The Toronto Maple Leafs may have got bounced in the qualifying series but it wasn’t because of their goaltender.
Freddie Andersen has one year remaining on his contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs but it may be time to re-sign him.
One of the biggest questions heading into the qualifying series was whether or not the Leafs starting goaltender was going to perform well.
Andersen is a good goaltender but is overshadowed because of the forwards on the Leafs.
When the Leafs win, it’s usually because of their offensive weapons but when they lose, Andersen is the scapegoat.
I guess that’s just the life of an NHL goaltender.
Freddie Andersen Needs To Be In Toronto Long-Term
Now that the Toronto Maple Leafs are officially out of the playoffs, I don’t think there’s been enough talk about how great Andersen was.
In five games, Andersen had a 1.84 goals against average (GAA) and .936 save percentage (SV%).
To put things in perspective, the Leafs lost two of the three games where Andersen allowed two or less goals.
The Leafs should win every single game when Andersen plays this great. Instead, the team couldn’t score and were shut-out twice in this series.
It’s not like they didn’t have chances either. They just got incredibly unlucky during a five-game stretch.
Speaking of the Leafs winning when Andersen plays so great, look at the Leafs record this season when he allows two or few goals:
- 2019-20 Season:
- 17 wins, 2 regulation losses, 3 overtime/shootout losses
In 22 games this season, the Leafs have a .772 winning percentage when Andersen allows two or less goals.
In the series against Columbus, the Leafs had a .333 winning percentage when Andersen allowed two or less goals.
As Lindy Ruff once said, “that’s an absolute joke.”
Even in the two games where Andersen allowed more than two goals, he stood on his head.
In Game 3, Andersen had 39 saves on 43 shots and in Game 4, he had 36 saves on 39 shot attempts.
Andersen delivered and the Leafs wasted a huge opportunity by not being able to move on.
In 20 previous playoff games with the Leafs, Andersen had only allowed two or less goals in seven appearances. You know what the Leafs record was during that time?
5 wins and 2 losses.
When Andersen plays well, the Leafs are going to win the majority of the time, so this loss to Columbus hurts even more.
Regardless of what happens with the Leafs long-term, Andersen needs to be part of the future.
He may have some baggage by not being able to advance past the first round for the past four seasons, but this time around he showed it’s not his fault.
If the Leafs got a few lucky breaks and were able to get past Columbus, Andersen probably would have stolen another series for them.
Andersen may have had some tough games with the Leafs in the past but he showed Leafs Nation that he should be the starting goaltender for a long-time after his play against Columbus.