Less than 24 hours after withstanding a 32-shot barrage in New Jersey, Maple Leafs workhorse Frederik Andersen was tossed right back into the crease to complete the business half of another Toronto back-to-back.
The great, big Dane allowed two goals on the first three shots directed his way, but when coach Mike Babcock looked down his bench at who was holding the clipboard and wearing the ballcap, there was no Carter Hart to bail him out and rescue an early two-goal deficit to the Montreal Canadiens.
The the Leafs’ dynamic offence rallied, as it is prone to do, but Andersen hung around, battling but allowing three more goals on a Saturday night at home and losing an important divisional match.
(Important only if the rebuilding, rookie-laden club is serious about taking a run at the post-season. Which it is. Babcock is not tanking this one, folks.)
“Obviously I didn’t make the right decision there,” Babcock said of turning to Andersen for both ends of a back-to-back. “The last time we did it, we thought it was the right decision. This time it wasn’t.”
The last time was Dec. 22 and 23, when Andersen defeated both Colorado and Arizona on the road, allowing one goal total. Those are the two worst teams in the NHL. They are not Montreal, or playoff-contending Ottawa, whom the Leafs draw Saturday, in their next back-to-back.
Andersen, who has secured all but one of the Leafs’ wins this season, admitted after the Habs loss that his focus wasn’t there.
“It wasn’t my best game,” he said. “A couple of times I made a mistake and it let them pad the lead.”
If the Maple Leafs hope to make the playoffs this spring, and for the long-term mental and physical health of Andersen, Toronto must find a backup goalie Babcock trusts. And soon.
It sure isn’t Jhonas Enroth, and judging by his limited use, it doesn’t look like 22-year-old Antoine Bibeau, who’s looked fine winning one of his two starts.
The idea that Karri Ramo is the man for the job loses credence with every start the rehabbing veteran makes in the AHL. Ramo has a .880 save percentage and is still searching for his first win as a Marlie.
On Monday, the Columbus Blue Jackets threw a life preserver from high atop the NHL standings, placing experienced No. 2 Curtis McElhinney on waivers in an effort to give touted prospects Anton Forsberg and Joonas Korpisalo a big-league look in their contract years.
Snatching the 33-year-old McElhinney off the wire would be a low-risk move for Toronto, who hold waiver priority over Edmonton and Boston — two other playoff hopefuls that recently waived their No. 2 guys (Jonas Gustavsson and Anton Khudobin, respectively) and are leaning abnormally heavily on their No. 1s.
The London-born McElhinney, banished in part because he gave up four goals and lost to the Rangers Saturday, requires minimal commitment both in dollars and term.
He turns UFA on July 1 and carries a modest $800,000 cap hit. His 2016-17 save percentage is .924, and his record is a respectable 2-1-2. Babcock likes big netminders, a flaw of Enroth’s; McElhinney, well accustomed to mop-up work, is 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds.
This may present a chance to patch up a hole on the Leafs that management delayed in addressing during July 1’s frenzy of backup signings. (Toronto took at stab at Calgary’s Chad Johnson at that time but ultimately missed the boat and took a late-August gamble on Enroth.)
Andersen is playing as well as can be expected, playing for a defensively porous outfit and feeling his responsibility skyrocket from his tandem days in Anaheim.
Last year, he appeared in 52 per cent of his team’s games. Now, he’s leaped to 85 per cent, on target for 69 starts. No goalie started that many games last season, when fatigue took its toll on playoff No. 1s such as Braden Holtby and Roberto Luongo. All four NHL conference finalists last spring needed to lean on its No. 2 heavily at times.
This season is more truncated, and Andersen, you’ll recall, began it nursing an upper-body injury. He’s thankful he won’t have to play until Friday.
“Once you get going in the season, you want to look for every time to recover that you can. This bye week will be good for that,” says Andersen, insisting that fatigue has yet to take its toll.
“I’m feeling pretty good, actually. Getting used to playing pretty much every night. Loving it so far.”
Great news. Better news for the Leafs’ season will be finding Andersen some stopgap support before February’s trade deadline so he doesn’t burn out or lose focus for the critical divisional games that lie ahead. A more permanent No. 2 solution can wait until the off-season, when the expansion draft and a new cap should shake up the market and expand options.
After all, this whole rebuild is about sustaining success, right? Not taxing out key pieces to get some post-season experience.
Trotting out one goalie for 69 nights a season smells of quick fix.
