Weekly Takes - Monday, December 30th

Weekly Takes - Monday, December 30th

1. My three stars from the Leafs loss to the Jets on Monday...

1. Connor Dewar

2. Steven Lorentz

3. John Tavares

The Leafs limp into the Christmas break is complete. It is tough to win against an elite team without your best player (Auston Matthews), your best active player being the worst player on the ice (Mitch Marner), and your goalie having a bad game.

The recent play of the bottom six has been the lone positive.

2. My three stars from the Leafs dominant win over the Red Wings on Friday...

1. Mitch Marner

2. David Kampf

3. Joseph Woll

As academic of a win as the Leafs have had in a while.

3. My three stars from the Leafs loss to the Capitals on Saturday...

1. William Nylander

2. Mitch Marner

3. Bobby McMann

The Matt Murray experiment needs to end for now.

4. My three stars from Canada's dominant win over Finland on Boxing Day...

1. Gavin McKenna

2. Easton Cowan

3. Carter George

A dominant performance. I thought Finland looked decent on the power play, but Canada completely controlled this game at even strength.

5. My three stars from Canada's stunning loss to Latvia on Friday...

1. Caden Price

2. McKenna

3. Cowan

   
   

An awful performance. Yes, Canada was the better team, but if this was against a quality country, Canada would have been skated off the ice. Outclassed everywhere, from the bench to the ice.

6. My three stars from Canada's win against Germany on Sunday...

1. George

2. McKenna

3. Luca Pinelli

I thought Canada was going to come out and blow out Germany, but instead, they looked as tense as possible. I don't think this is a lack of skill issue. This is not a reason for struggling against bottom-tier teams.

7. The Steelers stretch of Eagles-Ravens-Kansas City was always going to be daunting, but to go 0-3 and not even come close to winning a game proves one thing: They are not even close to being a Super Bowl-contending team.

It starts on defence for me, too. The highest-paid defence in the league, with talent all over the field, has not been good enough when the team has needed them the most. Mike Tomlin letting go of Brian Flores and keeping Teryl Austin will go down as the biggest mistake of his coaching career.

The very least he can do now is move off of Austin in the offseason.