Weekly Takes - Monday, April 1 Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, April 1 Edition 

1. My three stars from the Maple Leafs awful loss to the Devils on Tuesday…

1. Matthew Knies

2. Nick Robertson 

3. Pontus Holmberg

A careless game from so many and a poor performance from Joseph Woll in the net.

2. My three stars from the Leafs bounce-back performance against the Capitals on Thursday…

1. Auston Matthews

2. Tyler Bertuzzi

3. Bobby McMann

A game ago, it was almost impossible to come up with three stars. A game later, it is almost impossible to pick just three players.

Sheldon Keefe pressed the right buttons after Tuesday’s game.

3. My three stars from the Leafs most memorable win of the season on Saturday against the Sabres…

1. Matthews

2. Ilya Samsonov 

3. Connor Timmins

Matthews gets his 60th, Samsonov makes the best save by a Leafs goalie in years, and Leafs Nation historically invaded Buffalo.

It’s as fun of a regular-season game as a team can have.

1. The Simon Benoit contract extension, like the Bobby McMann one earlier in March, is tidy and necessary business by Brad Treliving.

Kyle Dubas made a habit of having a revolving door around the Core Four, believing that he was smart enough to find new “gems” each summer.

He largely succeeded at that, but there is tremendous value in continuity and Treliving understands that.

Next up is naming Max Domi a Leaf for life.

1. Here are the options in the Shohei Ohtani scandal…

1. Ohtani is telling the truth that his translator robbed him of millions to pay off gambling debts, as his translator had access to his bank(s) account(s)

2. Ohtani paid off the bookmaker to help his friend pay off his gambling debts

3. Ohtani placed the bets himself

Option C seems quite unlikely, but option A feels equally as unlikely. Say Ohtani gave his translator access to his bank accounts (which is possible), would he not know if he was being robbed by the millions? It seems impossible to think not.

That leaves option B, which would have to come with severe punishment, as even though he was simply trying to help his closest friend, you…. cannot have athletes making deals with bookmakers.

I also cannot wrap my head around a bookmaker allowing someone to go into $4M in debt. Surely he was confident that he would be repaid, somehow, some way.

6. My (very) early takeaways from the opening weekend of the Blue Jays’ season…

• There is no denying that the Jays, starting at the top of the organization, have shifted their approach in regard to their offence. They know the easiest way to score runs in 2024 is with the long ball and that is what they intend to do every time they step up to the plate, certain situations aside. 

• John Schneider has had a tough go at it to begin the season. Not pitch-hitting Brian Serven for Alejandro Kirk late in the game on Saturday was inexcusable, while Ernie Clement should be starting at third base over Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

• It is refreshing to see Justin Turner succeed with runners in scoring position, something that Brandon Belt failed to do all of last season. Belt may be the better hitter in general, but with runners on, I trust Turner to bring them in.

Other than that, it is early. There have been lots of positives in regard to George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., while a lot of negatives in relation to Bo Bichette.

None of it matters.

7. The Jontay Porter scandal is the largest victory yet for those who have long called for gambling to become legalized, despite everyone saying otherwise.

Porter was clearly placing bets on his own over/under – or at the very least – tipping off his friends that the “unders” would be hitting – and the only reason anyone knew that is that DraftKings (a legal betting company) found irregularities. 

Porter never would have been caught if he was simply going through a bookie.

8. Where people are right in regards to their criticism of sports betting is the amount of ads in favour of it.

It is unethical and needs to be regulated better. Ontario banning athletes from taking part in gambling ads is a great start, but there is so much more work to do.

Gambling needs to be treated the same as smoking.