Weekly Takes - Monday, October 31 Edition

RyanEakin
Oct 30, 2022
5 min read

Weekly Takes - Monday, October 31 Edition

My three stars from the Maple Leafs awful loss to the Golden Knights on Monday…

Ilya Samsonov
William Nylander
Nick Roberston

Morgan Rielly’s worst game of his career. The worst game of T.J. Brodie’s Leafs career. The worst played game under Sheldon Keefe.

A truly shocking loss. The Leafs defence got absolutely torched off the rush and the bottom six provided absolutely nothing.

Onto the next one.

2. My three stars from the Leafs underwhelming performance and loss to the Sharks on Thursday…

David Kampf
Mitch Marner
Rasmus Sandin

It is only October, so it is too early to truly tell, but this regular season has all the makings to be the exact same regular season from a season ago.

They will make the playoffs with ease, but they will not be in the President Trophy race due to how many games they giveaway against bottom feeders.

A truly disappointing development if so, as this team should be doing everything they can to make their road in the playoffs as easy as possible.

Maybe they start taking games such as these more serious, but their history proves no one should expect that anytime soon.

3. Keefe was right in his postgame press conference on Thursday regarding the team’s biggest issue right now.

The defence is simply turning the puck over way too many times, highlighted by Justin Holl, who is having as bad of a stretch as any Leafs D has had in my lifetime, which says something.

The return of Timothy Lilijegren will help greatly, but there is no question that Kyle Dubas will have to trade for a top-four D-Man prior to the deadline. Jake Muzzin, unfortunately, has to be considered done at this point.

The Leafs have the assets and cap space to pull the trigger on a deal for one, but not for a top-four D-Man and a starting goaltender.

So Dubas and ‘co better hope Samsonov is the answer in net.

4. What my lines would be for the Leafs, after the first few weeks of the season…

Forwards…

Michael Bunting - Auston Matthews - Marner

Roberston - John Tavares - Nylander

Alex Kerfoot - Kampf - Calle Jarnkrok

Zach Aston-Reese - Pierre Engvall - Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Extra: Denis Malgin and Wayne Simmonds

Defence…

Rielly - Brodie

Mark Giordano - Lilijegren

Sandin - Jordie Benn

Extra: Holl

Goaltending…

Samsonov

Erik Kallgren/Matt Murray

Takeaways: The second line has been outstanding for the Leafs. There was a concern coming into camp that the Leafs would have no one to play with Tavares and Nylander, but there is no question that Roberston is that guy. The first line has not been dominant, but I would without question leave them together. It is only a matter of time before they take off.

The concern for me comes via the bottom six. I have loved Kampf’s start to the season and I have been happy with the starts from Kerfoot and Jarnkrok, so that would be a good third line in my opinion, but the three players I have on the fourth line have done nothing.

With that being said, I still believe in Aston-Reese and Aube-Kubel. They can provide the fourth line an identity that it has lacked for years. But they need to start playing together to truly do so.

The only concern I have regarding the lineup is Engvall at 4C. If Aston-Reese and Aube-Kubel are providing a “banging” impact on the fourth line, that does not play to Engvall’s strengths at all.

A 4C and top-four D may be the two holes that need to be addressed eventually.

5. My three stars from another lacklustre Leafs loss, this time to the Kings on Saturday…

Samsonov
Tavares
Giordano

This team looks completely disengaged, unmotivated, and lazy right now. It is painful hockey to watch.

They have to snap out of it immediately otherwise things can really start to go off the rails here.

6. No three stars from the Leafs pathetic, rock-bottom collapse to the Ducks on Sunday.

They played great in the first and showed signs of being themselves but they got completely caved in during the second and third, despite getting some luck from the officiating crew.

Just absolutely embarrassing to lose a 3-1 game in the third period to the lowly Ducks.

The next three days will be hell for this group, but it is all self-inflicted.

Jobs are officially on the line starting this upcoming week. If things continue to go off the rails, things will get very interesting very fast.

Their only saving grace right now is only Boston is playing well in the East, so they have not dug themselves a hole at all.

They are a mini-win streak away from being comfortably in a playoff spot, with their shooting percentage luck bound to turn around too coming off of one of the longest road trips of their season.

It is time for this core to stop feeling bad for themselves.

7. To no surprise, Keefe was asked after the game on Sunday about his job status.

Here is where I stand on Keefe...

I was a fan of the Leafs bringing him in to coach the Marlies back in 2015 and I was a fan of Dubas replacing Babcock with him in the fall of 2019.

Since then, he has largely been the kind of coach that I thought he would be. I agree with most of his lineup decisions, he is demanding of his players, and I agree with his vision when it comes to how he wants this team to play.

But, I think he is largely an easy coach to game-plan against (he has been out-coached in every series he has coached in) and his coaching can get too erratic when things are not going well. Both of those things, however, can improve with experience.

So, would I fire him? As much as it is a cop-out answer, the answer is "it depends."

It depends if Keefe has learned from his experiences.

I also do not like the idea of bailing this core out again, but it depends if Dubas and 'co feel as though Keefe is losing the room. If they feel as though he has, you have to make the move, because you need to win now. There is no victory in failing this season by saying "we let the players sink or swim."

It also depends on who would be replacing him, since I truly believe you can do a lot worse than Keefe.

If it is not Barry Trotz, it would be unlikely I would make the move. If it is Trotz, it is as tempting as it gets.

Either way, I think this debate is happening a week too soon.

8. This has always been who Kyrie Irving is.

An attention-seeking simpleton who has no business having the platform that he has.

The Brooklyn Nets and NBA have a decision to make.

9. My Week 9 NFL Predictions…