Reimer stalls, then fumbles; Bernier calmly pick up the ball…and where the Leafs fit in the East.

If you have visited VLM in recent years (heck, in recent days) you will know that one of the Leafs I sort of have a personal rooting interest in James Reimer. I won’t go through the list of attributes that I like about the guy, so I’ll simply say I think he represents the Leafs well and has been a pretty darn good goalie many nights on teams that often weren’t terribly good the themselves.

We all know the sequence of events of this past summer, and how Reimer—without a single game being played—went from being the obvious ‘number-one’ in goal after almost leading the club to an upset of the Bruins in last spring's playoffs to, at best, staring at a future where he would share the net with newcomer Jonathan Bernier.  We can debate whether that move affected Reimer’s confidence heading into training camp but if it did, the cracks did not show right away as Reimer played very well right through the opening night of the season against the Habs.

However on Saturday night, at home against a team he usually excels against, Reimer was not his stellar self.  You could just feel he was fighting things a bit.  He seemed more uncertain than usual, flailing around at times.  He seemed a second slow which, for a goaltender, leads to lousy results.  When he provided Jason Spezza with a long rebound goal (off a shot that did not require such a juicy rebound), whiffing on Spezza’s rather ordinary attempt on goal, Carlyle pulled the plug.

In came Bernier, who provided the same affect (with the Leafs down 4-2 at that point) as if Carlyle had replaced Reimer by boarding up the entire length and width of the net.  As Ottawa’s scoring opportunities came, you began to sense the Sens knew the momentum had shifted, as Bernier calmly caught or kicked out any challenging forays and effortlessly covered up all the loose pucks in his area. 

The Leafs responded by catching the Senators 4-4 in regulation, then winning the shoot-out.  Bernier did not allow a single tally along the way.

It’s early, and all goalies go through peaks and values.  Confidence can be a fragile thing.  When a goalie is hot, they feel like an impenetrable mountain in goal.  When the are struggling, every shot is an anxious adventure.

It would be difficult to imagine Bernier won’t go through his own trials in this market, maybe sooner than it looks right now.  But while Reimer had done absolutely nothing to deserve to lose his crease, his first stumble has allowed Bernier the opportunity the first-year Leaf was no doubt ready to pounce on.

As I have said from the get-go, I’m not necessarily comfortable with how this “situation” (which everyone seems to love so much) will end up for Reimer or the Leafs.  But for now, yes, it is good to have two capable goalies who have the qualities of a top-flight netminder.  And at the moment, it’s advantage, Bernier.

**

I know some Leaf fans continue (and hey, it’s their right) to comment on how the Leafs made a big mistake in letting MacArthur andGrabovski go this past summer.  But right now, for me at least, it’s hard to look at this roster and not feel as though this is simply a much better team than we have seen in these parts in some time. (For the record: VLM readers know I had long developed a soft spot for Grabovski, while I was middle of the road on MacArthur...)

When I posted my 1-10 “heading into the season” rankings of the Leafs a week ago, the one area I was cautious about was the blueline.  Depth on defense?  This club has lots of NHL-caliber guys, for sure, but quality may be another matter.  Oh, they’re good enough to win against ordinary opposition.  I’m just not as comfortable that the “top-six” on defense is ready to help us beat the best in the NHL just now.  I may be proven quite wrong and that would be fine. (Now, if we're talking potential, or where our defense will be two or three years from now, my view may well be different. Gardiner, Rielly, Percy, Finn, Granberg, etc. along with any returning members of the current defense corps may make this a very strong unit overall...)

My point however is that overall we are simply a stronger squad, given the aforementioned goaltending duo along with more toughness and firepower than we’ve had in ages.  Clarkson has not even played yet, but we have traded the long-ballyhooed Colborne, for example, and no one even cares, it seems.  Why?  Because other youngsters like Carter Ashton are chomping at the bit.  Kulemin is injured?  Ashton is sent upstairs for a game? It’s next man up, so young Abbott was in the lineup for Carlyle Saturday night. (A surprise call-up to me, by the way.) On paper he may not seem like a “Carlyle player” but there he was, creating a scoring chance for himself at one point (though he was a minus 2 on the night in a handful of minutes).

Players who have been acquired along the way—Kessel, Lupul, Franson, Phaneuf, van Riemsdyk, Bolland and now Bernier—have all become (or soon will be) cornerstone Leafs.  I’m not suggesting they’ll go 82 and 0: I'm simply saying that for the flaws that are still in evidence at times, this is seemingly a confident bunch that can outscore and out-grind the opposition most nights.

While Carlyle is a demanding guy (and clearly not popular with all his former players—see comments from MacArthus in various newspaper articles over the last couple of days; Grabbo had done his talking earlier) the Leafs hardly present like a team that plays anxious hockey or is afraid to make a mistake.  Gardiner seems to join the rush at will.  At one point Saturday night, van Riemsdyk tried a move that you would usually see only in a practice when guys are fooling around.  It reminded me of the shoot-out attempt by a Leaf (was it Ranger?) late in the pre-season, when the player kicked the back of his stick against the puck as a kind of trick-play shot on goal.  Carlyle got as big a kick out of that as anyone on the Leaf bench.

I’m not suggesting the coach is one of the boys, but while he pushes and demands and they know who’s boss, most of the time, the players seem to respond.

This is not to gloss over the mistakes we all see and it’s certainly too soon in the season to make bold forecasts, but these are points in the standings they won’t have to give back later in the season if things temporarily go south.  Clarkson is not even playing yet and for all the concerns that some of us have expressed about what he will cost the franchise financially in the years ahead, for now, he should help make the blue and white even stronger.

I’ve said for years that the Eastern Conference is wide open.  Of course every year is a new season with roster changes, etc. but I don’t see this year being significantly different.  Who are the unbeatable teams in the East?

Pittsburgh, Detroit and Boston should all still be very good, but for me, the answer is no one is unbeatable.  I said that about Boston in the quarter-finals last spring and I still feel that way.  The Leafs were seconds away from taking them out. The Leafs are even better now.  Are the Bruins?

Exactly where the Leafs fit in the “elite” mix, I don't know at this point.  But they fit.