Weekly Takes - Monday, March 7 Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, March 7 Edition

1. My three stars from the Maple Leafs loss to the Sabres on Wednesday…

1. Michael Bunting

2. Pierre Engvall

3. Ilya Mikheyev

The Sabres played their best game of the season, completely shutting down the Leafs offence. That happens.

The issue clearly remains in net.

If I am Sheldon Keefe, I go with Jack Campbell on Saturday, tell him in private and to the media that he is my number one goalie, and go from there.

I can see Campbell rebounding. Under no circumstance do I see Petr Mrazek rebounding.

2. My three stars from the Maple Leafs loss to the Canucks on Saturday…

1. Auston Matthews

2. John Tavares

3. Mitch Marner

Matthews was utterly dominant again, while the offence was back to its elite self. Nick Roberston looked great with Tavares and William Nylander.

But their goalie let them down… again. Nothing they do offensively will matter if their goaltending remains this bad. They stand no chance to accomplish anything.

This is a five-alarm fire. It’s DEFCON 1.

They have to win this year, yet they have below-average goaltending two weeks out from the deadline.

This has to change, otherwise, it will be the end of the Kyle Dubas era in Toronto.

3. Every time I watch the Flames, I cannot help but think that they made a massive mistake by not trading for Jack Eichel.

They are so, so good, yet it still seems as though their ceiling is only so high.

4. With the NFL draft combine now over and draft season well underway, here is who I believe to be the top five quarterbacks in this year’s draft…

1. Kenny Pickett

2. Desmond Ridder

3. Malik Willis

4. Sam Howell

5. Matt Corral

I think Pickett and Ridder are safe bets to be starters in the NFL. Willis and Howell have low floors but sky-high ceilings. Corral is the clear number five after the top four. No other quarterback in this year’s draft do I consider to be a future starting quarterback at the next level.

5. TFC’s loss to the Red Bull on Saturday is a decent look-ahead to how this team is going to look this season until they figure out who is going to play fullback for them.

I like Jacob Shaffelburg and Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty but they are not fullbacks. Period.

It also does not help that Michael Bradley kind of looks cooked.

6. Did anyone else watch the Colby Convington - Jorge Masvidal fight on Saturday and hope both would lose?