a goal early on in the game. And it was off kind of a trick play, if you guys remember.

I know it was a long time ago now, but basically it was a neutral zone face off close to the Latvia bench. They won the draw, went D to D and then the board side D just snuck into the bench and then the benches were so long that a forward popped out basically in a breakaway situation. He went down and scored and kind of caught us all off guard but I bring that up because watching the NHL you know the following week once it started up again Pittsburgh was playing and Crosby was on the ice and they tried that exact same place So you definitely pick up some tricks of the trade being around some great players And I definitely learned a lot by playing with team Canada

So being in the midst of this four nations face-off break here Patrick, you're the special advisor to hockey operations for the Flyers I'm sure you keep in close contact with Danny Breyer, who runs the operation there in Philadelphia. What is it like with regards to transactions, talking about trades, all the stuff NHL-wise while this break is going on? Yeah, I'm more focused right now on our American League team. NHL group has kind of taken a break throughout the four nations. The players are all enjoying their time off where they're competing in the tournament i'm uh...

i had my eyes on the bean pot appeared close to boston on monday and i'll be heading to allentown pennsylvania to work with uh... our american league group high valley phantom so there's lots to uh... lots to do and lots to learn when you're in the role that i'm in right now it's uh... it's fun to be in that role really enjoying it

so I know the game has changed everybody's nutrition and you know guys are a lot more dedicated to their craft but uh... you know where there guys that you played with that maybe enjoyed their breaks a little bit too much where you felt like okay this guy put on a a twelve pack in the ten days that he was gone like I know I played with a few guys I know we were talking about it yesterday there was always one or two guys that you knew that they didn't go anywhere near the gym in the Olympic break or the All-Star break.

Yeah, no doubt that happens all the time's usually the same guys run themselves into trouble with the long breaks. It becomes a pattern that's for sure. I know we had a great defense group with the club team in Chicago. Keith and Seabrook were two of the best and two very different body types and lifestyles on days off let's put it that way. Dunks was constantly looking for an edge, training hard, taking great care of himself. Thibs was a great athlete himself, but I remember one break we had, Thibs enjoyed himself a little bit too much and Dunks was really putting the work in. But as soon as the game started up, I think Thibs had a three point night that first came back and Dunks was minus two or three.

So you never quite know what you're going with back to the break is good for everybody I'd say it's more of a mental break than anything just to get ready for that Playoff push in the end of the season coming up. Well, Canada Sweden tonight on you I know you'll be tuned in as will we we can't thank enough for taking the time Patrick enjoy the time off if you want to call it that and best of luck the second half of the season for the Flyers. Awesome, hard day. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

This is Patrick Sharp with the Flyers, three-time Cup champ, Olympic gold medalist. Join us on the Maple Toyota hotline. Count on Maple Toyota for the right winter tire package for your Toyota. Trade in your old tires, buy a new set, get $40 back. Visit mapletoyota.com.