Toronto Maple Leafs Christmas Miracle: Freddie Andersen
The Toronto Maple Leafs came out flying in October, scoring goals at will.
The play of Freddie Andersen, however, lagged behind. The Toronto Maple Leafs had a great October, but Andersen did not. The Leafs were able to overcome a bad month by their goalie by scoring a ton of goals – they scored four or more in all of their five of their first six games. Andersen on the other hand, had four games that month where he allowed at least five goals. Andersen finished the month with a save percentage under .900.
More from Editor In Leaf
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Nick Robertson Healthy and Ready
- Ryan Reaves Will Have Zero Impact on Toronto Maple Leafs
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Playing Max Domi In Top-Six a HUGE Mistake
- Top 10 Scandals in the History of the Toronto Maple Leafs
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Results from the Traverse City Prospects Tournament
Andersen’s play prompted me to write this piece pointing out that he’d been the Leafs worst player in October. While acknowledging that he was playing poorly, I also wrote this piece that showed how he was mostly just being unlucky – which I think time has proved prescient. That is because since his luck turned, Andersen has basically been the Leafs best player.
Despite the rough first month, Andersen has managed to lower his GAA to a respectable 2.61 and his save percentage has risen to .921 which would be the best mark of his career. He also has three shutouts.
https://twitter.com/LeafsFansUnited/status/943218397990539264
Stats
Andersen has played the second most minutes in the NHL, and faced the most shots. If we look at only goalies who have played at least 1000 minutes, (there are 30 of them) Andersen has the following rankings:
- Fourth in Save Percentage
- Tied for 2nd in starts
- tied for 3rd in wins
- 2nd in shut-outs
- 12th in GAA
Those are impressive stats, especially when we consider how bad he played in October. If we look at stats since November 1st, just how good Andersen has played starts to come into focus.
- 1st in Save Percentage
- 2nd in GAA
Its really quite impressive. What makes it even more so, is that during this time the Leafs have been without Auston Matthews for two stretches of games, totaling ten games. They also went through a protracted stretch where they couldn’t score goals, and were badly outplayed.
During the time when Matthews has been injured and the offense has been dried up, Andersen has been the Leafs MVP. In what could have easily been a season ruining slide, the Leafs goalie kept the team afloat.
The Leafs sit comfortably in a playoff spot right now, and the main reason for that is Freddie Andersen. He has been the team’s very own Christmas miracle. If Andersen maintains his play, he deserves some votes for the Vezina Trophy. At this point I think it’s safe to say that Andersen can take his place among Potvin, Joseph and Belfour as one of the Leafs best goalies of the last 40 years.
Next: Top Moments from 2016-17
If he keeps going like this, it won’t be long until he’s mentioned with Johnny Bower and Turk Broda. Freddie Andersen has been awesome!
stats from NHL.com