Weekly Takes - Monday, January 10 Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, January 10 Edition

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

1. William Nylander

2. Michael Bunting

3. Alexander Kerfoot

2. My three stars from the Leafs overtime loss to the Avalanche on Saturday…

1. Auston Matthews

2. Kerfoot

3. Morgan Rielly

I thought they played fine. Nearly impossible to properly analyze this game, however, when the officiating was this bad – the Leafs weren’t able to gain any momentum at even strength.

The lack of respect Matthews gets from the officials is astonishing.

3. The Nick Ritchie signing made sense for various amount of reasons but the Leafs need to do what they can to move out his contract, even if that means attaching a sweetener in a trade.

Kyle Dubas hit on a lot of signings last summer (Bunting, Ondrej Kase, David Kampf, etc) but the Ritchie contract was a swing-and-miss. That happens.

4. Mike Tomlin may not be the most analytically-inclined coach and he may not be the best tactical coach but the way he has maximized the 2021-2022 Steelers roster, which, quite frankly, is not that good, is not only the finest coaching performance of his career, but the best coaching performance from any coach in recent memory.

He is the slam dunk coach of the year.

5. I think the Vikings made the right decision moving on from Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman.

You can do a lot worse than those two but you can only bring the band back together so many times.

6. The firing of Brian Flores is insane, with one easily being able to make the case that he was the best up-and-coming coach in the NFL.

A disastrous day for Dolphins fans that could send the franchise back by years.

7. My end-of-season NFL awards…

• MVP: Cooper Kupp (Runner Up: Tom Brady)

• OPOY: Trent Williams (Runner Up: Kupp)

• DPOY: TJ Watt (Runner Up: Aaron Donald)

• ROY: Ja’Marr Chase (Runner Up: Micah Parsons)

• OROY: Chase (Runner Up: Creed Humphrey)

• DROY: Parsons (Runner Up: Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah)

• COY: Tomlin (Runner Up: Bill Belichick)

8. My NFL playoff predictions…

AFC…

Wild Card Weekend…

• Kansas City beats the Steelers (-13)

• Bills beat Patriots (+4.5)

• Bengals beat Raiders (-6.5)

Divisional Round…

• Bengals beat Titans

• Kansas City beats Bills

Championship Weekend…

• Kansas City beats Bengals

NFC…

Wild Card Weekend…

• Bucs beat Eagles (-7)

• Cowboys beat 49ers (-3)

• Rams beat Cardinals (+4)

Divisional Round…

• Packers beat Rams

• Bucs beat Cowboys

Championship Weekend…

• Packers beat Bucs

Super Bowl…

• Packers beat Kansas City

I went 8-8 in week 18 and finished the season 127-130. Wah. A tough week 17 did me in.

9. There is no understating the Lorenzo Insigne signing if you are Toronto FC.

Signing a megastar, still in his prime (albeit near the end of his prime) is not only the biggest signing in franchise history, but the biggest in MLS history outside of David Beckham.

TFC still has work to do before it can become a championship-contending team again (their defence still needs serious work) but there is no questioning MLSE’s investment in the franchise, which had to be questioned after last season.

The fact is, the Argos and TFC should be good every single season because of the financial willpower of MLSE.

And that sure looks to be the case.