Bernier brain cramp deflates Leafs
Goal from centre ice after injury layoff reignites net debate
NEW YORK— Not for the first time, Mike Babcock relied on the hockey Zen found at 36,000 feet high to make a down-onthe-ice goaltender decision.
Somewhere between the Big Smoke and the Big Apple — perchance whilst ascending over Lake Ontario or cruising over the Catskills or banking down the lovely autumn palette Hudson Valley – the Maple Leaf bench boss committed to Jonathan Bernier as his starter for Sunday’s encounter at Madison Square Garden.
This despite James Reimer getting in the goalie groove nicely through a threegame win streak for Toronto — a modest success, admittedly, but they hadn’t managed it since Dec. 13-16, 2014 — and five games without a regulation time loss (3-0-2), yeoman duty for a guy who just can’t buy No. 1 bona fides.
But Bernier, out with a lower body injury — think real low, ’round the ankle — since Oct. 31, has been quietly waiting to reclaim the crease he clearly considers his primary real estate, 0-6-1 lease notwithstanding.
Actually, Babcock didn’t sound all that invested in Bernier as his go-to-goalie as the Leafs returned to New York for the second time in a fortnight, though obviously there was some urgency building to get the guy back between the pipes. “I did that early,’’ Babcock had noted, significantly, a few hours before the Rang- ers made it 2-and-0 against the Leafs with 54 seconds left in regulation time.
Mats Zuccarello, from his backhand to his forehand, drew Bernier out of his crease and out of position, with Morgan Rielly sprawling vainly to block the shot. The Z-man, Toronto’s nemesis: Five goals against the Leafs this season.
From Babcock’s perspective, he’d cleaved to Bernier quite firmly through the early phase of the season, even as the losses piled up, and the netminder could be relied on for at least one lousy goal surrendered per game, often on the first shot faced.
“And Reimer decided he wanted the job,” Babcock continued. “So he took the job. So now Berns gets an opportunity.’’
Adding, obliquely: “No one can give you confidence. You’ve got to earn your way back.’’
An argument can be made that Bernier earned no such thing, was the beneficiary of another back-to-back weekend load of hockey, and Babcock admitted he still was thinking Reimer Saturday night, had it not been for a tad too much thirdperiod work in the paint.
By right or slight — the deployment of Bernier/Reimer has been a source of debate now into its third season — the dark-haired fellow got the assignment Sunday night at MSG. Was acquitting himself commendably, too, through a 1-1 tie, having been provided with that rarity from his teammates — a first period lead. It was the fifth game in a row that the Leafs had kept the opposition off the board through the opening frame.
These small achievements must be celebrated because . . . well, there might not be much to savour this season, although points in six out of the previous seven games had the daydreamers already talking playoffs.
And then — yup, there was the Bernier we’ve come to know and be crazed by — a 90-foot shoot-in, a soft dump, a bouncing wrister by Derek Stepan from just over the red line, and Bernier’s still looking for it.
Bend over and look down, Bub, between your legs, five-hole.
The Bernier Plague: a virus of pustuleugly goals, the kind that just oozes funk and drains the spirit.
That puck was moving maybe five miles per hour. And positionally, Bernier was a how-not-to diagram, stick held out to the side uselessly, brain apparently disengaged. Brain fart.
On the bench, Babcock pursed his lips, wince-like, like he’d just swallowed a bad oyster.
Sorry, that wasn’t a bad bounce. That was a colossal fluff, mortifying. Worth reassignment to the end of the bench, right there. Enough mental frailty already.
It was to the Leafs’ credit that they didn’t hang their heads and mope off the ice, probably making no eye contact with the guys in the big pads. Instead, Joffrey Lupul, with career goal No. 201and seventh of the season, got his goalie off the immediate hook, tipping his own rebound — a double stuff-it — past Antti Raanta with 2:22 left in the second, on a shot that had originated with Dion Phaneuf at the point.
Now, the Rangers are the best team in the NHL, soaring along 10-0-2 in their previous dozen games, 8-1-1 at home. They’re sizzling. The Leafs, meanwhile, have been at a gentle boil, shall we say. One of these teams would have their streaks halted.
All the indicators, the realties, suggested Toronto didn’t have a tinker’s damn chance against the Gothams, even if Bernier had stood on his head rather than opened his five-hole. Yet the Leafs more than held their own through two periods, aggressive and threatening especially in the game’s opening 10 minutes, thrice forcing Raanta — with Henrik Lundqvist getting the night off — to make sharp pad saves, two off Tyler Bozak on the same shift.
With the Leafs outshooting the Rangers, Bernier wasn’t as busy but up to the challenge when required, especially stoning Derick Brassard in close.
Peter Holland, with his second goal in three games, went forehand-backhand to open the scoring after doing pretty much all the heavy lifting, getting the puck deep into the New York zone, then putting himself in a good spot for the shot.
Ryan McDonagh got that one back 44 seconds into the middle frame, after Matt Hunwick jumped into the attack, a poor decision that left Morgan Rielly all by himself to cope with four onrushing Rangers when the play swung back the other way, Blueshirts on the fly from the Leaf blue line back. Zuccarello executed a perfect pass to McDonagh, who one-timed it to Bernier’s right side.
You’ll remember Zuccarello, who leads the Rangers on the offensive side, with eight goals and seven assists. More to the point — to To- ronto’s acute annoyance – he rang up his first NHL hat trick last time these two teams met, 3-1, last one in an empty net, which made it no easier a one-man show to watch.
It was Zuccarello in playmaking excellence again, executing a pass from behind the Leaf net to Brassard hulking in the low slot, Hunwick unable to contain him. But yet again Toronto countered, which has to say something about the club’s growing sense of confidence — dare we say pride? — that they’re not just NHL patsies, maybe a whole bunch of them simply keeping the bench warm until the children are called up from the minors.
In any event, Phaneuf’s shot from the point at 5:15 of the third, directly off a faceoff that Bozak had won, ended up in the New York net with Raanta screened.
Footnote: Toronto took its leagueleading seventh bench minor penalty for too many men on the ice, in the first period, this time Hunwick the culprit in a mix-up of D-men going off and coming on.
That’s just awful.