3 Toronto Maple Leafs That Actually Played Well and Deserve Praise
By Joseph Zita
TORONTO, ON – FEBRUARY 29: Frederik Andersen #31 of the Toronto Maple Leafs. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
2. Frederik Andersen – 30 years old – C
2019-20 play-in series stats – 5 GP – 2 W – 3 L – 1.84 GAA – .936 SV% – 1 SO
At my number two spot on this list I have the back bone of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Frederik Andersen. Despite what people have been saying about Frederik Andersen this year, he played amazing through five games against Columbus and the loss is really obscuring his amazing performance.
Andersen finished the series with a 1.84 GAA and a .936 SV%, he also had a 0.50 GAA and a .981 SV% through the teams first two games, but I don’t hear people talking about that either.
All they talk about is the two soft goals he let in, one in game one and another one in game five. Other than his two soft goals he played great, we were all questioning and wondering from the start if he would step up and prove everyone wrong in the play-in series because of his poor and inconsistent season this year, and he did.
Although the Toronto Maple Leafs did ultimately lose to Columbus, this one isn’t on Frederik Andersen. The team got shut out twice in five games, Andersen can’t score the goals he is the one stopping the goals from going in their own net.
It’s very rare that one of the NHL’s best offensive teams gets shut out twice in the same week, as Toronto only got shut out once during the 2019-20 season. (Stats from NHL.com)