The Leafs and the Blue Jays have life —what a time to be alive!
Suffice it is to say, it was a successful Thursday night for Toronto sports fans. Firstly, thanks to Auston Matthews’ OT winner, the Leafs dusted off the New York Rangers. Then, behind a gutsy performance from 41-year-old Max Scherzer, the Blue Jays hammered the Mariners to tie their series 2-2 and set up a best-of-3 to decide the American League Championship Series.
That’s where the conversation started on the Friday edition of Leafs Morning Take. Max Scherzer is the definition of a gamer. What a performance. In addition to all that, we briefly discussed Keith Pelley’s recent comment with TSN/The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun. Essentially, Pelley initiated a green light for Brad Treliving to take a swing here prior to the March trade deadline. What else was he going to see, though. The timing on this one was weird. The deadline’s month away.
At any rate, after that, we dove into Toronto 2-1 OT win over the Rangers. As expected, it turned out to be a goalie duel between Anthony Stolarz and Igor Shesterkin. Both goalies were dialled in. Furthermore, Stolarz even made a save in the third period on J.T. Miller with no mask on. What an absolute stud and legend. Meantime, William Nylander continues to play better and better. The new YouTuber set up both Matthew Knies and Auston Matthews for tap ins. You love to see it. Again, it was a far from complete effort, but the Leafs grinded out a victory.
Then, we were joined by ESPN’s Linda Cohn. The legendary American sportscaster, who played goalie in college, broke down the Stolarz/Shesterkin duel. Additionally, she weighed in on Matthews’ solid offensive start, Toronto’s post-season hopes, and what she thinks of Craig Berube. Linda likes the direction that this Leafs team is headed, which has been a consistent theme with many of our guests so far in the early season. That said, unfortunately, she did disclose that she picked Vegas to win the Stanley Cup this season. Ugh.
Lastly, we offered a quick preview of Saturday night’s tilt at Scotiabank Arena as Lane Lambert will make his return to Toronto. Of course, the new Kraken head coach spent last season as Associate Coach on Berube’s bench. Seattle’s off to a very respectable 2-0-2 start. It should be another strong goalie matchup between Stolarz and Joey Daccord.
David Pagnotta will fill in for Jay Rosehill as co-host on the Monday edition of Leafs Morning Take. Join us at 11 AM ET for a full recap of Leafs/Kraken. Plus, we’ll look ahead to Toronto’s three game week.
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