Toronto Maple Leafs: Freddie’s Top Ten Saves of the Season
The Toronto Maple Leafs have one of the best goaltenders in the NHL in Frederik Andersen.
Andersen continues to be a dynamo in net for the Toronto Maple Leafs. This season, he’s started 66 games in net. In those 66 games, he has a 2.81 GAA, .918 SV%, 5 shutouts and 38 wins. In addition, his shutouts and win statistics are both career highs for him.
Toronto Maple Leafs fans might look at his GAA and react badly to it, but I wouldn’t. If any goalie plays more than 60 games per season, you’d have to expect that his GAA wouldn’t be low. In fact, the league leaders in GAA have played a lot less games that Andersen. For example, Carter Hutton of the St. Louis Blues has the lowest GAA in the league, but he’s only played in 32 games. The second lowest GAA belongs to Antti Raanta of the Arizona Coyotes who has appeared in 47 games. So, I urge you not throw Andersen under the bus for his GAA when he plays night after night unlike a lot of other net-minders. It’s also not even really a good stat because it’s so team dependent. The Leafs allow a ton of shots – more than most teams – and so Andersen’s numbers could potentially be better on a team that played better defense, even if he himself played worse.
All-in-all, the Toronto Maple Leafs have one of the best goalies in the NHL. Leafs Nation has waited a while to hear that. Since the days of Eddie Belfour and Curtis Joseph, Maple Leafs fans have been waiting to get a strong net-minder in net. There were a lot of painful nights.
In this post, we’ll take a look at his top ten saves of the season. Before we continue, I’ll admit Andersen has made so many stellar saves that it’s incredibly hard to rank them. I did my best!
Number Ten
The first save that I’ll showcase is Andersen shutting down Christian Dvorak of the Arizona Coyotes.
With approximately 7 minutes left in the second period, the Coyotes are on the power-play. In the video below you can see Anthony Duclair, formerly of the Coyotes and now of the Chicago Blackhawks, parks himself in front of Andersen. Duclair collects a pass and fires a shot. His shot ricochets off of Andersen’s pads. The puck then ends up in the hands of Dvorak. Dvorak takes a shot and Andersen silences him with an incredible glove save.
Number 9
The ninth best save is Andersen robbing Jonathan Huberdeau of the Florida Panthers.
To provide some background, the Panthers are on the power-play in the second period. Defenseman, Keith Yandle is at the point with the puck. Yandle spots Huberdeau unattended on Andersen’s left side. Yandle slingshots a pass to Huberdeau. Huberdeau fires a wrist shot, but Andersen denies him.
Number 6
I’ll be honest, you might have to watch number six a few times to really capture what exactly happened. Nonetheless, it was truly a beautiful stop by Andersen.
In this video, the Toronto Maple Leafs are playing the Philadelphia Flyers in a mid-December contest. Claude Giroux plants himself in front of Andersen. At the same time, Sean Couturier is inside of the face-off circle on the right hand side of Andersen. Couturier spots Giroux and fires a pass to him. Giroux collects the puck from Couturier and fires a shot at Andersen. Andersen makes Giroux look foolish and shut him down with an amazing pad save.
Number 5
Hopefully, no Carolina Hurricanes fans are taking a glance at this post on Andersen as they probably won’t be too please. In video number 5, Andersen denies Hurricanes’ defenseman, Noah Hanifin.
In the video, you’ll see Nazem Kadri knocking down Andersen by accident. Fortunately for Andersen, nothing can slow him down not even a slap-shot from Hanifin. Andersen somehow is able to rob slap-shot with a glove save even though he is lying down on the ice due to the collision.
Number 4
In video number four, Andersen and the Toronto Maple Leafs are taking on the Nashville Predators.
Viktor Arvidsson of the Predators skates across the blue line with the puck. Ryan Johansen is skating with him in unison. Johansen skated around the net with the puck and fired a shot against Andersen. Somehow, Andersen was able to block the shot with his toe.
Number 3
In video number three, the Toronto Maple Leafs are taking on the Calgary Flames.
Matthew Tkachuk of the Flames carries the puck across the blue line. He passed the puck to his teammate, Mikael Backlund. Backlund spots Michael Ferland outside of the faceoff circle. Ferland that sees Tkachuk skating towards Andersen. Ferland passes to Tkachuk. Tkachuk takes a shot. At the same time, Andersen is sliding and is able to make a skate save.
Number 2
In video number two, the Toronto Maple Leafs are taking on the Broad Street Bullies in Philadelphia.
Valtteri Filppula of the Flyers was attempting to make a pass to teammate, Michael Raffl. Instead, the puck hits Nikita Zaitsev‘s skate. Filppula collects the puck and tries to jam it past Andersen. Instead, Andersen shuts him down. Andersen uses his glove and stops the puck from going in at the goal line.
Number 1
For those Carolina Hurricanes fans reading and watching, I warned you that it wouldn’t be an enjoyable post for you. The nightmare continues in video number one.
Jeff Skinner sees Jordan Staal in front of the net. Skinner passes the puck to Staal. Staal passes the puck at the same time as he falls. Staal’s fall causes Andersen to fall. At the same time, Skinner skates to the right of Andersen and tries to fire a shot home. Instead, Andersen blocks the shot with his stick.
Recap
To recap, as you’ve seen in these videos, Andersen is truly one of the best goaltenders in the NHL. Night after night, he makes incredible saves that seem almost indescribable. At 28 years old, Andersen still has many years left in his playing career and should be able to hoist a couple Vezina trophies before he calls it quits.
Hopefully, Andersen can be as strong as he was in the regular season in the playoffs and help keep the opposition at bay.
stats from NHL.com