Leafs still want Reimer to be the guy

It was a (customary?) slow start for the Leafs on the road in Philly Thursday night.  To their credit, they kept bouncing back from deficits all night and just came up a bit short in the end.  Both goalies (Reimer and Bobrovsky) maybe allowed some "questionable" goals but also made some sterling saves at various points throughout the game.

I may be in the minority, but I didn't see it as a particularly poor game for individual Leaf players.  That said I'm not sure many stood out, either, though Bozak was certainly opportunistic in  scoring twice from around the net and Kessel picked up two assists. Lupul added his 22nd on the season (wonder what the over-under was on Lupul this season?) and Phaneuf was involved, engaging in an old-time battle with Hartnell almost all evening long.

The Schenn brothers went head to head, Schenn the younger scoring for the Flyers, Luke playing pretty well and now a plus 10 on the season, tops on the team.  (For all the angst, he is still leading the team in hits and maintaining that plus/minus...)

I do have one thought to share:  there are three guys on the current Leaf roster, all good NHL'ers and in the line-up Thursday night, who I sense may struggle when the hockey turns gritty in the playoffs.

Can you guess who they might be?

I'll answer at the end of the your comments on this post, likely Friday night sometime.

**

Brian Burke was maybe the happiest guy in the hockey world a few weeks back, when James Reimer was still not quite himself (after the early-season injury) and Jonas Gustavsson filled the void in the Maple Leaf net rather nicely.

But the GM’s public reaction (something along the lines of "he saved our season...") while a compliment, seemed to be as much one of shock and relief than something he expected.

Wasn’t it Burke who, earlier this season, suggested Monster may be more comfortable sort of coming off the bench as a back-up, that (and correct me if my memory is off here) Gustavsson may indeed be better suited to that role, and not have to face the pressure of being a “number-one”?

Whatever the precise words were, the message was clear.  Gustavsson was maybe lacking whatever you need to have the mentality (and the ability) to grab the net - and keep it -  at this level.

However, Gus did pretty much precisely that.  After some fits and starts during Reimer’s somewhat prolonged absence, (and watching Scrivens from a seat on the bench a few nights) Gustavsson went on a mini-run that, in some ways, was every bit as good as what Reimer pulled off in a shocker a year ago—albeit not for as long as Reimer did his thing last season.

But Reimer eventually fought his way back to what I can only believe is the number-one slot in the Leaf cage, with a couple of nicely played shutout wins (once he shed some light rust) and overall, three wins in succession.  Gustavsson losing In Winnipeg—and allowing what many consider a “soft” one—no doubt further sealed what I am about to say again:  despite the loss in Philly, Reimer is the guy.  He’s the goalie that Burke “believes” in, that Wilson believes in, that they both want to carry the team to the playoffs.

Back in November, I posted on this subject, and also asked that, if the Leafs had no confidence in The Monster, that they should do him a favor and set him free, so he could find a home and a goalie coach, perhaps, who would help him play the way I sense he can, with his own “style”—and most importantly, restore his confidence.

Now, that all said, I sense Gus was pretty darn confident there for a time, when he was playing well, winning games, and seeing his save percentage jump to a quite respectable number.  Of course, we all understand that confidence can be a fragile—and often fleeting—thing for an athlete at just about any age.  This includes professional athletes, and it certainly is the case for even some of the best NHL goaltenders.  They can say what they feel they have to publicly, but I’ve been following this sport closely for over fifty years, and I can cite any number of guys in net who I’ve seen losing their confidence and have eventually admitted, often after the fact, that they had in fact lost their confidence and had to work like heck to re-gain it.

It’s always hard to know what comes first:  does a goalie feed off what he senses from his teammates (that they trust him to deliver—or not), or do the teammates feel confident (or not) in their goalie based on what they see and how he is playing?  Chicken or the egg?  I’m not quite sure.

But I continue to believe that, back in the fall, Gustavsson felt, if not quite un-appreciated or under-valued here, then at least that the organization really did not believe in him.  (Quick aside:  I found it a bit odd the other night when Greg Millen, the former NHL goalie turned TV analyst, gave the Leaf brass kudos for “believing” in Gustavsson when it would have been easy not to.  In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.  I like Millen and all that, and he knows the game and the position a heck of a lot better than I do, clearly.  But it’s a joke, in my mind, to even suggest the organization believed in Gus.  Heck, Scrivens had the number-one job for a while, when Reimer was out.  Eventually Wilson/Burke had no choice but to keep trying Gustavsson, especially when Reimer returned and struggled himself.  So yes, applaud the Leafs if you want, but Gustavsson’s success was the result of necessity and his eventually stealing the show for a few short weeks, not because they showered him with support and “belief”.  They needed him and no doubt Allaire and the staff encouraged him, and yes, Monster played some good hockey.  It’s called self-preservation, all the way around…)

In any event, here we are now.  Reimer is the number-one goalie. (Funny, eh?  A couple of weeks ago so many people were talking as though Reimer had lost the net, and Monster had won the job.  It was like, “gee, let Reims play one once in a while, or he’ll get really rusty”.  Just shows how quickly things change—and could change again—also based on necessity.)  But what I am really saying today is simply this:  Reimer is the guy, still, that the honchos want to to see take the ball and run with it.  Not just that he’s younger than Gus, or under contract for an extra couple of seasons (that’s true, right?).  But Reimer was the fellow that saved their bacon a year ago and gave Leaf fans a much-needed summer of hope.

This is not to suggest that management, as with virtually any player, will be forever “loyal” to him, or wouldn’t throw the guy on the nearest rail out of town in a trade if they thought they could help the hockey club.  But that applies to pretty much every player, right?  No, Reimer is the man they want to be the flagship goalie.  They’d dearly love, in my estimation, to see Reimer imprint the number “1” on his chest and run with it next season, playing 60+ games. (Remember when that was (pre-injury and pre-struggles) the plan for the current season?

Not long ago I posted here that the Leaf goaltending situation was in good hands, just not at that precise moment.  And I said that because that’s what I was observing and what I believed.  Both of these guys can play.  Both are still finding their ceiling, whatever it may be.  But both, at that particular time, were not quite setting the league on fire.

And this is one of the great things about the NHL, for me.  The power-play for some team that stunk six weeks ago could be the best in the league now.  (Look at the Leaf penalty-kill.)  Yesterday’s hot team is suddenly cold now.  November’s “Player of the Month” could be struggling badly now, with say, one goal in a dozen games. 

What happened?  Was that team, or player, great then and a bum now?  Maybe.  But more likely water finds its proper level in the NHL over the marathon endurance-test that is the 82-game regular-season.

The Leaf goaltending picture, while huge for us, is but one of the many twisting and turning sub-plots that make this great sport so fascinating every season.