Toronto Maple Leafs

Does Accountability Extend To Goalies Or Their Coaches?

Last year Vesa Toskala was passable as an NHL starting netminder, with a 2.74 GAA, .904 SV%, and a 33-25-6 record.  His backup was atrocious though, as Andrew Raycroft played his way to a buyout, with an .876 SV% and 3.92 GAA, with a 2-9-0 record.  For all intents and purposes, the Leafs had ONE goaltender last season.  They called up Scott Clemmensen for a couple of games when Toskala was injured, but frankly that little experiment didn’t work out too well, as he went 1-1-0 with a 3.89 GAA, and a .839 SV%.

This season things have gotten worse from a goal keeping perspective in Leaf land, but the two guys that pancaked it in Toronto last season as back-ups, are having ridiculously good seasons for other franchises.

Toskala has dropped to 14-14-5, with a 3.35 GAA, and a .882 SV%, and he hasn’t played well for more than four games in a row all season long.  He’s actually had three good stretches, two of which lasted four games, and one of which lasted three.  Other than that, he’s been below average, as have the Leafs.

On the other side of the fence, Raycroft and Clemmensen have both found much greener grass.  Raycroft is now 8-1-0 with Colorado, though to be honest he played like garbage early on in the season.  He only got his second series of consecutive starts, all season, this week.  He hasn’t lost a game since November 24th, but let’s take a sincere look at his numbers.  In his five games, and four starts in October and November, he had a combined SV% of .839, and a GAA of 3.50.  Lower GAA than his time in Toronto last season, but his SV% was actually WORSE.  He appears to have turned a corner mentally since December began though. In his 5 starts since December 15th, he has had one notably bad game, which his team still won, a 5-4 OT victory over Phoenix.  His SV% over that stretch is .951 and his GAA has dropped down to 1.76.  This is what he had to say about his time in Colorado following his latest inspiring victory over the Chicago Blackhawks:

“Raycroft said he is finally starting to feel like his old self, like the player who at one time was considered one of the best young goalies in the NHL.

“I realize how sloppy I was last year (with Toronto),” Raycroft said. “We’ve worked hard and worked through that, and now I feel comfortable and know that I have a good base. That allows me to have a clear mind out there. I know I’ve put the work in, and now I can just go out there and execute.”"

Clear mind hmmm? I wonder how that would ever happen in Toronto?  Oh right, that’s NOT FREAKING POSSIBLE.  Why? Because people here actually care about every crap goal you let in, even when the team wins.  The laid back, no big deal, goaltending is hard, attitude doesn’t fly with most Leafs fans.  You’re paid a lot of money to stop flying rubber, and the people here expect you to do it, so if you don’t? They let you hear about it.

Colorado fans are knowledgeable about hockey, don’t get me wrong.  Of all the US States where you might run into someone that knows something, Colorado would be up there with Michigan, Massachusets, New York, or Minnesota, but I sincerely doubt the NUMBER of fans who want to get inside the goalie’s head when he’s playing like crap, is anything close to how things go in Toronto.

This is basically Raycroft conceding that playing in Toronto was eating away at his confidence AND that he played like crap.  He played “sloppy” last year with the Leafs, and he “worked hard” to feel comfortable and have a good base.  Now he has a clear mind, and he can “just go out there and execute”.  So let’s see… you admit to playing sloppily, working hard to get through that, and having a clear mind and confidence as a result.  Funny how he never said anything about playing sloppy when he was in Leaf land.

This brings me to the other rejuvenated, ex-Leaf, Scott Clemmensen.  In New Jersey this year he’s replaced Martin Brodeur on a team that plays it’s defensive systems better than almost every team in the NHL not coached by Jaques Lemaire.  He’s gone 15-8-1 so far this season for the Devils, and he’s considered a large part of the reason.  Personally I think he’s a passable cog in the gears of a greater machine.  A finely tuned, well oiled, defensive juggernaut of a team that resembles the New England Patriots of the NFL.  You toss in pieces, as long as they work within the system, they fit well.  If they are taken OUT of the system, they tend to look far more average.  Certain pieces are exemplary (i.e. Scott Niedermayer, Brian Rafalski, Zach Parise, Patrick Elias), others look far less capable on lesser teams (Bobby Holik, Scott Clemmensen).

I’m not trumpeting the virtues of Clemmensen’s play here, and I think it would only be fair to point out that after his initial hot streak to start his tenure as the head netminder in the Meadowlands, he’s cooled off a tad.  He’s actually 4-5-0 since December 23rd, and while he had continued to play goal well until the 2nd of January, it appears the shine is starting to wear off on his game.  In his past 3 starts, he has a combined .855 SV%, a 1-2-0 record, and a 3.42 GAA.  He was pulled in his most recent start following the seond period.  It may be the beginning of the end for the Scott Clemmensen fan club.

Earlier in the season, Clemmensen griped that the Leafs didn’t give him enough of a chance to “run with it” when given the opportunity to play in Toronto.  I think now that the Devils HAVE done so, he’s done reasonably well.  But now that he is 24 games into his run as a starter, the wear and tear is taking it’s toll on a player that hasn’t started over 40 games in a season in a long time.  Last year he was decent for the Marlies, and looked fine in one start for the Leafs.  Then he crapped the bed in start number two and was sent back down to the minors.  Not shocking that he’d screw up once in a while.  Frankly, it’s not as if New Jersey handed him the starter’s job because of his stellar resume.  They knew him from his past work as a backup with the club, and he was familiar with the team’s systems already.  He was only gifted this opportunity because of injury to Brodeur.

On a similar note, Raycroft is being given the starter’s role in Colorado by default, as the play of Peter Budaj has been rocky all season long.  “Earning” the chance by getting bought out or tossed aside by an obviously crap team in the Leafs, doesn’t really strike me as a typical path to the role of NHL starting goalie.  This is more a case of situations where other goalies couldn’t get the job done, and the teams are considering ALL available options.  They just happen to have hit a lucky stretch in the case of both.  Raycroft is young enough, and has a decent enough pedigree, that his career could turn around in a solid way, especially if he regains his lost confidence.  Clemmensen should enjoy his run while it lasts, because when Brodeur is back, he’s going to be stapled to the bench for the time being, and I doubt he’s getting much beyond what he’s getting now.

The problem the Leafs have, now that Toskala is playing relatively poorly, is a complete lack of a capable back up.  Curtis Joseph has played even worse than the past backups, and thus is NOT a viable option.  Ditching crappy goalies and bringing in a 42 year old senior citizen to man the pipes based on glory gone by, seems in hindsight like an idiotic maneuver.  Actually it seemed fairly idiotic at the time to be honest, but in many ways, it might help the Leafs long term.  Pogge could get some starts here and there, but this season is going downhill quickly, so unless the Leafs drastically improve their goaltending in the near future, let’s just say the bottom feeding will continue.

To this end, one wonders if the goaltending coaching in Toronto is adequate.  Last season’s coach, Steve McKihan, was let go.  McKihan was brought in alongside Ed Belfour, and while he helped Eddie the Eagle, that doesn’t mean he’ll work well with other net minders.   This season’s goalie coach, Corey Hirsch, hasn’t really gotten improved results.  His history lies mainly with the Canadian World Junior program, and scouting.  I’m not sure how that translates into coaching at the NHL level.  This is an area the Leafs might want to look at addressing on a performance basis.  Past success with a variety of goalies could be an indicator of success.  Throw money at this problem, and it might be solved sooner rather than later.

I admit, I’m not suggesting much of a solution, but I do think this is an obvious problem, and it does need to be addressed.