Desperate Leaf goaltending returns for another season
Print
Choose text size
Email the author
License this article
Digg this story
Add to Facebook
Tag on Delicious
Sep 22, 2007 04:30 AM
Damien Cox
And so it begins.
Three Maple Leaf exhibitions this week with three different goalies in net, and three intriguing results.
And still very much an open question as to which masked man will be between the pipes on opening night.
Of course, barring a spate of injuries, it won't be Justin Pogge, slated to continue his apprenticeship this season with the Marlies. That said, it's hard not to believe Pogge won't make his first NHL start at some point this season, and there's lots of hockey history that tells you sometimes little beginnings grow into lengthy stays for young netminders. Instead, when the puck is dropped against the Senators in 10 days, Paul Maurice will have either Vesa Toskala or Andrew Raycroft in net, and the other one with a long face at the end of his bench.
This, needless to say, shaped up as a soap opera when Toskala was acquired from San Jose in June, and that sense hasn't evaporated at all over the past three months.
The Leaf approach to the goaltending situation, or at least that of Maurice, is markedly different from a year ago.
Then, Raycroft was designated as the No.1 puckstopper, and it didn't matter what J.S. Aubin did or had done. The approach was to make Raycroft feel utterly unchallenged, to try and rebuild his sense of confidence after a season in Boston in which competition for playing time had rattled the young netminder. With the Leafs, there would be no loud noises or sudden moves to alarm young Razor.
Strangely, the more public confidence Maurice and GM John Ferguson expressed in Raycroft, the shakier he and his suspect glove hand seemed to get. By the final weekend of the season in the biggest game against the Canadiens, Raycroft pretty much threw up all over himself and had to be yanked.
So much for the cuddly approach.
Now, with Toskala and Raycroft, the job is supposedly wide open. Let the best man win, with no thought given to bolstering the ego and confidence of any particular puckstopper.
TheStar.com | Sports | Desperate Leaf goaltending returns for another season
Who will be the starter on opening night?
Who will be the starter on opening night?
Linear Mode
