Toronto Maple Leafs: Michael Hutchinson Is Awesome!!

The Toronto Maple Leafs played one of their worst games of the season and still came out on top last night.

Such is the power of having Auston Matthews in the lineup, and for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the novelty of having such a player is yet again apparent.  Matthews was clearly not himself for almost a month, and since he’s been able to shoot the puck again, the Leafs look like a completely different team.

Obviously the power-play is not clicking, but when you only get one power-play in an entire game, it’s really hard to get anything going.  Personally, I am not too worried about the recent slump with the man advantage (it’s probably close to 0-30 now) because it’s such fluky thing, and will obviously self correct.

I am honestly more concerned that two referees could have been assigned to that game last night and only called two minor penalties.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Michael Hutchinson

You really have to give it to Michael Hutchinson.  The guy was the single worst player in the NHL last year, but he showed nerves of steel when the Avalanche called on him in the playoffs.

Then, knowing how bad he played, he still had the guts to re-sign in the fishbowl that is Toronto, and that in itself shows a level of bravery I’m not sure you usually see in professional sports, outside of the guys who used to agree to fight Mike Tyson in his early 20s.

Hutchinson was, once again, excellent last night in his redemption tour.  He currently sports a .919 save percentage and a sparkling 2.42 GAA.   The season is only 56 games long, and if you told me that Hutchinson would play 15% of the Leafs games over the course of the season (or 21% of the games so far) and that they would be in first place, I would not have believed you. (stats hockeydb.com).

Hutchinson started as the Leafs fourth stringer this year.  To give you an idea of how crazy his performance has been, people were actually upset that Aaron Dell was lost on waivers.  Aaron Dell!

Anyways, it just goes to show you how unpredictable goaltending can be.  Should the Toronto Maple Leafs replace Andersen? Who cares? The two goalies they have are playing so great that it would be a shame to get anybody else in here.

Can you trust Campbell or Hutchinson in the playoffs? Why not? You trusted Andersen four times and he didn’t do anything with it.

The Leafs will play the Flames again tonight, and try to build on their current six wins out of seven streak where they haven’t scored a single power-play goal – something as improbable as Michael Huthinson playing like a Vezina quality goalie.