AS FREDDIE GOES, SO GO THE LEAFS . . .
Goalie day-to-day after injury scare with playoffs in sight
And right now, the injured Andersen is a no-go. But Toronto is hopeful their star goalie won’t be out long, and with good reason. In a bounce-back season, he’s the one constant in team’s quest for a playoff spot.
All season long the Maple Leafs have carved out a reputation as a bounce-back machine: Their dreadful performances, and there haven’t been many that fit the category, have almost always been followed up with redemptive victories.
So October’s abysmal 7-2 home loss to the Lightning was answered with a 3-2 win over the Panthers a couple of nights later. The sting of November’s 7-0 drubbing by the Kings — the one that precipitated an infamous Etobicoke blackout bag skate — was soothed by a 6-3 win over the Flyers in the next game. And that 7-2 loss in Florida a couple of weeks back? A 5-0 win in Tampa two nights later made it somehow seem not so egregious.
It’s been a huge reason why the young Maple Leafs are holding tight to a playoff spot. But in all of those emphatic responses, there’s been a constant: Frederik Andersen in goal.
So the challenge will be different on Tuesday night at the Air Canada Centre. Yes, the Leafs will be looking to put aside the memory of Saturday’s listless 5-2 defeat in Buffalo with a convincing victory against the Panthers. But they’ll have to do it with backup goaltender Curtis McElhinney as their spot starter. On Monday, Andersen was ruled out of the game while he continues to recover from an injury that saw him pulled after the first period of Saturday’s game, wherein a source told the Star that Andersen suffered an injury to his jaw in a collision with a player.
Babcock announced Andersen as “dayto-day” on Monday, this after the goalie spent more than 45 minutes on the ice at the Leafs’ Etobicoke practice facility going through his paces, including a 20-minute bout of full-speed drills with teammates in which he looked like his regular, sharp self. The Toronto coach has often made light of the fact that “day-to-day,” in the parlance of the Leafs’ medical staff, is usually a synonym for “10 days” — a scenario that could take Andersen out of more than half of the team’s remaining eight games.
But with the proviso that any head injury can be unpredictable, indications are that Andersen’s season does not appear to be in jeopardy.
Andersen has not complained of concussion symptoms since the injury, a source said. And on Monday, when the goaltender was asked if he’d been dealing with such symptoms, Andersen said: “No. I don’t want to get too much into that stuff. I just want to make sure I (can) get back in the net as soon as possible.”
Certainly Andersen was hoping that this setback wasn’t an uncanny echo from last season, when a March jaw injury threatened to ruin his chances at the NHL playoffs. A year ago this week, Andersen, then a member of the Anaheim Ducks, took a speeding puck to the jaw in a practice — a shot that eventually triggered bouts of dizziness and affected his ability to track shots. That injury was announced by the Ducks as a concussion, although Andersen later told reporters that he didn’t believe he’d suffered one.
In any event, while Andersen initially attempted to play through the effects of that 2016 jaw injury, he was ultimately left unavailable for most of two weeks down the stretch, and the Ducks began the playoffs with Andersen’s season-long platoon mate, John Gibson, as their starter.
The Leafs, of course, don’t have a goaltending alternative as accomplished as Gibson. McElhinney, who was waived by the Columbus Blue Jackets in January, has put up respectable numbers, including a .919 save percentage in 10 appearances for the Leafs this season. He’s also been on the losing end of three of his past four appearances, allowing a combined 13 goals in about 10 periods of work.
McElhinney called Tuesday’s game the biggest start of his career. Though he’s played for six franchises over nine seasons, it says something that he’s only got 116 other career starts to choose from. Andersen has started 61 games this season alone.
Which is to say, the idea of McElhinney and his lifetime .906 save percentage in the crease for an extended stretch only underlines Andersen’s status as the most irreplaceable player on Toronto’s roster. Garret Sparks, called up from the Marlies for Monday’s practice and Tuesday’s likely backup duties, doesn’t exactly breed faith, no matter his recently hot work in the AHL.
So it makes sense that the Maple Leafs are proceeding with caution with their indispensable Dane. On Monday, Andersen said he felt that it was wise he was removed from Saturday’s game. After suffering the injury, he said he “didn’t feel right” for the rest of the opening period.
“We don’t want to take any unnecessary risks,” Andersen said. “You’ve got to do the right thing. … It’s tough to predict. We’re taking it slow. Felt pretty good today, but we’ll take it one day at a time.”
A year ago around this time, Andersen eventually returned from his jaw-related setback. After Anaheim lost its opening pair of playoff games to the Nashville Predators with Gibson in the crease, Andersen got the nod in Game 3 of the series and produced a 3-0 shutout. In all, Andersen started the final five games of that first-round set, allowing a combined seven goals. The Ducks were ultimately eliminated in a 2-1 Game 7 loss.
In other words, Andersen has more than once proven his ability to bounce back. On Tuesday, the Leafs will have to prove they can do the same without him.