Leafs’ unproven goalies are not alone

With playoffs two weeks away, it feels like goaltending has never been so vulnerable

I fell in love with hockey from the moment it was introduced to me at a young age, enamoured of every aspect of the game — with one exception.

When playing as kids we had to rotate positions and I remember my first time being the goalie. I was so excited to step into the crease, but it didn’t go as I imagined. I was prepared to be the last line of defence, ready to make acrobatic, catlike saves. Instead, I was left standing all alone, suffering from sheer boredom.

I didn’t sign up for hockey to stand for long periods of time away from the action. It was agonizing. I was just watching the other kids have fun without even the threat of a shot on goal. For me personally, goalie was the worst position to play. No thank you.

Fast forward to today’s NHL and it may be those long stretches of inactivity rather than traditional stood-on-his-head goaltending performances that help a team win the Stanley Cup.

The Colorado Avalanche did it with that goalie blueprint last season. They didn’t ask Darcy Kuemper to steal games … and he didn’t. His .902 save percentage in last year’s playoffs was the lowest on any Cup-winning team since Grant Fuhr’s .893 mark with the Edmonton Oilers in 1988. The good news for both Kuemper and Fuhr was they had star skaters such as Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar to carry the team and offset those numbers. As important as good goaltending is today to get a team to the playoffs, it no longer seems imperative for goalies to outright steal games in the post-season.

Kuemper did exactly what was asked of him: make the saves he was expected to make. And even after he hoisted the Cup, his performance wasn’t deemed valuable enough for Colorado to bring him back to defend the title. The 32-year-old was an unrestricted free agent after their championship run and considered expendable as the salary cap-conscious Avalanche chose to go with a younger, more budgetfriendly Alexandar Georgiev at $3.4 million (U.S.) per season. Kuemper went on to sign a five-year deal with the Washington Capitals worth $5.25 million per year.

It’s always been rare for a starting goalie on a Stanley Cup team to not return.

The Chicago Blackhawks made Nikolai Khabibulin the highestpaid goalie in the NHL after he won a Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2003-04. Antti Niemi left the Blackhawks for the San Jose Sharks after leading Chicago to a Cup in 2010-11, and the Detroit Red Wings traded Mike Vernon to the Sharks the off-season after winning it all in 1997. Before that, the last time a champion let a goalie walk was in 1979, when Ken Dryden chose to abruptly retire after his fourth consecutive Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens.

With the playoffs two weeks away, it feels like the goaltending position has never been more vulnerable. Gone are the times when goaltenders seemed irreplaceable.

With the exception of Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Lightning, Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers and Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders, the majority of playoff-bound netminders today are seen more as potential liabilities. Sorokin has been exceptional this season, often with little support in front of him. But that’s where the list ends. Notably the Boston Bruins duo of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman will still have some convincing to do come April, even after the team’s historic season.

The crazy part is, the teams with the second, third, fourth and fifthbest records in the league have all left themselves potentially exposed with questionable and unproven goaltending. The Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils, Vegas Golden Knights and Toronto Maple Leafs all seem to have Stanley Cup-calibre rosters, but can we say the same about their goalies? Add these playoff teams to the mix: the Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton Oilers and, yes, those defending champs from Colorado.

The Leafs find themselves as the prime example of this argument. I don’t think there is a team that has more pressure on them to win in the first round than Toronto. While it’s believed Ilya Samsonov has earned the Game 1 start against the Lightning, his 6-7-1 road record — he’s 18-2-2 at home — has many in Leafs Nation concerned and leaning more toward two-time Stanley Cup champion Matt Murray, who is 9-6-1 on the road (and 5-2-1 at home) this season.

“It’s something that we’re looking at, for sure,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters Wednesday when asked about his goalies’ home and road splits. “I don’t know how applicable it might be beyond the regular season. You get into playoffs, everything kind of equalizes … It’s certainly something that has my attention.”

Regardless, it seems NHL goalies are indeed trending in the wrong direction when it comes to dependability.

Since the 2004-05 lockout, changes have been made to help increase offence in the game. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of the goaltenders. The NHL has become faster and more dynamic with less reliance on netminders to singlehandedly steal games.

The number of unproven goalies in these playoffs should favour another underdog story like Kuemper, rather than the rarity that is Vasilevskiy and his impeccable playoff reputation.

The Leafs certainly hope that will be the case.

Kyper’s Korner

While the Arizona Coyotes may not be ideal for the NHL or the NHLPA to maximize Connor Bedard’s hockey-related revenue value, don’t expect him to revolt if he ends up in the desert. Word is he’ll happily accept an offer from anywhere he’s drafted, even if it means spending his first three NHL seasons in Mullet Arena … I’m hearing there is a strong sentiment among many AHL owners who want Scott Howson to resign as president and CEO of the league. At the most recent league meetings, many concluded they don’t see him as a strong leader with regards to revenue growth. This push to get him out after three years at the helm did catch many by surprise, including the NHL head office … There’s some talk about Jeff Gorton feeling somewhat isolated as vice-president of hockey operations for the Montreal Canadiens. He may be missing the dayto-day action of being in the thick of things as a general manager, but those duties now belong to Kent Hughes. It would be interesting if Gorton entertains offers to get back into the action this summer.