TORONTO – The good news for Frederik Andersen is that the shootout will disappear should the Toronto Maple Leafs reach the playoffs.
Of course, the team’s 1-7 record in the much-maligned skills competition might end up preventing that from happening.
A 2-1 shootout loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday felt like a particularly unjust result for the Leafs goaltender, who delivered his sharpest individual performance in two months to secure Toronto a loser point.
This is a movie the 27-year-old Dane has seen before. Andersen ranks 59th among the 67 NHL goalies who have faced at least 65 career shootout attempts with a .603 save percentage.
It’s safe to say both he and the Leafs would prefer to see a game end in regulation or overtime.
“I think pretty much everyone in hockey wanted this to keep going,” said Andersen. “It was a good overtime. But, yeah, I mean we haven’t had much success there.”
There was still plenty of good to be found in a night where he made an incredible cross-crease stop on Michael Grabner and stood tall on three separate breakaways, including one from J.T. Miller in overtime. Thirty-seven saves from your starter is usually good enough to steal two points.
With the season now winding its way towards the home stretch, Andersen is arguably the most important man in blue and white.
This is uncharted territory with Leafs coach Mike Babcock intent on using backup Curtis McElhinney exclusively in the four remaining back-to-back situations. That puts Andersen on pace to start 67 games – 13 more than he managed in any previous regular season with Anaheim and the most by a Leafs No. 1 since Andrew Raycroft made 72 in 2006-07.
“We make mistakes so we need him to be good,” Babcock said of Andersen. “We need him to be a top goalie in the league like he’s capable of being.”
The only potential hitch in the plan is that Andersen is still learning on the job. He’s not only playing with an increased workload physically, but he’s trying to make the correct mental adjustments as this crazy, compressed season whizzes by.
And he’s struggled – posting an .899 save percentage in 20 appearances since Jan. 1.
To hear Andersen describe the adjustments he made prior to facing the Rangers was to get an idea of the mountain he’s climbing. There was video work, but also a much-needed mental break because he only played two games last week.
“You always want to think that you’re working hard and doing the right things, but sometimes you can be a little too close to it,” he said. “If you don’t take a second – step away a little bit and reset – I think when you’re in the season it’s tough to do that.
“Today I felt good and found some of the things I’ve been missing.”
The timing couldn’t have been any better with the Leafs right in the thick of the playoff race. They are now four points behind Montreal for first in the Atlantic Division – it promises to be a must-see showdown with the Canadiens in town on Saturday – but Toronto enjoys little margin for error with both the Panthers and Bruins surging.
That is why there was some sting in the air here on Thursday.
Truth be told, the Leafs didn’t play well enough in front of Andersen to merit the victory. But they still had the game on Auston Matthews’ stick in the final minute of overtime when the rookie broke in alone on Henrik Lundqvist.
That was just after Leo Komarov nearly beat The King with a deke move of his own.
“We hit the bar in overtime and it’s not like we’re not trying to win,” said Babcock. “We’re trying to win the shootout too and today would have been a good one to win for [Andersen].
“Freddie had done everything for us; it would have been nice if we scored some goals for him.”
The Leafs have done what they can to improve their luck in shootouts. They are given a scouting report on the opposing goalie’s tendencies before each game and assistant coach Andrew Brewer showed Andersen some video of the Rangers shooters on an iPad during the break after overtime.
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And, still, he left frustrated after Mats Zuccarello and Mika Zibanejad scored on New York’s only two opportunities.
At this point, Andersen is wondering aloud about whether his preparation is actually becoming overpreparation.
“It didn’t really work today,” he said. “They obviously scored both. Yeah, I mean, I don’t know – sometimes [watching video] can mess with your head a little bit [with] what you’ve got to do.”
He quickly found solace in a game he nearly stole. It was encouraging to have a night where his positioning and focus were exactly where they needed to be.
“This is how I want to be playing,” said Andersen, before adding: “Next game is huge.”