YOU CAN BLANK ON IT
Frederik Andersen turns aside 40 shots as Leafs shut out Florida,
> MAPLE LEAFS 1 > PANTHERS 0
First, there was Aleksander Barkov on a point-blank chance in the first period.
Then, there was Colton Sceviour on a short-handed breakaway in the second period.
Whenever the Florida Panthers had a golden chance Tuesday night, Leafs goalie Freddie Andersen had the answer. And once again, the Leafs’ most important player delivered a night of goaltending brilliance, blanking Florida 1-0 at the Air Canada Centre.
Another brilliant Andersen performance is beginning to sound like a regular dispatch — but he reached a special goal on this night.
In fact, Andersen started what could be a rush of personal bests by stopping all 40 shots he faced for his career-high fifth shutout.
The win marked his 30th of the season, and that threshold is where the countdown toward some career highs can earnestly begin.
With Toronto scoring the game’s only goal — James van Riemsdyk’s 25th of the season – Andersen moved to within five of his career high of 35 wins, set in 2014-15 with Anaheim.
He is also on pace to surpass his 33-win season in Toronto last year.
Andersen was also making his 51st start of the season, and while his win total is approaching career highs he’s also winning a tick under 59 per cent of his games, which has the Leafs within range of surpassing the franchise mark of 46 wins (they are nine shy with 20 games remaining).
With only three more back-tobacks remaining, Andersen could have an opportunity to start 18 more games. If that’s the case, he’d reach 69 starts overall, which would set a ca- reer high for starts (by three).
Toronto is managing the considerable workload for its goalie, but also chasing both Boston and Tampa in the standings. Their first-round matchup — if the playoffs start today — would pit them against Boston, a very tough task.
Boston visits Toronto Saturday in a potential first-round matchup, and another measuring stick.
In the meantime, Toronto picked up its ninth win in 10 February games. They are certainly keeping pace with their divisional rivals in Boston and Tampa, and enjoying continued success in coach Mike Babcock’s five-game segments. Babcock spoke about those segments — he breaks the season into five game segments as a way of managing his team’s progress — prior to Tuesday’s win.
“You just do what you do and you just keep grinding,” Babcock said. “The biggest thing is sometimes you have a better segment and it makes up for a segment when you’ve dropped the ball, and didn’t quite get it done. I think just the idea of keeping your focus on the short term, you talk about the schedule and all that.”