Weekly Takes - Monday, January 27 Edition

1. My three stars from the Maple Leafs win over the Lightning on Monday…

1. Auston Matthews

2. Matthew Knies

3. Joseph Will

Matthews is 100% back. The Leafs need to be all-in on winning the Atlantic. Make this regular season different than the ones that came before.

2. My three stars from the Leafs loss to the Blue Jackets on Wednesday…

1. Matthews

2. Mitch Marner

3. Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Dennis Hildeby has to be sent to the minors. Let him play and develop. He is not ready for the NHL.

Call up up Matt Murray, who is dominating in the AHL. It’s a no-brainer.

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

1. Bobby McMann

2. Max Domi

3. Steven Lorentz

A 50/50 game that came down to a flukly goal. Not much you can do.

The Mikko Rantanen trade is a home run for Carolina, who at long last have a superstar.

4. They have been a great team for years, but it was going to be tough to lump them in with Florida and Toronto in the East without adding a star.

Now they are as good as anyone in the East.

5. As for the Avs, I respect their decision, as not wanting Rantanen to make more than Nathan MacKinnon is more than fair.

   
   

   But MacKinnon and Cale Makar are at their peak and they are getting great goaltending. Using this season as a "setback year" is tough.

6. The Blue Jays signing of Anthony Santander is a massive one, as — for as bad as they where everywhere else on the roster a season ago — their biggest weakness was a power bat behind Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Santander addresses that in a massive way and he comes at a rather discounted price, relative to offseason projections.

But the Jays are still an impact starting pitcher and another impact bat away from a successful offseason that could launch them into a playoff team.

Never mind needing a left-handed reliever and a backup catcher.

7. The one con that comes with the Raptors winning games as of late is obvious: It hurts their lottery chances.

And that is a massive issue, because they need to draft a star to pair along side Scottie Barnes if they want to consider this rebuild a success.

But between the play of Scottie Barnes, the likes of Bruce Brown and Chris Boucher raising their trade value, and Darko Rajakovic coaching the team out of a slump, there are many positives.

But now that we have seen the positives, they need to get a head start on the trade market, while also load managing their top players more often.

They cannot lose sight of their goal.

8. The Bears could have played it safe with a “culture hire” but they have all the talent in the world on their roster. They needed to swing big for a home run hire and Ben Johnson has the highest chance of being that guy.

No coordinator is a lock to become a great head coach, but I’ll take my chances that Johnson will become one.

9. There are simply two takeaways from the AFC Championship Game...

1) Kansas City was simply sleepwalking their way to the title game. They can never be doubted again. Just when it appeared that Patrick Mahomes looked human, he reminded everyone how big the gap is between him and every other quarterback in the world.

2) The Bills need to fire Sean McDermott. A defensive head coach cannot get exposed defensively against the same team, on the biggest stage, for half-a-decade, and expect to keep his job.

And that aside, how can Buffalo expect his message to mean anything next season in the locker room? How can they expect his message to mean anything if/when they face Kansas City in the playoffs again?