Absence made Reimer’s heart grow fonder
Goalie eager to return to tough spot with Leafs
TORONTO • Time, said James Reimer, has a way of healing wounds.
The 28-year-old goaltender was sitting half-dressed in his dressing stall at Air Canada Centre and talking about what was easily the most difficult season of his career. It was a year in which he lost his starting job, lost the confidence of the head coach and really lost his desire to play for the only NHL team that he has known.
When it all ended, with the Toronto Maple Leafs missing the playoffs and Reimer shouldering a lot of the misplaced blame, most expected he would be gone. Five months later, he is back and trying to make things right again.
“Time is a big thing,” said Reimer, who made his first start of the pre-season on Wednesday night. “A lot of emotions go away and you just look at things logically per se and you just think about them.”
No one is quite sure what this season will hold for Reimer, who signed a twoyear contract extension worth US$4.6-million in the summer. The coaching staff has said that there will be a competition for the starting job — “It’s 1A and 1B,” head coach Randy Carlyle said on the first day of camp. “We’re not casting James Reimer to the side” — but Jonathan Bernier clearly heads into the season as the incumbent No. 1.
That leaves Reimer trying to make the best out of a lessthan-ideal situation. He wants to be a starter. But if he cannot, will he be content to be Bernier’s backup?
While Reimer said he is coming into the year with the same level of expectations, he added that he has “gained a lot of experience in terms of dealing” with adversity. The summer also helped in that regard. Once last season ended, Reimer boarded a plane for Belarus and represented Canada at the world championship.
It was a necessary diversion, said Reimer, who was joined by Nazem Kadri and Morgan Rielly. It was a chance to get away from the fishbowl that is Toronto — away from Carlyle and the other trappings that came from playing in the NHL — and just play hockey.
“It’s a different atmosphere over there,” said Reimer, who went 3-1 with a .911 save percentage for a Canadian team that finished in fifth place. “It’s a bunch of guys where obviously things didn’t go too
It gives us one of the best one-two punches in the league
well over the season otherwise they’d still be playing … everyone comes together as a team. It’s a great camaraderie. You’re doing it for your country.”
Reimer does not hide the fact that last season was difficult on a personal level. It was the first time that he truly had to compete for the starting job. And while Bernier’s numbers proved to better than Reimer’s, it was not always a fair fight.
The two goalies were essentially sharing the net for the first two months of the season and putting up fairly comparable numbers (Bernier had a .928 save percentage, while Reimer had a .931 save percentage). But by the end of December, Carlyle was relying more and more on Bernier to carry the load. Reimer did not hide his anger.
After getting pulled in a Dec. 21 game against Detroit, cameras caught Reimer fuming at the end of the bench and staring a hole through his head coach. Two months later, Carlyle returned the favour by telling reporters that Reimer had played “just OK” in a 3-2 loss to the Red Wings.
That comment prompted a reaction from Reimer’s agent and, after losing 12 of his last 14 games, there were suggestions that maybe Toronto was not the best place for the goaltender.
“I was excited to come back,” said Reimer. “I was excited to be here and make this team better, whatever the situation may be.”
When asked if he and Carlyle have patched things up, Reimer said, “I haven’t had too many chats yet. I’m sure that will come.”
The only thing that Carlyle can really say to Reimer is to play well when he is the net. Everything else is out of his control. Bernier’s health and performance — he missed eight games with knee and groin injuries last season and had .904 save percentage after the Olympic break — will dictate how much Reimer plays.
“We’re definitely happy that he’s back,” forward James van Riemsdyk said of Reimer. “It gives us definitely one of the best one-two punches in the league.”
“We have two capable guys who can be starters anywhere,” said defenceman Cody Franson. “Not every team has the luxury of that.”
Indeed, half the teams in the league relied on one goalie to play more than 60% of their games last season. Reimer has never started more than 35 games, while Bernier had never started more than 22 games prior to last year. In other words, both will be counted on if the Leafs are to have a shot at the playoffs.
“I think that’s the key for any NHL team, having that backup goalie or the No. 1 goalie or the second goalie,” said Leafs assistant coach Peter Horachek, who did not have that luxury when coaching in Nashville. “When [the Predators] lost Pekka Rinne, they struggled. They didn’t make the playoffs because of it.
“Whoever is in net is going to have to win games. That’s what it comes down to.”