One early thing I prefer about Carlyle: he is letting goalies have a run of games

One of the things I’ve harped on quite a bit over the past couple of seasons has been the fact that Jonas Gustavsson has often seemed to get the short end of the stick with the Leafs.  (This goes back to even before James Reimer arrived on the scene.)  It’s not that I think Gutsvasson has been all-world in his time with the Leafs.  But I just think the guy has ability.  And a number of NHL teams obviously thought he had the ability to play at the NHL level when the Leafs signed him as a free-agent three summers ago.

Maybe I’m “mis-remembering”, but it just feels as though he seldom received the opportunity to play a lengthy string of games, and know that he was going to have the net regularly—even if he gave up a soft goal or had a tough game.  Whenever I thought he might get on a roll, something happened.  Sometimes it was poor play, yes, but sometimes it was just, well, the coach wanted to play someone else.  And that continued pretty much through Ron Wilson’s time here.  Monster would have mini-strings where he played pretty well, and looked good in net—sometimes very good.  But inevitably he would lose his spot, often after a rough game, and then he would go back to playing sporadically- and not always very well.

He looked fidgety, uncertain- like a guy caught between playing the way he was most comfortable playing, and what he was being told to do.

As a result, and as many of you know, I’ve been suggesting here for close to two seasons that he would likely be happier and thrive much more elsewhere—with a different team, in a different market—and with a new coach, including a new goalie coach.  And that may still be the case, especially given the Monster will be a free-agent come summertime.

But interestingly, when Carlyle took over a couple of weeks ago, Gus immediately played a number of games—such that we began to wonder if we’d ever see Reimer before the end of the season.  This speculation was heightened when Carlyle basically said he’d play Reimer “at some point”, sparking the notion that Gustavsson may have claimed the (for what it’s worth, at this late juncture of the season) nominal “number-one” designation in the Leaf net.

That was before, of course, Reimer played again earlier this week, and earned a shutout against the Lightning in Tampa Bay.

Now, Reimer has played three games in succession and who knows, he may keep playing for a while yet.  And I’m good with this, as long as Carlyle doesn’t bury the other guy (Gustavsson) and make him feel like he’s a bench-warmer before his next opportunity to play.

I like the idea of letting a goalie have a run of games…seven, eight games where he will have the net even if he plays poorly at times.  How else do you build a guy's confidence, and let him know you believe in him? That’s why I was so happy that Carlyle gave Reimer the start after his uneven, rather shaky performance earlier in the week against Florida.  The young Leaf net minder must have felt uplifted when, after his Florida outing, Carlyle went right back with him.  That goes a long way to giving a young guy confidence.  And Reimer rewarded Carlyle with a sterling outing against the Lightning, and followed that up with another solid effort against the Senators in Ottawa on Saturday night.

We’re all well aware of the fragile, hot and cold nature of the goaltending position, and we also realize that both of these guys has been less than brilliant often this season, for a host of reasons.  Some say they aren’t NHL goalies (which I don't agree with, as I've stated here many times).  Others blame injuries.  Or coaching (coaching "decisions" and the influence of the goalie coach, which we have also talked about here...).  Poor performance can be attributed to many things, but ultimately, at the NHL level, you have to set all that aside and just play—and play well enough to not only stay here, but to be the backbone guy that can help lead the team to success.

That all said, as I’ve posted here many times, I like both goalies.  But I well realize Gustavsson is a pending free agent, and I doubt, as I’ve written before, that Burke will go into a new season with the same goaltending duo that helped lead the Leafs to another hot and cold (and playoff-free) season in 2011-’12.

We’ll see, of course.  But for now, I choose to think that Carlyle knows what he’s doing, that he wants to give both guys a solid shot to play a string of games, and demonstrate they can help the Leafs (or somebody else) down the road.