Only his best will do
The Maple Leafs need Andersen to be great in a must-win Game 4
Frederik Andersen stuck out his paddle, the middle part of his goal stick, and dove because, instinctually, in the moment, that’s what goalies do.
It was his only chance, really, to stop David Pastrnak, who had more net than stick to shoot at. Had Pastrnak shot the puck along the ice or to the top corner — both were possible — then who knows what happens after that?
Andersen may have been the least-impressed person by his highlight-reel stop which is getting all kinds of play online. Maybe it was a game- and series-altering save. Maybe it’s a career highlight save.
But maybe it’s too early to know exactly what it meant.
What Andersen didn’t do was go home and watch replays of it over and over. He didn’t speed it up or slow it down. Quiet and thoughtful, he’s not exactly one of those look-at-me types.
And he clearly understood there was plenty of time left to play, the Maple Leafs were ahead in Game 3, the Boston Bruins were pushing hard to come back and the crowd was electric and crazy noisy. There was no time for personal thought or celebration.
“We got away with the win,” Andersen said, happy with the outcome, not necessarily happy with how the game unfolded.
The Leafs needed a victory for any hope of survival in this playoff series with the Bruins, just as they need a victory Thursday night in Game 4 to have any chance of beating this impressive Boston team.
No team in the NHL, it says here, could beat the Bruins three straight and that includes the red-hot Vegas Golden Knights. Should the Leafs lose in Game 4, they will need three wins in a row. In other words, they won’t advance beyond the first round if they lose Game 4.
A win by the Leafs on Thursday night and the series gets more interesting than it already is. And Andersen knows there was some good play, some good will, some good luck that resulted in the Game 3 victory.
The Leafs have to be better Thursday than they’ve been in any game to date in the series.
Andersen has to be better himself. He was average in Game 1, pulled in Game 2, red-hot and fortunate in the second half of Game 3.
In his first 100 minutes against the Bruins, they scored eight times on him. The first two goals Monday night were soft ones.
The first goal in particular, a point shot from Adam McQuaid, was the kind you can’t allow in any game, let alone playoffs. The second goal, the high shot by Zdeno Chara, was more fluke than skill.
In the final 33 minutes against the Bruins on Monday night, he allowed no goals against.
Andersen understands one thing implicitly: He can’t give up any freebies against a team with this kind of offensive talent.
Pastrnak scored three times on both Leafs goalies in Game 2. In Game 3, he hit a post, missed an empty net, almost scored on a terrific Andersen save and then the signature save, the one we’ll be looking at for years.
Pastrnak had no goals on Monday. He had chances to score four. He won’t miss those kind of opportunities again. The Leafs have to limit those opportunities for the third member of the Boston Big Line.
The Leafs need Andersen to be what he was most of this record-breaking season — their best player.
Most NHL teams aren’t as dependent on their goaltender as the Leafs are on theirs. The old expression that your best players have to be your best players is true in almost every playoff sense, but in Toronto’s case, the best players are Andersen, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly. Probably their four best players in Game 4.
Not sure how much better Rielly can play. Game 3 was top shelf for him. But as great as Anderson, Matthews and Marner can be, there is another level to get to. Another place to define themselves as playoff performers. Another highlight, another moment, on this week of weeks on the Toronto sporting calendar.
If there has been a week like this one in the past, with so much going on, excuse me if I can’t remember it.
The Raptors played to backto-back sellouts and, more importantly, got historic backto-back home playoff wins. The Leafs won on Monday night in a building Matthews described as “earthquake” like.
Mike Babcock talked unsolicited about what the anthem felt like with the Air Canada Centre crowd singing along. This isn’t normally what quiet Toronto sounds like.
And on Tuesday night, there were more than 62,000 fans at three Toronto venues within a few miles of each other — making noise inside and outside in support of basketball, soccer and baseball.
All of this was happening at once, with a certain kind of intensity we’ve rarely experienced or known before.
And now it’s the Leafs turn to hold serve. Every game, Marner and others said, is must-win now.
“They won their two at home. We need to do our job and win our two,” said Matthews. The task is Herculean in hockey terms. This Bruins team is good enough to win the Stanley Cup.
“There’s still a lot of hockey left,” said Andersen, who wants to be known as a playoff goaltender of consequence. “You can’t stop and think about (the save). You have to reset and go on.
“Obviously, it’s not something you see often. Then you get ready for the next one.”