The Toronto Maple Leafs will need an emotional effort from all corners of their lineup tonight if they hope to quell their recent struggles.
With just 34 games under his belt, it’s hard to call Garret Sparks‘ NHL tenure to this point much of a “career”. Nevertheless, the 25-year-old has spent enough time in the big leagues by now to be held to the same standard that all big league players are, and judged appropriately if he fails to reach it, too.
Case in point; tonight will be Sparks’ first start between the pipes following Toronto’s dismal 6-2 defeat to the 31st-place Ottawa Senators, a game after which Sparks publically called out his teammates for a perceived lack of emotion.
Garret Sparks: "We need more emotion. I'm an emotional player. I need more emotion. We need more emotion from everybody. We need people to get angry. We need people to step up & be mad & take it personally."
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) March 17, 2019
On the ice? Off the ice? Both?
"Wherever."
On the surface, at least, Sparks wasn’t wrong.
The Leafs indeed lacked emotion, both on that night and in the nights to come, with a troubling trend of slow starts and chasing opponents remaining present for some time. For Sparks to declare, “We need emotion from everybody,” is merely him stating the obvious. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who watched the Leafs’ effort on Saturday night and walked away feeling good.
And yet, this may very well be a case of the right message coming from the wrong person.
On the whole, Sparks has put forth a less-than-stellar season thus far as the Leafs’ entrenched backup, with a 7-7-2 record and .902 save percentage that doesn’t exactly jump off the page.
Looking back through his recent sample size, the past five games have seen Sparks earn save percentages of .897, .838, .913, .960 (a game in which Sparks played only the second and third periods in relief of Frederik Andersen), and .864. Add that all up, and you’re left with a total percentage of just .868, a gaudy number which paints Sparks as having been a decidedly below average netminder over his most recent stretch of action.
Which, frankly, is perfectly fine. Players endure rough patches all the time, and Sparks is due to break out of this sooner than later.
But, for a sub-.870 goaltender with less than 40 games of total NHL experience to publically question the effort of his teammates immediately following a game in which he surrendered 6 goals against to the consensus worst team in hockey? That might not sit too well with portions of the Leafs’ room.
So, with Sparks entering back into the starter’s crease tonight, the stakes are simple.
A strong, potentially game-stealing performance would certainly go a long way in justifying his harsh recent comments, not to mention improve his internal standing, as well. The Leafs have been unable to lean on either goaltender as of late, what with both Sparks and Andersen struggling, so a return to prominence from the former would be an advantage Toronto has lacked for the past few weeks.
But if he falters again, well…
Sparks has said his piece now. In order for him to come out of this on the right foot, his play must definitively back them up, with the best opportunity to accomplish that being tonight in Buffalo.
It’s the biggest test of Sparks’ young NHL career. Luckily for him, there are worse opponents to draw than the 24th-place Sabres.
Thanks for reading! Puck drops at 7 PM.
Stats courtesy of hockeyreference.com