Weekly Takes - Monday, November 29 Edition

Weekly Takes - Monday, November 29 Edition

1. My three stars from the Maple Leafs blowout win over the Kings on Wednesday…

1. Michael Bunting

2. Wayne Simmonds

3. Rasmus Sandin

It is truly shocking the season Simmonds has had. He showed flashes of playing this well early last season, but he has never played this well, for this long, in a Leafs jersey.

This leads me to my next take….

2. Whether the stock is up, unmoved, or down for each Leafs player this season who has played a fair amount of the games…

• Nick Ritchie (Down)

• Auston Matthews (Unmoved)

• Mitch Marner (Unmoved)

• Bunting (Up)

• John Tavares (Unmoved)

• William Nylander (Unmoved)

• Alexander Kerfoot (Up)

• David Kampf (Up)

• Ondrej Kase (Up)

• Pierre Engvall (Down)

• Jason Spezza (Unmoved)

• Simmonds (Up)

• Morgan Rielly (Unmoved)

• T.J Brodie (Unmoved)

• Jake Muzzin (Down)

• Justin Holl (Down)

• Rasmus Sandin (Up)

• Timothy Liljegren (Up)

• Jack Campbell (Up)

Ritchie, while down, has flat out played quite well the last 10 or so games. His end-of-season statistics are not going to be flattering but he can still play an important role on this team moving forward.

The biggest pleasant surprise has been how many depth players have played well, which has the potential to be a game-changer moving forward.

The biggest worry is the Muzzin-Holl pairing, more so Muzzin. I am not totally worried yet, as he has had tough stretches in the past, but he has not played well this season -- he just does not look right.

He is the number one player that needs to turn things around from here on out.

3. My three stars from the Leafs convincing win over the Sharks on Friday…

1. Nylander

2. Tavares

3. Joseph Woll

The Leafs are flat-out chugging right now, simply because they are much better than a vast majority of teams in the league.

4. My three stars from the Leafs win over the Ducks on Sunday...

1. Tavares

2. Bunting

3. Campebll

A super impressive road trip. This team is as good as any team in the league.

With that being said, they were one of the best teams in the league last season and had a tremendous road trip in Alberta when they shut down Connor McDavid and ‘co in three straight games.

This is all so, so impressive but let’s see what happens in May.

5. The issue with the Canucks is that everyone is to blame for what is probably the biggest disaster in professional sports right now.

Jim Benning is one of the worst general managers in the league and is well beyond his expiration date, their defence is awful, and many of the players who are supposed to be good (Elias Petterson, Brock Boeser, etc) are playing the worst hockey of their careers.

When it became clear that the Phil Kessel-Dion Phaneuf era was not going to work in Toronto, Brendan Shanahan used the term “scorched earth.”

That is what has to happen in Vancouver. They need to bring in a president, a new general manager, a new head coach, and look at trading every player on their team not named Thatcher Demko and Quinn Hughes.

6. Letting Marcus Semien walk for what he signed for is more than fine if you are the Blue Jays, as long they still sign/trade for one impact bat.

If you are the Jays, you would have loved to have him back for a variety of reasons (His bat, defence, leadership, etc) but that is a rich contract from a team that is not going to be any good for the remaining years of his prime.

7. The Kevin Gausman signing is a home run for the Blue Jays.

He was simply one of the best pitchers in the world last season and has experience pitching in the American League East.

Re-signing Robbie Ray was probably priority the number one for Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins but signing Gausman is the next best thing and you can make the case he is actually better than Ray.

The Jays still need to sign another starting pitcher and they need to land an impact bat, as written above, but this is a great start if you are Shapiro and Aktins.

8. I am off the Dan Campbell bandwagon, not that I was ever truly on it.

I think he is a great cheerleader but his last three weeks from a playcalling perspective has been… bad, to say the least.

9. My week 13 NFL picks…

• Cowboys (-5)

• Chargers (+1.5)

• Denver (+9.5)

• Vikings (-7.5)

• Giants (+2.5)

• Bucs (-9.5)

• Colts (-7)

• Cardinals (-7)

• Eagles (-6.5)

• Raiders (-1.5)

• Rams (-12.5)

• Ravens (-3)

• 49ers (-2)

• Patriots (+3.5)

I went 3-11 in week 12 (doh), with the Monday Night Football game still pending.

On the season, I am now 85-86.

10. My top four college football teams, after one of the best College Football Saturday in recent memory…

1. Georgia (- since my last ranking)

2. Cincinnati (-)

3. Alabama (-)

4. Michigan (New)

Oklahoma State and Norte Dame are still very much alive, too.

What a disappointing season for Oklahoma. Their defence showed signs of massive improvement early in the year but that quickly changed for the worse and they were simply not able to recover.

And full credit to Michigan on finally winning a big game. They still need to win next week to get in but with their defence and run game, that should be a safe bet.

I think Alabama will have to beat Georgia to get in. The only way they can get in with two losses is if two of Michigan, Oklahoma State, or Norte Dame lose.

Unlikely.