Weekly Takes - Monday, November 17th Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, November 17th Edition 

1. My three stars from the Leafs awful loss (again) to the Bruins on Tuesday…

1. William Nylander

2. Max Domi

3. Steven Lorentz 

Rock bottom. This is a bad hockey team who allows way too many breakaways/odd man rushes, turns the puck over way too often, lacks depth and speed, and is getting awful goaltending.

I am confident the goaltending can turn it around, but there is zero reason to think anything else will improve. I have been hesitant to write this team off due to the fact they start slow every season, but they are getting thoroughly outplayed nightly and look way worse than they ever have in this era. They are lucky that they are still in the mix for a playoff spot. For now.

As for Domi’s penalty, he’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. His captain got run over with a dirty hit. Someone had to do something.

2. Another reason I have been hesitant to write the team off is due to the fact that I cannot fathom Nicolas Roy, Brandon Carlo, and Jake McCabe playing as badly as they are moving forward.

But even then, the buy-lows on Dakota Joshua and Matias Maccelli have not worked. They were bad with their respective teams last season and are now average players in Toronto. That, combined with awful play from the fringes of the roster (Simon Benoit, Phillipe Meyers, etc) just leads to what you are seeing now.

The third line is one of the worst third lines in the league and the third pairing is lottery-level bad. Never mind the fact that Nick Robertson and Bobby McMann have done great in their top-six roles, but could fall-off at any moment, as they are far from true top-six forwards.

I would fire Craig Berube, who has not gotten nearly enough from this roster. Not even close. Even his best player has regressed under him. And Brad Treliving has to be on the clock, too. The Carlo and Scott Laughton trade deadline trades have been flops. As have his summer trades for Joshua and Maccelli. 

He has confused the need to win with big, strong D-Man with just trading for big, slow D-Man (Carlo and Meyers.) Moving off Mitch Marner only works if you have great depth. The depth players he has brought in have all been bad/average.

He’s got between now and the deadline to fix it, otherwise Keith Pelley should clean house and bring in his own people. Not sure how Treliving is going to fix anything, given his only asset is Ben Danford, but that is his fault and his fault only. They completely botched their remaining assets. 

3. My three stars from the Leafs overtime loss to the Kings on Thursday…

1. Tavares

2. Bobby McMann

3. Joshua

Just a bad hockey team. They played well in the first, only to get dummied in the last 40 minutes. Caved in.

This is going to go off the rails.

They are absolutely in striking range for a playoff spot, but their schedule is about it to get tough (both in terms of opponents and being on the road) and they have not played nowhere near good enough to think they’ll be able to face the best the league has to offer..

Just a shameful look for everyone around. Everyone deserves blame. 

4. My three stars from the Leafs loss to the Blackhawks on Saturday…

1. Easton Cowan

2. Oliver Ekman-Larsson

3. Nick Robertson

One of their better performances on the season, yet still lost against a meh team. Just ugly.

5. With lots of talk surrounding Canada’s Olympic roster, here is what my lineup would be as of today:

Forwards…

Macklin Celebrini  - Connor McDavid - Mitch Marner

Brad Marchand - Sidney Crosby - Nathan MacKinnon

Tavares - Brayden Point - Sam Reinhart

Brandon Hagel - Nick Suzuki - Mark Stone

Extras: Connor Bedard and Tom Wilson

Just Missing Cut: Mark Scheifele, Seth Jarvis, Anthony Cirelli, and Wyatt Johnston

Defence…

Devon Toews - Cale Makar 

Josh Morrissey - Colton Parayko 

Matthew Schaefer - Drew Doughty

Extras: Shea Theodore and Aaron Ekblad

Just Missing Cut: Travis Sanheim and Thomas Harley

Goalies…

Jordan Binnington

Logan Thompson

Extra: Darcy Kuemper 

New from Four Nations: Celebrini, Tavares, Suzuki, Bedard, Wilson, Schaefer, Ekblad, Thompson, and Kuemper

Out from Four Nations: Jarvis, Cirelli, Sam Bennett, Konnecy, Sanheim, Harley, Aidin Hill, and Sam Montembeault 

I expect Cirelli and Jarvis will get in over Tavares and Bedard, and for Sanheim to get in over Schaefer, but man, how can you leave Schaefer off the team? Would be shades of leaving Crosby off in ‘06.

6. Here is what I’ll say about the Raptors.

Scottie Barnes is rounding into perennial All-Star form, Brandon Ingram is an All-Star in his best season or two, RJ Barrett is a legitimate third option offensively, Jakob Poetl, when healthy, is as important as anyone on the team, and Jamal Shead, Gradey Dick, and Sandro Mamukelashvili are stellar off the bench.

They are a star point guard away from competing in a very light Eastern Conference. Even as currently constructed, no one should scare them.

7. My biggest takeaway from Sunday in the NFL? The Bills, for all of their flaws, may have their best chance to finally come out of the AFC this year.

The Chiefs loss to the Broncos has flipped everything.