Pressure on Mrazek Mounts To Be Difference-Maker in Leafs Land

Over the years, the Toronto Maple Leafs have employed some notably great goaltenders. In the modern age, stars such as Curtis Joseph and Ed Belfour have provided the Leafs with excellent netminding, and Toronto’s failings have more often been about problems with their defense corps and their offensive production in the playoffs. But Thursday night, in a game against the lowly Arizona Coyotes, Leafs fans’ anxieties over their goalies was heightened: with No. 1 goalie Jack Campbell sidelined with a rib injury, backup Petr Mrazek was called upon – and his response was, to put it kindly, not at all ideal.

From the get-go of Thursday’s game, Mrazek looked like he was allergic to the puck, and allowed four goals on the Coyotes’ first 12 shots before being pulled 11:57 into the second period. Toronto would go on to lose 5-4 in overtime, and you have to hang the loss on Mrazek’s inability to stop the puck. In his past three games, he has allowed 13 goals. That simply is not good enough, but with Campbell on the injured reserve list, the Leafs have little choice but to keep putting Mrazek out there. He’ll be in net for Toronto’s next game, which comes Sunday against Buffalo. But few people have confidence in him at this stage, and although the Leafs haven’t given him much help in their own zone, Mrazek has to take ownership of his own performance this season and put it on himself to be better.

If he continues to struggle, Mrazek will soon be nailed to the Leafs’ bench, and head coach Sheldon Keefe will have to turn to current backup Erik Kallgren, journeyman and current American Leaguer Carter Hutton (who was acquired from Arizona in late February), or youngster Joseph Woll. None of those goalies inspire much confidence, and the odds of Leafs GM Kyle Dubas pulling off a trade for a marquee goaltender like Chicago’s Marc-Andre Fleury are not good. In sum, Toronto is going to need a solution that comes from within the franchise, but the pressure to succeed will be monumental.

#Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe on goalie Pete Mrazek following Toronto’s loss to the #Coyotes#LeafsForever #NHL #HockeyTwitter pic.twitter.com/p6WnQeROAK

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It has always been this way with goalies in Leafs Land. More often than not, Toronto’s choices in net have struggled to win high-stakes games. You can go down the list and find all sorts of familiar names – Vesa Toskala, J-S Aubin, Andrew Raycroft, Jonas Gustavsson, and Jonathan Bernier, to name just a few – who could not give Toronto fans what they craved: a truly elite, top-of-the-game netminder, at the peak of his powers; someone who could outright steal games the Buds had no business winning.

Although the Leafs now have a generational star in Auston Matthews thanks to the entry draft lottery gods, they have never had an equivalent to Montreal star goalie Carey Price. The inability to draft and develop an elite goalie has forced management’s hand, and resulted in trades that haven’t paid off. The most infamous, of course, was the deal that sent Tuukka Rask to the Boston Bruins, and that made Rask a star who would win a Stanley Cup in 2011. Ever since then, Toronto has been searching for a high-impact goalie, and Dubas’ decision to put a sizeable portion of the Leafs’ salary cap monies on four forwards has made that search much harder.

For a while, the Leafs were comfortable with Frederik Andersen between the pipes, but slowly but surely, Andersen lost the confidence of management. And when Campbell stepped up last season with above-average play, Dubas chose to cut bait with Andersen and instead signed Mrazek to a cheaper deal (with an average annual value of $3.8 million) to serve as a 1B to Campbell’s 1A. It has not worked out the way Dubas and Leafs brass hoped it would. Mrazek couldn’t stay healthy early in the season, and while that was easy to overlook when Campbell was playing well to start the year, it has become painful to see Mrazek struggle now that Campbell’s game has fallen off and he has been put on IR.

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Indeed, in Thursday’s game, Mrazek flailed and ailed. In 16 games this season, he now has a goals-against-average of 3.44 and a save percentage of .884. On a team that has to win at least one playoff series or trigger major roster changes, that is unacceptable. He’ll get a few more chances to redeem himself, but don’t be fooled by the words of support Keefe and Dubas have given him – if he continues to put in sub-par performances, Mrazek will be cast aside in favor of someone, anyone, who can get the job done.

Again, to be fair, you have to put some blame on Toronto’s overall defense for Mrazek’s terrible numbers. Andersen’s success with the Carolina Hurricanes this season has demonstrated what he can do with a better defense corps. But that doesn’t change the fact Mrazek is under the gun to show Dubas made a savvy decision in signing him last summer. Right now, that decision looks dubious, and it will stay that way until Mrazek proves otherwise.

If he doesn’t turn things around in a hurry, Mrazek’s name will be added to the pile of goalies who crumbled under the pressure of life as a Leafs’ goalie. It is a big pile, and to steer clear of it, Mrazek won’t get much assistance from a Toronto defense corps that at present isn’t deep enough to make them a Cup-winning squad.

That may change before the league’s March 21 trade deadline, but what won’t change is the Leafs’ dependence on Mrazek to be far better than he’s been thus far.