Frederik Andersen Is Getting Too Much Of The Leafs Blame
As I sat there during the Toronto Maple Leafs first intermission, the latest edition of “Watch Frederik Andersen’s Neck Get Tanned by the Goal Light”, I can’t help but notice some glaring similarities as to when the Oilers had Devan Dubnyk.
Ol’ Doobie faced more rubber than a dead racoon in the center lane of the 401. For one, he and Frederik Andersen both had Martin Marincin as one of their main defensemen.
That is an issue. (Side note: Maybe the Toronto Maple Leafs can take the tears of the 5000 analytics fans who are going to cry about Marincin getting any blame, and create a moat in front of the net).
Enough about Marincin.
Maybe we could also focus on Matt Hunwick looking about as vulnerable as Bambi every time he is on the ice.
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I am legitimately concerned about his well-being. I would honestly prefer the Leafs resigned Borje Salming on opening night. He was there getting his jersey retired, and he looked to be in pretty good shape! Id give him a PTO in a heartbeat after watching this travesty through 5.33 games.
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Caine walked the earth searching to bring peace and harmony to the world. This is what I think of when I see Gardiner skating laps not really knowing what is going on (or caring?) in his own end, leading to goals.
Thanks for pointing that out to me Nick Kypreos.
It was a decent intermission show at least. In the same period, I saw Jake hold onto the puck an do a nice 10 second lap in his own zone, so hey….the possession crowd is happy!
The point is, its really hard to hang this all on Andersen. Was the second goal weak? You betcha! Andersen looked like Swiss cheese. And the worst part is, it totally makes you forget about the flurry of saves he made to keep the Leafs in it after Stamkos’ first goal. It seems to be his theme so far this year:
1.) let in legitimate goals due to porous defence.
2.) Make some nice saves
3.) Let in something weak …..Which usually translates to:
4.) Fans hating you and missing….gulp..Reimer and Bernier.
Many more games like this and fans will be missing Andrew Raycroft and Vesa Toskala! Did someone remember to bring the “Bester Forever” sign from Maple Leaf Gardens??
On the other end of tonight’s game, Ben Bishop is squaring up to everything and looking like a Vezina candidate. But I would presume it is a lot easier to do when you have a legitimate defence in front of you steering traffic, clearing the net, grabbing rebounds, etc.
See that save he made on Hedman before the Leafs didn’t clear, and then he buried it? It was promising.
I’d definitely like to see Frederik Andersen have the benefit of playing with more than a couple of legitimate d-men for a large sample size before I completely call for his head, as many are at the moment. Just like Devan Dubnyk, poor ol Fivehole Freddy just has some brutal D in front of him.
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