Weekly Takes - Monday, March 17th Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, March 17th Edition

1. My three stars from the Leafs shootout win in Utah on Monday…

1. Joseph Woll

2. Simon Benoit 

3. Auston Matthews 

Not many players showed up in this one. A great first period, but downhill after that.

Lucky to get a win to end an otherwise tough road trip. 

2. My three stars from the Leafs disappointing loss to the Panthers on Thursday…

1. Max Domi

2. Brandon Carlo

3. Jake McCabe

Without context, losing the game is fine, more so by one goal. The Panthers are very good!

But the Leafs were at home, healthy, and against a team without Matthew Tkachuk, Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad. That needs to equal a win.

A concerning loss, because it may go to show how big the gap is between the Leafs and Panthers once Florida gets healthy.

The only positive spin you can retort that statement with is, maybe the gap will not be so big if Matthews turns his season around. The only issue is, he has shown no signs to make me think he will.

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

1. William Nylander

2. Carlo

3. Morgan Riley

The positives: Scott Laughton had his best game as a Leaf and Carlo is settling in as Riley’s best partner since Ron Hainsey.

The negatives: Everything else

As has been the case for so many years, Nylander was the only star to show up in a big game, with Mitch Marner in particular looking awful. The whole Craig Berube experience is about getting great goaltending and playing strong team defence, allowing his team to keep games close until his star players break through. But the Leafs star players have not come through at all as of late.

Put that all together and you get the ugliest stretch of Leafs hockey since the losing streak that led to Mike Babcock being fired.

It is time to snap out of it.

4. I do like Berube switching up the lines, though.

Post-deadline, I was in favour of the lines he first trotted out, but the reality is, outside of line one, no line dictated play night-in, night-out. The best teams in the league spread out their lines, so the Leafs should be no different. 

I would go…

Matthew Knies - Matthews - Domi

Bobby McMann - John Tavares - Marner (Shutdown Line)

Nick Robertson - Laughton - Nylander

Steven Lorentz - David Kampf - Calle Jarnkrok 

Domi plays his best with Matthews, and Tavares plays his best with Marner.

At no point would you be concerned with the Leafs having a line “trapped” on the ice and in fact, they would be the ones with advantages due to having Nylander on line three.

5. My 2025 Major League Baseball Standings Predictions 

American League 

East

1. Boston (2) 

2. New York Yankees (WC1)

3. Baltimore 

4. Toronto 

5. Tampa Bay 

Central

1. Detroit (3)

2. Kansas City 

3. Minnesota 

4. Cleveland 

5. Chicago (X)

West

1. Texas (1)

2. Seattle (WC2)

3. Houston (WC3)

4. Sacramento (X)

5.  LA Angels (X)

National League

East

1. Atlanta (2)

2. Philadelphia (WC1)

3. New York Mets (WC2)

4. Washington (X)

5. Miami (X)

Central

1. Chicago (3)

2. Milwaukee 

3. Cincinnati 

4. Pittsburgh 

5. St. Louis 

West

1. LA Dodgers (1)

2. Arizona (WC3)

3. San Diego 

4. San Francisco (X)

5. Colorado (X)

World Series Prediction: LA Dodgers defeat Texas

Individual Awards Predictions 

• American League Most Valuable Player: Bobby Witt Jr.

• National League Most Valuable Player: Shohei Ohtani 

• American League Rookie of the Year: Jackson Jobe

• National League Rookie of the Year: Royuke Sasaki

• American League Cy Young: Tarik Skubal 

• National League Cy Young: Paul Skenes 

• American League Reliever of the Year: Mason Miller 

• National League Reliever of the Year: Tanner Scott 

• American League Manager of the Year: Alex Cora 

• National League Manager of the Year: Craig Counsel 

Reality is, the Yankees losing Gerrit Cole for the season changed everything. Their rotation simply cannot compete with the heavy hitters in the AL, let alone the NL.

6. My winners and losers of NFL free agency…

Winners…

• Commanders

• Vikings (Their defence may now be the best in football)

• Bears

• Broncos

Losers…

• Texans (They purposely (?) made their roster worse 

• 49ers (They also purposely made their roster worse, though they did not have much of a choice due to the cap)

• Packers (I would have liked to see them invest more for their young core)

• Cowboys (They have zero direction)