OverDrive - March 6, 2026 - Hour 2 - Chris Johnston/Brad Treliving

0:00final hour overdrive continues powered by Fandole bringing you everything from the opening line of the final score. Best bets later in the hour. Brian Hayes, Jamie Noodles, McClennan, Yoda extoll over there doing panel work. He was fading by the end of the day. He was miserable by the end of the day. It just wasn't a lot going on. And I think I have the biggest gripe of the company. Well, that was out. So they were doing this then and now, I guess it's a big trend online I haven't seen. Yeah, I'm not on TikTok. Where, you know, it's a picture from your past. And a lot of it is AI generated clearly. And that's what TSN was doing. And, you know, Duffy's I thought was pretty flattering years was cool. You're in your goalie equipment. Always in Carolina is famous black eye picture. And they use the most recent photoshoot where he looked great. Look at this for me. What the who are those people? I don't know. Both of them are like the guy in the right looks like Zander Shoffley. Yeah. Or a guy who's been smoking a lot of cigars with his windows

1:02up. Guy in the left looks a kind of like Sheldon Keve. Yeah. But awful. It was outrageous. Like the worst AI pictures out disrespectful too. Like why did they choose that body type? Like it's like exactly. Well, here's what happened. All right. So they sent an internal email saying, can you send us a picture from your past? And I made the mistake of not jumping on jumping on that. You got that email. Yes. Yes. So I got an email. I think it was marker that sent it to a bunch of people. You might have been on it. You know, you never use I swear you don't use your work email. Well, the amount of times I was like, I didn't get that email. Like I'm looking at your email. I would promise you that I did not get that email or else I would have probably trusted yours because they're like, you're an NHL player. Yeah. That's cool. It's going to look great images or whatever. You can find a million different. Yeah. And you're it's always going to look cool. You're in the NHL. Look at that. You can't go wrong. That's a great, great shot. Now you have aged a lot in AI. I will say that. Yeah. Like the guy on the right. It doesn't look like me. Yeah. It doesn't really look like you. But they asked me for a pick. And my head start spinning.

2:05CJ's in here with us. Chris Johnston. Cause the early days of me at TSN, there are picks that are out there that are absolute disasters. Yes. Like and they're me. I can't if you were a griff. I was a slob. I had no style. I didn't put any time or thought into anything. And it was awful. And that was one of the photoshoot that you sent in. I didn't send it. I didn't send it. They went out and used it without running it by me. Where again, I got to I'm at fault here because I could have sent them something. Right. And I was trying to find something from like 10 years ago, as opposed to from 13 to 14 years ago. There was time when you got really skinny. And you could have popped that in there. That was like eight years ago. Yeah. But yeah, 10, 11 years ago, you could have I could have dropped that where I was like 185 pounds. Instead that I'm like two, seven years ago, when you and I first started a blue lunch, like that guy on the left. That's a disaster. Like that's a disaster, Chris. They did your dirty. Yeah. And the guy on the right looks. It's brutal. Look. Yeah. I don't know. Like that's not me.

3:07It's a goof. Those aren't even you. That's I was just going to say those aren't your gyms. Those are not my teeth. I don't have teeth like that. It is just weird. Like, did you get a saying this at all? No, I'm jumping in late here. No, I'm just seeing this for the absolute debauchery. That we got emails. I did not get. I didn't get an email about that. Exactly. You didn't get an email. I saw yours. Obviously, no beard and all that. Like it was just a weird like, I have no idea that that was coming down the pike. You at least got to submit. I knew and I knew what was coming. My spidey sense was flying because I'm like, they're going to go back to 2012, 2013. Yes. When you and I were on Richmond Avenue or whatever, exactly down building at the jump building, Brian was, you know, the hand up and screaming into the microphone. And that's exactly one of the pictures that you that photo shoot would have been winter of 2012, something like that. Yeah. And it's it's lawsuit material. That was a jam job of epic proportion. Are they trying to force you out? They want you to wave your

4:10no move clause. That might be what I just got paracode. You know, I might have got something like that where they're basically like, we'd rather you're not here anymore. You know, pushing me out of TSM. You're right. Speaking of paracode, this is a that's a weird situation. Like you're you're obviously on the, you know, the insider side where you get information a lot where you can't reveal your sources because you've talked to people a lot and they trust you. That one was a weird like I'm reading again, consider the source, but you read online saying like St. Louis was pissed because they almost like they did an internal like who leaked that type of thing and they're claiming nobody from their side leaked that. Like that's a weird and it put the player in a bad spot. And ultimately like the deal died. Well, nobody wants this. I mean, even like this was drags his report initially, right? He broke the story. He wasn't wrong. I mean, there was a deal done conditional on break away. Like no one's disputing that. But you know, even when you're doing our side of the job, like you don't want to become part of the story, right? Like basically what the question you're asking noodles is like, how does this happen away?

5:14And you know, drags would just rather break the news that everything goes smoothly and the guy's playing a buffalo on Tuesday night or whatever. But yeah, so you're right. It's it's the tough one for Colton. I'm sure number one, but it's not great for the blues. Not great for the sabers either. Now they're having to defend something. You know, it's not their fault. You know, just, but there's so many. Once once talks start, as we all know, you talk to people in the league, there's agents, there's family members like there's so many people that are connected to players and and the league. It's that six degrees of separation. You can't really figure out where it came from by the time it's got too many tentacles. And you want to know the truth. And I'm just reflecting on this after the heat of the day. Yeah. And even that wasn't that busy. It's still busy on your phone, right? Right. Right. You know, it's getting sloppier than ever in a sense. Yeah. Because, you know, information travels so fast. Yeah. You know, we're talking about trades right now that aren't even approved yet, right? Right. Right. But Brad Triliffing, I just caught the end of his thing there with the reporters. Like he's saying that their trades are still in the queue. So there would have been a time 20 years ago that that wouldn't, you know, it just wouldn't all be

6:20out there yet. But yeah, there's it's hard when players are getting informed when multiple people know in a front office. As you mentioned, agents get involved. You know, there's just there's a lot of different ways we all find out about these things. Think about it. Like it gets registered with the league. There could be something somebody in that room that's registering it that has a body like, I wish I knew that guy. You're a little bad anyway. So many different layers to this. But that's that we were complaining when we came on at four o'clock. Make the queue shorter. Like you do not like this. Is there one person answering the phone and doing every trade or like, that's the one thing. Like don't you think each team should have a designated queue where you can make that process a lot quicker in registering with the league because it's a couple hours after the trade deadline. And we're still having trickle down effect because they're in the trade queue. They have to do it, you know, legally and properly. Don't you think they should have more resources in the queue on a particular day like this? Well, I think they do. I don't know how many people are doing it. But they definitely are equipped. They have multiple calls at once. But as much as, of course,

7:24those of us wanting to know, we want to know everything last yesterday. But once these trades are official, they're official, right? So even something as simple as, you know, the Calgary trade with with cadre and Colorado. They have to make sure that Calgary actually owns this pick and Colorado owns that pick and that it's not part of another deal that someone forgot about. And so the point is is that I think it is a more thorough process than we might realize even for what might sound like kind of simple trades. And they got to get it right. So, you know, again, we want everything right in the moment, but they only get one chance not to screw it up. That's fair. So, you know, some deals went down. Obviously, Braden Chen goes from St. Louis to the blues, Justin Volk. Volk from St. Louis to Detroit. Not some cadre, I'd say, maybe the biggest deal of the day in terms of the Canadian markets going from Calgary to Colorado. At least make a couple of deals, but not overwhelming. A lot of the guys on the trade bay board, not traded. Trailcheck didn't go anywhere. Bob didn't go anywhere. Oliver Ekman-Larson didn't go anywhere. What is your theory on why we just have the trade deadline we did?

8:28I do think that the new CBA rules played effect. You know, just not having the playoffs, sour cap, it's a new thing. And I guarantee you, we get to mid-April, and it's the first games of the playoffs. Some weird stuff's going to go on like that. We haven't all put our minds around, but some teams somewhere this playoffs is not going to be able to address its best lineup, not because of injury, not because of sour cap, these new rules. And so, you know, I think that had a chilling effect in the back. And then on top of that, it started off, it felt like as a seller's market. I mean, yeah, you know, I listen to your show yesterday. I mean, no one thought Nicholas Wah was getting that return, probably until it happened, a few other trades. But then at the end, there just wasn't any buyers left. And so, you know, you see the Leafs, you know, move McMahon and Lotton right before 3 o'clock Eastern. Maybe don't get exactly back what they had hoped. You know, they're far from the only ones is why they didn't trade OEL. It's why the Rangers said, hey, wait, we're not trading our guy, Ryan O'Reilly was out there today. You know, finally, the Predators were willing to move him.

9:29They couldn't get the price they wanted. And so, I just think that he's especially with all those guys with term left on their deals decided not to trade them for less than the value they were holding to them. Yeah, that's interesting. And I listen, I can reason with that. I guess what I'm more surprised by is that there weren't, there was more conservative buyers this year. Yeah. Like there were clearly very ambitious sellers. You know, if you're selling you, hey, what can you give me? You know, I'll tell you two first, great, three first, like I'm not going to put a limit on it as a seller. But that's kind of what stood out to me was no one grabbed the bull by the horn today. There were good moves. You know, I think Shannon Lang Island will be interesting. Falks of good defenseman. Buffalo added a couple of depth defensemen. He only came for me that it was really active was Minnesota in the past adding. No, but like you get got hues, right? But then they have fabric and then they like they traded for a few more players like they they were depth players. You know, yeah, but the fluino like to me, they brought in more players because I think they're

10:34all in. Sure. And I guess Colorado, I should say, if you bring a cadre and wand back to back days, maybe they looked at the center, right position is ridiculous. Yeah, but like Montreal didn't do it, Buffalo minor, but didn't really do it, you know, Detroit one trade. Okay, not a time. Caroline, you know, Carolina didn't really do it. Tampa, man. Tampa picked up Cory Perry, nothing else. But they're usually the star of the maybe not necessarily the day because sometimes it happens a few days before. Right. Julian breeze was never afraid to trade a bunch like every draft pick he's got, especially when they're this good and they realize they can probably win. I don't know why they wouldn't feel like they could. Well, they just so what they wanted to do, I was joking saying, well, they they wanted to guarantee themselves that at least to get to the finals. Yeah, the grab Cory Perry. A smart play. You make it every time they are knock on wood for the most part. A lot of their players didn't go to the Olympics just based on their nationality. They should be flying. Now they haven't played great coming out of the the break that much, but I think they're a top tier team. But I was surprised that teams that I think could have

11:38pushed themselves even further down the chain of command, like Carolina adding another special player, that type of stuff. Vegas, you know, they went and got Rasmus Anderson, which was kind of their big trade and Mariner over the off two fourth liners in recent days. Yeah, but like not out and not a big splash, but like you look at it, it just I think teams were fine being status quo going. It's a weird year. And guess what? The cup champs aren't we don't have to go through them. That's the other thing. Right. There's going to be a new Stanley Cup champion this year. In my opinion, unless Florida goes 20 and oh, probably not going to happen. And Florida's opinion too. There's going to be a new one. Right. Yeah. I think they're pretty well. They know where they're at. Exactly. Yeah. It's because it's interesting. We were watching and we were playing the tree living presser and you know, he seemed somewhat subdued and somewhat I wouldn't want us. I don't know if it's dejected. It's the right word. But you know, last year, according to him, the market indicated got to pay Minton and a first for Carlo. He got to pay a first and a prospect

12:43for Lawton. And a year later, it switched. Yeah. You know, now, do you look back on it and say, maybe you just overpaid and you should have held your guns last year? I think that's reasonable to suggest you should have told Boston. We're not paying it. What are you going to do? Right. You know, if you lose the game of chicken, someone's going to lose it. Yeah. But where do you where do you stand on the leaves in the fact that tree living was reluctant to really give us synopsis on everything and obviously reveal any sort of plan in the future? Yeah, I didn't read much into his tone. If only because it's just such a long few days, make how we feel and we're not really in the fire of it. I mean, we got it. We're in O's fire. We got to keep out of his way on the fat. But you know, it's not quite the same thing as making the decisions that perhaps we're living and the other GM's are. Look, the market, the one saving grace in my opinion, first of all, the Nicholas Waddeal was higher than I would have expected. So that does balance maybe some disappointment today. And nobody else went out and really, I mean, you might argue I guess the St. Louis returns on Falk and Shen, you know,

13:45the kind of returns you were hoping if you moved in OEL, for example, but really nobody else sold better than them. I'll call it or like clearly outclass him in that regard. So I just don't think it was there for them. And you know, last year, we can all like, it's obvious. They wouldn't make the carletrade today. If they if you had the ability to go back and undo it, they would. But it was a defensible move at the time because they were on the way to winning the division. What were we saying this in this very spot? I remember I came in. We were probably saying, you know, the Leafs have to go for it. They had to get addressed that right side of the blue. And they had to get another center end. Now it didn't work. And we were actually sort of interrupt. We were applauding the moves because Brandon Carla was a tough guy to play against. With term on his deal, they'd eat money. Scott Lawton was the type of guy you needed. Hard to play against, you know, centerized position can kind of go up and down. If they win one more game, I know it sounds good. The conference final like are we even no, we're probably not because you're going through another 10 days, two weeks of excitement. And there's more involved. All of that

14:46type of stuff. More success. But Brian talked about at that point, that's the cost doing business. And if we had a crystal ball, like you, it's easy and hindsight to go back and go, geez, that was a mistake. But that's what it was. And especially it doesn't help that Fraser Minton Minton was on a plan very well for Bob. And that picks going to be a good pet. And the pick will be a very good pet. Potentially if things continue to. And they win the draft lottery today. They did with us. That was 100% legit. That they won that lottery. That was crazy too. I think they were doing it. And it was like, oh my god, the leaves came out. The look on old space when he like, I was like, oh my god, like, and you know the people were looking at that was rigged. But it wasn't. We were all there watching it. This space. Well, do you? Like how how do these final 19 games? What's a what's a perfect world scenario of the final 19 games? I'm very much in the camp that the most lost like at this point, why win anything. And I realize obviously the players aren't going to feel that way. You know, chief as he does his media every day, he's going to have to be putting on a certain face. And and you know, he wants

15:52him to win. But frankly, I just think there's not a lot upside in the leaves. Like making any kind of it. There's no push to making a playoffs. But even let's say they finish like, you know, slightly above 500. Like to me, that would be empty. I think you got to lean in. If anyone's injured, shut them down early, try some players in the Marley's like, I, you know, they didn't move out as much today as maybe they could have or that they would have if the market was a little frothier. But I don't, I don't, I mean, let's face it. It's not a full on tank. But it's a little mini tank for the next month and a half. I was going to ask you. Is that if you look at if somebody's a little nicked up, you just go shut it down because that's what the Boston Bruins did last year. Right. But they had a point. Heck, that's the thing. But they had, you know, it was MacCovoy got hurt. Lind, Lind home got hurt. They were just shutting people down left and right. Martian at the deadline, you got to go like, you know, they, they basically made that commitment to try and go as far down as possible. Here, what worries me is Matthews hasn't scored in 10.

16:56What if he goes on one of his like weird streaks that he does, right? It scores 14 and 10. Yeah. And Willie, you know, he's not going away. That type stuff for Rubé, like anything from that presser that would suggest he's not going to coach 19 more games. I'd be surprised personally. I mean, I see, I can understand where the conversation's coming from. I mean, two regulation wins at a 19 games. I mean, any coach in that circumstance would be under question. And, you know, you see him right up there on the screen. And for those viewers watching, I mean, it's hard not to ignore that they're not necessarily a reaction to the coaches fire there during the game. Last item, Madison Square Garden. No, look, the last two games were particularly tough, too. You take three guys, park them in the press box, you know, it's like firing a cannon through the dressing room. I'm not saying, I'm not second guessing whether they shouldn't have done it. But I think in terms of the players on the team, it's pretty jarring. You know, that for, frankly, I mean, you heard Neelander kind of say this in his interviews. He's just never been around this. Like he's never been, I guess the Leafs teams he was first called up on weren't playoff teams. But ever since he's been a full-time player in the league, they've been a playoff

18:00team. You know, it's going to be, it's going to be tough watching something. This is new for them. It's going to be, it's going to be challenging. Oh, I'll say this. For me, the main reason is that anyone down that might be injured, though, isn't even about losing the games. I just want them as ready to go September 15th as possible. Like these guys have all played playoff games every year. They've been part of the Olympics and four nations. Like they've played a lot of hockey too, not Panthers level or Golden Knights level of games. But if you can get these guys healthier and have better summers, I mean, next year counts and next year is going to be very important around here. Yeah. Yeah. Sure will be. All right, CJ. Great stuff, buddy. Thank you for doing this as always. Right to work. That's it. Yeah. Why not? Okay. You've been doing enough today. That's a long day. You're going to do more. Yeah. But I mean, Pete's working for a living. Absolutely. It does. That's right. There he is. Our TSN hockey insider, Chris Johnston, joining us here on the Maple Toyota hotline. It's time to Toyota in the 2025 Prius, go up to 72 kilometers on battery alone, then seamlessly switched to hybrid mode,

19:02check it out on Maple Toyota right near Canada's Wonderland and the Maple Auto Mall. GM and the Leafs coming up. Best bet still to come. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and up on TSN. Like it. Love it. Won't you play it? Play now. I heart new music. Your digital station for brand new drops, fresh vines, and tomorrow's bangers. Discover. I heart new music. Always fresh. Always first. Stream now on the free. I already lab. Now that Friday brought to you by Boston, Pete's Canada's favorite sports bar, enjoy $15 lunch at BP, where you get an entree of side-and-a-drink and you get it all in 20 minutes or less. A fast lunch doesn't have to be fast food. See you for a $15 fast lunch, your local Boston pizza. You know what? I've been getting a lot of deer hazy bees sent my way. Yeah. Like bachelor party stuff, golf season right around the corner, leave tickets down the stretch.

20:07We're going to get back to kind of helping some people out. Maybe that'll be therapeutic. I think down the stretch we need to mix in like a deer hazy bee. Yeah. Leaf fan edition. Exactly. And it doesn't have to be a Friday afternoon. Maybe it's a Monday, how do we can go? Did you step in one on the weekend and you're in trouble or whatever? It might have to be impromptu along the way. Absolutely. A moving target. It can be very spontaneous. I think that would be nice. Because leaf fans are on edge, man. I understand it. I get it. Everyone is unhappy. And we come on here and we talk about them all the time and we all have opinions and we all have viewpoints and listen, a lot of them are moving targets. And it's difficult to project exactly what is going to happen, exactly what should happen. You're not privy to everything going on behind the scenes. Right. How everyone's feeling. But I have just noticed that the

21:07kind of vitriol is up a notch in terms of the reaction to like any little opinion you might have. It's like, you're an idiot. What the hell are you talking about? Everyone's pissed off right now. That's what it is. You can speak. I get it. I totally are going through this for the first time in 10 years. Yeah. Top in this market. Secondly, they don't know how to react because it's it's like, what are we doing here? Where's the direction? Like you could clearly see from the minute that Matthews and Mariner and Neelander were on the scene, they were building up to something. And then when they arrived, it's like, okay, we're going to kick at the can. We're going to, you know, we're going all in. We're doing all this. Hey, we won the division. Like, you could see all that. There's so much uncertainty now. And it now it brings back the vitriol as to like, okay, direction, all of that type of stuff. But I think, you know, we can do a deer hazy B. We can, you know, we'll do some deer hazy. I've all of that. Yeah. Now listen, they got 19 games left. That's the thing I was talking with so many yesterday, Jack, they're going

22:08to the game tomorrow night. Yeah, tap is in town. Exactly. Right. So you still have 19 games left to be played. But now a lot of the heavy lifting is, is over because the trade deadline is coming going and believes trade in NICY yesterday to Colorado, Scott lot into LA and Bobby McMahon to Seattle to chat about that among other things. Here is the GM and the Leafs. Here's Brad Triliving. How are you doing, Brad? You guys are doing doing okay. So, you know, we played your press conference and you were talking about the market kind of dictates the way things are going to play out. How would you describe your deadline based on what you were hoping to accomplish? Well, we were hoping to garner. I would tell you more young assets. You know, we put a plan in place probably just leading up into the Olympic break. And as you do every year, there's lots of communication with the teams trying to get a sense of what they're doing, making sure they're

23:10clear on what your direction is, what your plans are, things that you like to accomplish. So our goal going in was to be as active as we could to regain as many young assets as we possibly could. And ultimately, you know, you've got to have, you've got to have, you know, an interest level to whatever extent on your players. And you know, at the end of the day, the market dictates, you know, what teams want, what they need, and ultimately what they're prepared to pay for. So Trey, we were listening to your your press conference there and you were laying it out what the market speaks and what was it saying, all of that type of stuff. Could you feel leading up to it that, you know, it was a changing market as far as maybe assets on the market teams that were more in, you know, for lack of better words, cell mode or players that were more available that

24:10you didn't expect leading up to it? Well, there's always, you know, there's always, at this time of the others, you know, there's always expect the unexpected, right? But we had a pretty good idea coming in. There's certainly some teams that were going to wait and see how they came out of the break in terms of, you know, where they would be. That might not necessarily be in a full cell mode or full buy mode, but they may they may do a little bit less. But, you know, we felt, we felt pretty comfortable that there's going to be, you know, a lot of players on the market and, you know, at the end of the day, it still comes down to, you know, it still comes down to what their needs are, what they're prepared to pay for, you know, the, I was asked one of the questions today, you know, we were probably the biggest difference, especially in the last couple years. And there's there, there certainly was some instances of this, but it wasn't the need or the requirement for a lot of

25:14teams to retain money or to move money, you know, obviously some real changes with with the double retention process has changed, but there's more money in the system and those teams that are acquiring players, there was more cap space available than than there normally was. So, you know, those are all the types of things we were looking to try to accomplish, but, you know, short order, I would probably say there was more, there was more players in the market than, you know, even going back to a year ago or in recent years, but also always it comes down to fit, right? You have a certain player that you're looking to move or have an interest in moving, you know, the team has got to need to have a fit and have a value of that player in order to make a deal. So, you, the last couple of games you had kept Bobby McMahon and Scott Laden out of the lineup, you've traded the two of them today, you also kept Oliver Ekman, Larsen out of the lineup the

26:15last two days, you did not trade him. So, what was your message to Oliver in terms of his standing within the organization moving forward? Well, I spoke to all three players, prior to obviously I'm sitting out with those two Bobby and Scott with their, with those being UFA's and those two games coming up and some of the interest level that was out there, teams indicating that they would have interest, they would stay in communication over the next 40, 40, 8 hours, just felt it was prudent to keep them out and not risk injury. And similar with, with, with Oliver, there had been some, you know, some interests Oliver, I spoke to him, told him I'd keep him reprised if, you know, something came, came available, but I just felt with some of the conversations that it happened prior to was, it was made, made sense for him to sit out and all, all through

27:18them understood. And in terms of, Ackman Larson, does this mean he's a leaf for the next two years? How does it affect what you plan on doing with him? Well, it doesn't affect anything. You know, Oliver is a pro, and all these players are pros. They understand this as part of the business. So, you know, I spoke to him after the deadline and said there, there wasn't a deal that took place and we move on. And, you know, I'm not going to comment on any player about how long they're going to be here. He understood fully. He communicated that to your players and the deadlines passed. And he remains with us. And we move forward with Brett Triliving. And, you know, in your pressure last hour, you mentioned, you still have 19 games to play. You know, today's not the day for a full synopsis on, on what's happened here. You'll get to that, you know, in six weeks or so. But is there a best case scenario for you, the final 19 games?

28:20Like, if you could map this out, what is the best case scenario for you guys? Well, listen, it's tough for him. We've underperformed. They've said it earlier. I take full responsibility for it. And we all own it, right? Whether it be coaches, management coaches, players, we're in this, you know, we all share responsibility together. And now we've, we've got 19 games to play. The deadlines behind us. We're professionals. You got to go out there. Sometimes there's you're not where you want to be in whatever walk a life or whatever job you're in. And you're not sitting obviously where we felt we were going to be and want to be. But you got to go out there and be professionals. You watch when things are great and you watch when things are poor. And so we continue to watch and see how people react. But I expect that we will go out

29:21and compete and be professionals and do the jobs that we're, we're paid to do. Is that more on the players or the coach to establish that professionalism, the final 19 games? It's on all of us, right? Coaches, players, all of us. We have a job to do. And that doesn't change. So the expectation is everybody that that falls on all of us. And like I said, we're not, we're not, we are where we are. So you deal with it and you move forward. So it's been a bit of a weird year for a lot of teams tree. And when you talked about it in a pressure, you came out of the the break. Oh, four and two. It's not where you wanted to be. Did you get a sense? And I've seen this with a few teams that you know, they're just kind of waiting for a shoe to drop. And what I mean by that is it trade deadlines coming up. You just mentioned after the trade trade deadline, you know, this is the team for the most part. You might have some call up. So that type of stuff is there maybe a calmness or a different mentality. And then

30:23then it's on the coach. Then it's on the leadership group to go, Hey, we're pros. We need a hard effort. We need more from this group. The last 19 games. Well, sure. I think a couple of things. You know, we we we haven't been nearly good enough coming out of the break. You know, I thought you keep a ball center team. I thought we went through that however long it was a week or week and a half of practice. I thought we were I thought we were prepared. I thought we had energy. I thought there was an excitement in our group. And listen, the results speak for themselves. But there is, you know, there's a realization like to me that you are a professional, you're expected to perform like one. But I understand I don't I don't say it's an excuse, but the players felt it. The position we were in. A lot of guys going through this for the first time at a deadline and we sat where we sat and not where this team is sad for, you know,

31:28going back to last year, trying to add the year before, you know, for the last eight, nine years, you're trying to add. So there's a heaviness to it. No matter how how professional you're trying to be, there's a weight to it. The deadlines coming up. There's some certainly some unknown for a lot of players of where they're going to be. So there's a human element. I get all that. But that's the job we signed up for. And it comes with, it comes with a lot of great things and it comes with some things that we got to deal with. So those things are behind us now. And this is who, this is this is our group. We anticipate, as you said, there'll be some players that we we want to take a look at from from the Marlies. But we got to go out and we've got to do our jobs. In terms of, you know, the handling of no movement clauses, no trade clauses, you know, it popped up a couple of times with other teams and other players leading up to the trade deadline. But it feels like a 35 40% of the league has some sort of trade protection. And it's a constant conversation

32:29around the league, at least from the outside looking in, how do managers handle and how to organizations handle it? What is your stance on players with no movement clauses, no trade clauses and possibly making it uncomfortable if need be if you feel like you need to move on from that player, but they have it within their contract. Well, any player with no trade or any type of trade protection, it's been it's been negotiated and it's it's been signed off on by the team and by the players. So it's a negotiated right. And so I don't fault any player with any trade protection or or anything of that like having said that as I've told my players, you know, and we'll use Oliver's example, just got a good relationship with Oliver. He's got trade protection. He knows that I know it. If there's something that comes up, it doesn't prevent us to go in from him and

33:34and and talking to him about it. Ultimately, they have a decision on to make on that, but you know, I was asked today, we didn't have any we didn't have any discussions to have with players in terms of those that had protection, but that's their right. When those are handed out, when those are when those are signed off on, you know, that's the players that's negotiated right. And so I fully I fully understand that. It's hard to it's hard to give a player a no trade and then and then bitch about it, but that that that also doesn't prevent, you know, teams from going to players. If something comes up that they feel is beneficial for the team, at least to have a discussion about a discussion with the player about it. Right. Obviously out of the break, you know, you've you've detailed it. Everyone's seen it. It hasn't gone well. You know, even prior to the break outside of those three wins down the stretch, you

34:35guys, you know, haven't won a lot in regulation recently. You're asked about Craig Perube and, you know, his status. It doesn't sounds as if he's going to remain your coach. Why do you think Craig is the right guy to wrap up the season behind a bench? Well, I think it's the Craig's a good coach. And it hasn't gone well. There's there's there's lots of criticism and rightly so for the manager, there's lots of criticism for all of us. And so those are things that, you know, we all get evaluated at the end of the season. And there's things that they all of us will look back on. Management coaches, players included of things we could have done better. Should have done better ways to improve. So that's, you know, those that autopsy will occur. But at this particular time, I don't think there's, you know, Craig is going to be the coach.

35:38She's going to remain the coach. And at the appropriate time, we all sit down and talk about ways that we can improve and do a better job. I want to ask you before we get you out of here about Austin, you know, where he currently stands. His stats have been, you know, highlighted because of who he is and how great of a player he is. He hasn't scored in 10 games. I think he's got one goal in his last 14. Where do you stand on, you know, his play, how he's looking and I'm sure you have all the faith in the world that he'll return to, you know, the superstar stats that he's had in the past. But I don't want to speak for you on that. I guess you can answer that. But what gives you faith that, you know, the statistical numbers Austin's putting up this year are an outlier and he'll return to the player he was a couple of years ago. I know a lot gets paid attention gets paid to the production. And rightly so, I understand that. I think Austin, he does a lot more than just

36:41score, but he is in my mind one of one of if not the most prolific goal scorers of his era. So sometimes it hasn't gone in for him. There's a responsibility on myself and the team to get players around him to assist him. And so that's my responsibility. That's the team's responsibility. To help him. He's gone through a tough stretch. He's getting lots of chances. You know, a few more pucks have gone in. Nobody's talking about the production. You know, he was defensive play. You saw it at the Olympics. It gets talked about. I get it. He's the captain, my team. He's the face of our franchise. He's one of the top players in the league. He gets the attention. He gets, but I don't think he gets enough credit for all the other things that he does, but a big part of what Austin does and has done better than most in the league is score goals. It hasn't gone in

37:44for him recently. And he knows it. He wants them to go in. He wants to be productive, but it's also on us to help him and get players and a cast around him to a system. So that's how I look at it. I have no, I have all the faith in the world and no hesitation to think that Austin's not going to be an elite player moving forward. He's just, in my opinion, during the prime of his career, he's the leader of our team. We saw it on the world stage in the Olympics. Austin's, Austin's the top players. So players go through slumps, players go through times when it's not going in the net. We continue to work with them, but more so we've got to continue to find ways to support them and get, get players around them that can help them.

38:44Always appreciate you finding time for us, Brad. I know it's been a busy day, busy couple of weeks. So we appreciate that. We'll do it again down the road. Thank you for this. Okay. Thanks guys. Thanks for your broad tree living. Yeah. That's, I think is a conversation that a lot of people are having like Heidi, you know, Matthew's got to do certain things on his own clearly. Right. But also, you know, you need to help him and you need to build around him. And you know, it's just, it's going to be, and it's going to be an evergreen topic. He's such a problem figure in the history of the club. Right. He's the face of the team is a captain. He's such a beloved player. You want him to have success. You want the team to have success. And that answer would indicate like the plan is not deviated. It's like, we're still building around this guy. And this is our guy. That's your guy. Willie's your guy. Now you got to figure out how to build around them and retool or whatever. There's going to be some deck chairs. You got to move around. But that's that's what tree living gets paid to do. Yeah. And I would be shocked if the leaves

39:48plan changed between now and the summer. Like I think their commitment to Matthews will be very clear. I would, I would think. I guess it'll be on Austin to make that determination, you know, is it reciprocated? Exactly. And if it is, hey, it may go beyond the exploration of this current deal. Right. Can't guarantee it's going to happen in the next two years. But do you want to be a leaf for life? If so, let's try to make it work in the next 12. Exactly. It might take some heavy lifting. But will it be worth the wait? I guess he can only answer that. Exactly. And we'll find out when we find out. All right. Best bets coming up. We'll recap a busy afternoon overdrive continues up on YouTube live. I heard radio is thrown it back. 20 days. The day to the days of you kids. And unforgettable. A non-stop stream of the biggest invest. Great Kriyama Beyoncé, Katie Gaga, the weekend. And more all your decade defining favorites all in one place. Hi, it's Katie. Hey, it's Bruno Mars. This is Kesha. I'm 2010s, the decade on the free I heard

40:49radio at preset stations. So it's always one tab away. Melody and Friday is brought to you by Boston Pizza candidate's favorite sports bar. Enjoy $15 lunch at BP where you get an entree aside and a drink and you'll get it all in 20 minutes or less. A fast lunch doesn't have to be fast food. See you for a $15 fast lunch at your local Boston pizza. Melody and Friday brought to you by Boston pizza. Candidus favorite sports bar, enjoy $15 lunch at BP. We get an entree aside and a drink and you get it all in 20 minutes or less. A fast lunch doesn't have to be fast food. see you for a $15 fast lunch at your local Boston pizza. Some food was hanging around here earlier, but it disappeared quickly. Well, did you see the goons that were hanging around? Yes. Yes. Shrapnel. There's no garbage out there anymore. That's just a garbage dump. It's just a garbage dump right outside of our studio. Just food everywhere. Shrapnel. There were like a hundred wings out there and they lasted. Yeah. Less than an hour. Like literally less than an hour. I don't know who like there. What we need is a closed caption

41:51camera to pick that up to see how many drive buys Al's brother. Oh, he came in early as my understand. And he might have gone done some miles. Brother called in the order and said, what time do we need to be there? Best bets powered by Fandall. Make your picks and assemble the same game, Parley and seconds on the Fandall Sportsbook app. So you look at the NHL board tonight. It's always weirdly. You have all the trade deadline stuff. That's the thing. That's distracting. These guys got to play tonight Colorado plays Dallas tonight. That's a big game. Yeah. Really good powerhouse game. You getting plus money with Dallas lots of goals though. I'm not going to touch the total, but I'm going to take plus money on Dallas at home. Like I know they've won all these games in a row. That injury issues even put in and yet in Colorado's Colorado. But you give me plus money on a team like Dallas. Take it. I'm taking it. Best bets powered by Fandall. All right. There you go. What day is it today Friday? Yeah. I guess we're going into the weekend. Okay. Wow. Good stuff. That's how crazy today is honest to God. The last like this week has been

42:52a blur. Yep. And it's been busy. Next week, we reset. Get back to normal scheduled program. Hawkeye some JZ. Yes. Great fruit league. Everything coming off the Arnie Palmer. The player's next week. Can't wait. Yeah. All right. Thanks to everyone behind the scenes for hopping out. We appreciate it. Everyone for tuning in today TV radio podcast webbing up on YouTube live every show up on TSM's YouTube channel. We're out of here. Enjoy your evenings. Enjoy the games tonight. Actually, we're back Monday at 4 p.m. We'll chat then. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for film. Never lies since retirement from the NFL. I've had a lot of my mind now. Got my own show to retire to lazy takes. If you want honest conversations, join us each week. Film never lies available on all TSM platforms in the iHeart radio app.