Last night, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost 3-2 to a Detroit Red Wings team that was without 10 regulars. The wings had numerous AHL callups, and even were forced to play defenceman Brendan Smith at left wing due to the injuries on their forward core. It was the second straight loss for the Leafs who end their five game road-trip with a 2-3-0 record.
James Reimer was the games starting goalie, after Jonathan Bernier was injured in the win over Los Angeles. While Reimer was brilliant in relief, stonewalling the Kings, and helping the Leafs to a victory in the Staples Centre, he has also started the last two games, losses to Washington and Detroit. Reimer and Bernier were battling for the starting job earlier in the year, but since December it has been clear that Bernier is getting the bulk off the work and Reimer is the backup.
After last night’s game Randy Carlyle was obviously frustrated with the loss. After the game, Carlyle was asked about his goaltender’s performance against the Wings.
“I thought he was okay, you know,” Carlyle said after Reimer made 28 saves against the Wings. “Just okay.”
Reimer himself disagreed. “So he said I was just okay?” Reimer said. “I thought I was good. I don’t know if I was great, and I would like to be great, but I thought I made some good saves when I needed to.”
James Reimer’s agent, Ray Petaku, also fired back on twitter. The following is a screenshot of his tweet on Carlyle’s comments, made shortly after the game.
On the season Reimer has a .913 save percentage, but also has a 3.21 goals against average. Its indicative of how the Leafs simply haven’t played well in front of the 26-year-old this season, giving up far too many shots against. To be fair, they give up too many shots when Bernier is in net as well. The fact that Reimer and Bernier have both played well this season, is a big reason why the Leafs are in a playoff spot today instead of on the outside looking in.
Averaging 36.4 shots against per game, the Leafs are the worst in the NHL in this statistic. Getting outshot by an average of 8.5 shots per game is also worst in the NHL. The Leafs Fenwick percentage of 42% is second worst in the NHL, ahead of only the Buffalo Sabres, and their corsi for of 42.5% is also 29th in the league, ahead of only Buffalo. Quite simply both Leafs goalies have performed above and beyond the call of duty this year. Bernier and Reimer have been peppered with shots game, after game, after game all season long.
The Leafs backup goaltender will be a restricted free agent this summer. How this affects his future with the franchise is anyone’s guess, but Reimer has previously made it clear that he wants to be a number one goalie in the NHL, and that doesn’t appear like it will happen in Toronto. As we speculated around the trade deadline, Reimer could be traded by the leafs at the NHL draft, or in the off-season.
The Leafs play at home to Tampa tonight, and also have a back-to-back with Montreal and New Jersey this weekend. At this point Bernier is out for at least tonight, and possibly the weekend, but it is unclear how many of those games will James Reimer start, and if AHL journeyman call-up Drew MacIntyre will get a start.
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