Weekly Takes - Monday, December 4th Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, December 4th Edition

1. My three stars from the Maple Leafs weird shootout win over the Panthers on Monday…

1. Joseph Woll

2. Noah Gregor

3. Connor Timmins

I liked how the Leafs played, outside of the back half of the first period, and I liked how they matched the Panthers from a physicality perspective.

But the top players have to get out of the rut that they are in quite soon, as despite the team’s poor goaltending early on, awful play from their secondary forwards early on, injuries to key players on the blue line, and most recently, their top players not playing up to standard, they are only three points out of second place in the Atlantic (with two games in hand) and are only six points behind the Bruins for first, with a game in hand.

They have an opportunity here to go on a run, despite all the adversity they have gone through to begin the season.

2. My three stars from the Leafs shootout win over the Kraken on Thursday…

1. Mitch Marner

2. Woll

3. William Nylander

The best Marner has looked in a long, long time. What a difference it will make if he can use this game as a jolt moving forward.

The trend of blowing third-period leads needs to end immediately, though. Relying on shootout wins to come away with two points is not going to sustain itself, even though it is better to be blowing leads than to be coming back from deficits, as the latter would be more concerning.

3. My three stars from the Leafs overtime loss to the Bruins on Saturday…

1. Auston Matthews

2. Matthew Knies

3. Timmins

A breakout game with Matthews, one that makes you wonder if he is simply coasting through certain games while getting up for big games. That would be a mistake on his part, but there is no denying that the demise of Matthews has been greatly exaggerated.

As for the game itself, the better team lost. That happens.

And we can be done with the Ryan Reaves experiment, right? Even when he is not hurting the team, he is providing no value of any kind.

4. Here is what I know about the Blue Jays reported interest in Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto.

The Blue Jays championship window is not nearly as open as people think it is and because of that, Rogers, Mark Shapiro, and Ross Atkins should be doing everything in their power to add around their core.

But simply being interested in star players is not good enough. As Josh Donaldson once said, “This isn’t the try league. It’s the get it done league.”

5. The Steelers loss to the Cardinals is truly one of the worst losses they have had in the Mike Tomlin era.

At home, with an early lead, against a 2-win team, and it was a total meltdown in all facets of the game from that point onward.

An embarrassing performance from everyone involved, with costly injuries as the cherry on top.

I think they make the playoffs due to their easy schedule and how injury-plagued other bubble teams in the AFC are, but they cannot afford another loss like this one.

6. My Week 14 NFL Picks, after going 9-3 in Week 13…

• Patriots (+6)

• Texans (-6)

• Bucs (+2.5)

• Lions (-3.5)

• Jaguars (-3)

• Colts (-2.5)

• Rams (+7.5)

• Saints (-5.5)

• Vikings (-2)

• Seahawks (+12.5)

• Broncos (+3)

• Bills (+3)

• Eagles (+3.5)

• Dolphins (-13)

• Packers (-5.5)

On the season, I am 101-86, with MNF still pending.

7. Michigan versus Alabama and Washington versus Texas are not even the two best games the committee could have put together, as if the committee wanted the four “best” teams in, Georgia would be in over Texas.

But even so, is it the job of the committee to put together the two best games or to vote in the four most deserving teams?

Because I think we can all agree that it is sickening that FSU did not get voted in. There is nothing they could have done otherwise to get in.

The expansion of the College Football Playoffs cannot happen soon enough.

8. My thoughts on the ‘New Deal’ between Ontario and Toronto…

Ideally, the Gardiner Expressway would have been torn down under Mayor Chow and she would have saved Ontario Place from Premier Ford. But the battle for Ontario Place always seemed as though it was going to end in a losing one for the City, while tearing down the Gardiner would have been met with serious retaliation from the Province.

So, to rid the City of the Expressway and Don Valley – and to receive funding from the Province – in exchange for backing off in the fight for Ontario Place, is a historically great deal for Toronto, one that will impact Toronto in a positive manner for generations.

Critics can say that Chow went against her campaign promises and that she sold out, but Toronto was a seriously broke, declining city before Tuesday’s announcement. The deal now ushers in a new era for the City, more so given the confidence in Chow to redirect this money elsewhere to public transit and housing.

So, a win for Chow (even if her supporters are sour on her in the short-term, as I think the results will speak for themselves over time), a win for the City, a win for Ford, who will get to do what he wants to Ontario Place while also coming off as a “saviour” to Toronto, and a loss for the people of Ontario.

One now has to wonder when Prime Minster Trudeau is going to make a deal with Toronto to help save his political career. Because he is not going to sniff an election win in 2025 if he does not have success in Toronto and as of right now, he is not going to have success in Toronto.

9. The criticism that Chow “sold out” is largely driven by activists who have a narrow perception of how politics should work.

In their ideal world, their favourite politician is in office and governing exactly how they want them to based on their worldviews.

But that is not how politics work. Not in a democracy with three levels of government. It would be easy for Chow to win the PR battle by staying true to her beliefs and supporters, but then nothing would get done.

This deal is how politics should work.

10. As for Trudeau, whether he makes a deal with Toronto or not probably does not make a difference for him politically anyway, as he is dead politically.

The polls are not quite as bad for him as they were for, say, Kathleen Wynne in 2018, but the effect is the same. He is so dead politically that if he runs for re-election, he is not only going to hand leadership over to the CPCs, but he is going to hand them such a large majority government that it will take multiple election cycles to get back into power.

So, the only question for the Liberals is if they want a repeat of the 2018 provincial election in Ontario or if they want to make a drastic change to give their party a sliver of hope ahead of the 2025 election.

Because as of December of 2023, there is a higher chance that the NDP leaps the Liberals in the polls than there is that the Liberals leap the CPCs.

And there is nothing Trudeau can do politically, either. At his peak, he was a popular politician, following through with *most* of his popular campaign promises. But he has peaked and then some. And when a politician peaks, that is all she wrote.

Resignation is the Liberals only sliver of hope.