Reimer, Scrivens must improve stats to dampen Luongo
There is a small but growing sense that the Leafs are willing — for now — to allow James Reimer and Ben Scrivens to open the abbreviated season as their goaltending tandem.
If only it were that easy for two young goalies. Until the puck drops Saturday night in Montreal, and until Roberto Luongo is either traded to the Leafs or elsewhere, there probably won’t be any 100per-cent assurances that the ReimerScrivens duo will survive the entire 48 game schedule.
For now, it’s Reimer and Scrivens. If Reimer responds with a solid start and consistently carries the so-called hot hand, it’s likely he gets the nod to carry the greater portion of the schedule.
As a team, the Leafs last season posted some of their worst GAA and save percentages since the previous lockout. Those two figures came in at 3.12 and .898 per cent respectively, which ranked the team 29th in the NHL in both cases.
The Leafs remain the only NHL team since the last lockout (the last seven seasons) to have failed to make the playoffs, and stats show that 3.00-plus GAA does not bode well for any East Conference team trying to make the playoffs.
Over the past three seasons, only six teams made the playoffs with GAA’s greater than 2.80. None were higher than 2.92 (2007-08 Senators).
PLAYER BY PLAYER
JAMES REIMER: Reimer’s sub-par GAA and save percentage are tempered somewhat by the fact he was above .900, and as high as .939, during his peak performances while the team was in 5-on-5 situations.
If Reimer can get his save percentage at or near .920, that would likely be suitable for the Leafs to make the playoffs.
Reimer posted .900 last year, following a three-year, $5.4-million contract extension he signed before the season began. It was a reward for a high level of performance the year before, one that followed excellent showings in the AHL and in junior hockey, where Reimer projected to be a solid, No. 1 goalie in the NHL.
A head and neck injury suffered early last season off the Brian Gionta collision in Montreal in late September forced Reimer to the sidelines. He was never quite the same, having gone from a goalie who won four of his first five games, to one battling concussion-like symptoms whose stats were largely inconsistent, and whose confidence clearly waned.
Reimer also suffered from behind-thescenes dysfunction in the coaching ranks; goalie coach François Allaire left the club, and in a French-language interview, pointed at tension between himself, then-coach Ron Wilson, and Wilson’s assistants, as part of the problem be a H pe an H to th BE su go re bu w sa go S te ed bo m th N an to h up
ehind the mounting negativity faced on daily basis by Reimer. Heading into this season, Reimer apears steeled to the Luongo rumours, nd after last year’s turmoil, those rumours might seem like child’s play to him now. He also says he is healthy, and prepared o win his work load, not expect it hrough entitlement.
EN SCRIVENS: Scrivens appears just as uited as Reimer to be the Leafs No. 1 oalie, but there is very little NHL track ecord to go on. Scrivens’ reputation is uilt on sensational play in the AHL, where he posted the league’s fourth best ave percentage the last two seasons for oalies facing 1,500 or more shots. Scrivens signed a two-year contract exension last year and obviously cementd himself into the organization as a ona fide backup, and possibly a platoon mate to Reimer, should the Leafs find hemselves with no other options. Naturally, there is the Luongo factor nd Scrivens may be an attractive piece o a Luongo trade in Vancouver, which has little to no current options for a backup should Luongo be moved.