Weekly Takes - Monday, April 20th Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, April 20th Edition 

1. My NHL Playoffs Predictions (retroactive to before the playoffs started)

Eastern Conference…

Round One…

• Sabres beat Bruins in 5

• Lightning beat Habs in 7

• Hurricanes beat Senators in 7

• Penguins beat Flyers in 5

Round Two…

• Lightning beat Sabres in 6

• Hurricanes beat Penguins in 6

Third Round…

• Lightning beat Hurricanes in 7

  
  

Western Conference…

Round One…

• Avs beat Kings in 4

• Wild beat Stars in 7

• Golden Knights beat Mammoth in 6

• Oilers beat Ducks in 5

Round Two…

• Avs beat Wild in 7

• Golden Knights beat Oilers in 7

Round Three…

• Avs beat Golden Knights in 6

Cup Final: Avs beat Lightning in 7

2. My NHL Award Picks…

• MVP: Connor McDavid (HMs: Nikita Kucherov and Nathan MacKinnon)

• Calder: Matthew Schaefer (HMs: Beckett Sennecke and Ivan Demidov)

• Norris: Zach Werenski (HMs: Cale Makar and Lane Hutson)

• Selke: Nick Suzuki (HMs: Yanni Gourde and Sam Reinhart)

• Vezina: Logan Thompson (HMs: Ilya Sorokin and Jeremy Swayman)

• GM of the Year: Kent Hughes (HMs: Bill Guerin and Kyle Dubas)

• Jack Adams: Lindy Ruff (HMs: Dan Muse and Travis Green)

3. MLSE deserves all the criticism they receive after the Maple Leafs’ disastrous season, but a lot of it seems hyperbolic.

The criticism towards AI: What company doesn’t use AI to make workflow more efficient? What team, in the last 20 years, has not thrown numbers into a program to spit out player comparables? Cutting player perks: I am sure this applied to the Raptors and their players too, but they are in the playoffs and thus it is a nonstory. Aka: Winning cures everything.

Keith Pelley deserves his fair share of criticism (he is awful in the media and he should have fired Brad Treliving earlier, instead of waiting until the trade deadline to get an inside look on how Treliving operates) but at the end of the day, if he nails the next hockey operations hire, all this hysteria goes for naught. We may as well wait to see who he hires before truly judging him. (I also do not believe at all that he will interfere with his next hire)

4. I share the same opinion on the hysteria surrounding Auston Matthews’ comments from Thursday.

Why would he commit to a team who does not have a head of hockey operations? A team who, as of this moment, has no direction?

This is going to be a process. 

5. The number one way to lower the temperature around the team (outside of winning) is hiring someone who not only comes in with a plan, but someone who efficiently outlines the plan to the public.

The public relations part of this hiring is going to be huge. They need to stop the bleeding. This was a massive success for Brendan Shanahan in his early days as Leafs president.

6. My takeaways from the last stretch of Blue Jays baseball…

• It remains early. The Jays enter Monday 2.5 games out of a Wild Card spot. But if they do not start hitting and do not get healthy, they will be in a hole sooner rather than later. It is time to get rolling.

• The good news is they are getting healthy, with Trey Yesavage, George Springer, and Addison Barger all expected back within the next two weeks, with Jose Berrios shortly to follow. 

• The biggest return may be that of Berrios, as he will force Eric Lauer to the bullpen. The Jays got career years from a few players a year ago and it is obvious that Lauer was one of them. He is a bulk reliever at best, despite what he may yap to the media. (If Lauer is not careful, he may lose his spot on the team to Patrick Corbin)

• I would go with Tyler Rogers as the closer moving forward, allowing Louis Varland to stay in the “firemen” role. Jeff Hoffman can no longer be used in high leverage. As is the case with Brendon Little, it is not a “stuff” issue with Hoffman. It is all mental.