Weekly Takes - Monday, May 9 Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, May 9 Edition

1. My three stars from the Leafs game one win over Tampa Bay on Monday…

1. Mitch Marner

2. Auston Matthews

3. Alex Kerfoot

Literally no negatives from this game, outside of Kyle Clifford laying the dumbest hit a Leaf has laid in years. He will not play another game all postseason.

The Leafs were brilliant. Positives all over the place. Crowd was as loud as it has been since the Mats Sundin days.

The most dominant and impressive win the Leafs have had in the Matthews era.

Now it is a matter of how they respond in game two, because Tampa Bay certainly will.

2. My three stars from the Leafs game two loss to Tampa on Wednesday...

1. Marner

2. Timothy Liljegren

3. Matthews

A super disappointing effort from the Leafs. Their first period was excellent despite allowing a late goal but the way they played throughout the entire second period and for the first half of the third was pathetic.

Too many odd-man rushes and too many dumb penalties. They played a playoff game at a regular-season pace.

A serious missed opportunity, because I thought outside of Victor Hedman that there was nothing special about the Lightning’s performance.

A serious bounce back is required if they want to regain home ice in Tampa and it will start with John Tavares and Ilya Mikheyev, who have been flat-out pedestrian through the first two games of the series.

3. My three stars from the Leafs… nerve-wracking game three win over the Lightning on Friday…

1. Jack Campbell

2. David Kampf

3. Jake Muzzin

The Leafs played great in the first after weathering an early storm and played great to begin the second before having the wheels fall off midway through the second. Campbell had to end up stealing the game for the Leafs, which is fine as that happens throughout a playoff run.

But this has to be the Leafs worst performance for the rest of this round, including from Matthews and Marner. The depth stepped up big time but they cannot be counted on this much again.

4. No three stars from the Leafs pathetic, embarrassing loss to the Lightning on Sunday…

A disgraceful performance from a team who looked as though they were playing with house money after winning game three. The core’s worst playoff game since game two in Boston in 2018.

Awful. Everyone has to be better, but their stars more so. It is the same song every playoffs.

Matthews, Marner, Nylander, and Tavares were all ghosts. When the lights are shining the brightest, you either can or can’t. This core has provided nothing to believe they can. Thankfully for them, they have three games to change it.

Buckle up. The future of this franchise comes down to this week. No pressure.

5. What my lines would be for the Leafs in game five…

Forwards…

Tavares - Matthews - Marner

Mikheyev - Kerfoot - William Nylander

Pierre Engvall - Kampf - Ondrej Kase

Michael Bunting - Colin Blackwell - Jason Spezza

Defence…

Muzzin - T.J. Brodie

Mark Giordano - Liljegren

Morgan Rielly - Rasmus Sandin

Kerfoot centring Nylander was a lights-out duo in round one last spring. Tavares needs all the help he can get. The third line should be great and the fourth line could be if Bunting can get rolling.

Muzzin - Brodie have been excellent, as have Giordano - Liljegren, when Sheldon Keefe is not too busy scratching the latter for Justin Holl. Rielly - Sandin is not ideal but Rielly - Ilya Lyubushkin are getting torched together. They cannot trot that pairing out for yet another game.

Would any of this work? I have no idea because I think a lot of the issues right now are coaching. Keefe has no answer for Jon Cooper's forecheck and it has been a major issue since game two. He should have as much pressure to win the series as any of the players do, more so with Barry Trotz somehow a free agent after an outrageous firing.

6. Recently, I wrote how great it has been to watch the Golden State Warriors dial the clock back to their 2015-2019 days.

It has been equally as great to watch Sidney Crosby do so for the Penguins. He has to be the most tiring player to face of this generation.

7. With the NBA playoffs half over, I think it is a reasonable time to re-rank my top ten NBA players…

1. Giannis Antetokounmpo

2. Kevin Durant

3. Nikola Jokic

4. Joel Embiid

5. Luka Doncic

6. Steph Curry

7. Jayson Tatum

8. Ja Morant

9. Devin Booker

10. LeBron James

Honourable mentions to Chris Paul and Jimmy Butler. I think a healthy Kawhi Leonard is number three.