Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 3.5

www.afootinthecrease.com

Offense sells tickets. Defense wins games. Goaltending wins championships. Without quality, reliable goaltending, a team in today’s day and age does not have a legitimate shot at competing for a championship regardless of how good they may be. Last season, with Andrew Raycroft, the Maple Leafs simply did not receive strong enough goaltending to be consistent on a regular basis. In the past, Maple Leaf fans were spoiled with the likes of future Hall of Famers Ed Belfour and Curtis Joseph patrolling the blue paint, both regularly stealing games their teams did not deserve to win. With those extra wins on their record, the Leafs finished in the upper half of the Eastern Conference standings for most seasons during their tenures in Toronto.

Last year Raycroft stole a grand total of one game coming on March 13th in Tampa Bay; one game that his team likely did not deserve to win. The total is much higher when it comes to games the Leafs did deserve to win but ended up losing due to inadequate netminding. Right there is one of the major reasons why the Maple Leafs did not see post-season play last season.

So far the Maple Leafs first three games have been a microcosm of this year’s potential and last year’s failures. Raycroft played on Wednesday and could not come up with a big save down the stretch, costing his team a game they should have one. On Thursday, Toskala held the Leafs in the game during the third period as he watched his team continue a parade to the penalty box. Same story again on Saturday as Toskala was rock solid in the third period and in overtime leading the Leafs to victory. Would they have won with Raycroft in net? Maybe, maybe not. But judging from past examples, not likely. Now we aren’t planning the parade route after only two decent games, but we are saying the Leafs will be far more competitive with Toskala’s kind of goaltending should he play that way all season long. But hey, all that was just rigmarole.