Weekly Takes - Monday, December 20 Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, December 20 Edition

1. My three stars from the Maple Leafs win over the Oilers on Tuesday…

1. Auston Matthews

2. Jack Campbell

3. Ondrej Kase

From a pure 200-feet perspective, this may have been Matthews’ finest performance in the NHL.

2. My 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship Predictions…

Group A…

1. Canada

2. Finland

3. Czech Republic

4. Germany

5. Austria

Group B…

1. Sweden

2. USA

3. Russia

4. Slovakia

5. Switzerland

Gold: Canada

Silver: Sweden

Bronze: USA

Fourth Place: Finland

MVP: Owen Power (Honourable Mention: Cole Perfetti)

Best Forward: Perfetti (Honourable Mention: William Eklund)

Best Defencemen: Power (Honourable Mention: Jake Sanderson)

Best Goaltender: Sebastian Cossa (Honourable Mention: Jesper Wallstedt)

3. Speaking of international hockey, here is what my Team Canada lineup would have been if the NHL players went to the Olympics.

Forwards…

Jonathan Huberdeau - Connor McDavid - Nathan MacKinnon

Brad Marchand - Sidney Crosby - Patrice Bergeron

John Tavares - Steven Stamkos - Mitch Marner

Sean Couturier - Brayden Point - Mark Stone

Extras: Claude Giroux and Matt Duchene

Defence…

Devon Toews - Cale Makar

Morgan Rielly - Aaron Ekblad

Shea Theodore - Alex Pietrangelo

Extras: MacKenzie Weegar and Dougie Hamilton

Goalies…

Jordan Binnington

Tristan Jarry

Extra: Carter Hart

In from my previous lineup: Giroux, Duchene, Weegar, Hart, and Jarry

Out from my previous lineup: Ryan O’Reilly, Matt Barzal, Adam Pelech, Marc-Andre Fleury, and Carey Price

4. Sports leagues need to stop testing vaccinated players who are asymptomatic.

In an age where everyone has the choice to be vaccinated or not, a vaccinated, asymptomatic player should not have to be tested.

What’s the worst thing that can happen? They spread it to a fellow vaccinated person, who is unlikely to experience anything more than a cold? They pass it on to someone who decided to be unvaccinated?

We simply have to move past looking for cases.

Continue to test the unvaccinated and test anyone who is feeling sick. That should be it.

5. With the Raptors getting healthy, here is what my lineup would be once everyone is healthy…

Starters: Pascal Siakam - Fred Van Vleet - OG Anunoby - Scottie Barnes - Khem Birch

Bench: Delano Banton - Gary Trent Jr. - Yuta Watanabe - Chris Boucher - Precious Achiuwa

Extras: Malachi Flynn and Justin Champagnie.

The bench leaves… a lot to be desired, but the starting lineup is more than good enough to get a play-in spot, not like that matters much.

It should be interesting if the Raptors are buyers at the deadline.

They should not be in the rental market at all but if they can find an impactful bench piece with term, that is something they should seriously look into.

6. This Raptors season has had a lot of positives thus far (Barnes showing he has an unlimited ceiling, Van Vleet playing at an all-star level, Trent. Jr. showing he is a legitimate part of this core, etc) but overall, this season has gone largely as expected.

They are an extremely well-coached, defence-first team who attack the offensive boards and rank near the top in almost every energy statistic but they lack three-point shooting and a natural big in a big way. It flat out limits what this core’s ceiling can be.

I think this ends (and has to end) with them trading one of Siakam/Anunoby in a package for a star centre.

They simply have too many players whose strengths and weaknesses are the same. This entire transition season has been about finding out who should be and who should not be a part of this core moving forward and I think it’s becoming more and more obvious by the day.

That does not mean Siakam is a bad player. He is… not, but this is a fundamentally flawed team. You can’t have only one or two above-average three-point shooters in a starting lineup in 2021.

7. The Titans dancing on the Steelers logo is the true hallmark of a loser franchise.

The Titans do it. The Raiders do it. The Patriots and Packers do not.

That tells you all you need to know.

8. John Harbaugh is one of the best coaches in the NFL but he will one day learn that he is not the smartest person in the history of football.

Sometimes the juice is not worth the squeeze and that was the exact case when he went for two points at the end of the game on Sunday.

If you don’t make it, you lose the game (obviously), while even if you make it, you allow one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history to march down the field knowing he needs a field goal.

Add in those two factors on top of the fact that the actual play call was awful and you have the worst play calls/decisions of the season.

Kick the extra point and hope you win the coin toss.

9. My week 16 NFL picks…

• Titans (+3.5)

• Browns (+7.5)

• Colts (+1)

• Lions (+4.5)

• Panthers (+14)

• Jaguars (+2)

• Giants (+10)

• Chargers (-10.5)

• Bills (+2)

• Rams (-3)

• Bengals (-2.5)

• Bears (+7)

• Broncos (-1)

• Steelers (+10.5)

• Cowboys (-10)

I went 5-7 this week, with four games still pending. On the season, I am 105-105.