With Friday's loss in the books, the Leafs slip to 1-6 in their last 7 games, due mostly to subpar goaltending and just like that - what once was a sizable gap between 1st and 6th in the North Division has dwindled from a 16 point difference to just a 7 point difference.
Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen played undoubtedly his worst game of the season against the Flames in the first half of the back-to-back, and will certainly be looking for redemption on Saturday night.
"It's difficult on a night like tonight when everything seems to find its way through traffic. I know personally I didn't lose my abilities to play good. Same goes for our team. You want to get out of this slump here and start winning games," said Andersen after the tough loss.
Unfortunately for The Great Dane, he'll have to wait for his shot at redemption as backup Jack Campbell will draw into the lineup on Saturday, coach Sheldon Keefe confirmed on Friday during the postgame press conference.
"The guys are going to want to play hard for Jack tomorrow," said Keefe. "I'm expecting a great competitive effort from him."
Interestingly, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman opined during the second intermission that this could be Campbell's job to lose moving forward if he continues to play as well as he has in limited action.
Just how bad has it been for Andersen you ask? Well, in the last 7 games, although the team in front of him has generated the 2nd-highest scoring chances in the NHL, their team save percentage is the second-lowest over that span. The only team in the NHL who has put up a worse team SV% over the last 7 games is the Buffalo Sabres, who are dead last in the National Hockey League this season.
On the bright side for the Leafs, Campbell holds a perfect 3-0-0 record in 3 starts for the Buds this season, boasting a 1.33 GAA and a .951 SV%. Granted those numbers are coming from a very small sample size of games this season, and as such, they can change relatively quickly with one or two subpar outings, but even on an awful Los Angeles Kings team in 2018-19, Campbell managed to carry a 2.38 GAA and a .928 SV% in 31 appearances, posting a 10-14-1 record that season. The point, of course, being that with the Leafs playing as well as they have been, Campbell should have no problem providing, at the very least, more than adequate goaltending - if he can stay healthy.
Nothing like a little goaltending controversy to make the season that much more interesting for Toronto.
G | A | PTS | ||
Mikko Rantanen | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
Jake Debrusk | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
Dylan Guenther | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
Ivan Barbashev | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
Jack Eichel | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
Brock Nelson | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
Clayton Keller | - | 3 | 3 | |
Anthony Cirelli | 2 | - | 2 | |
Jonathan Drouin | 2 | - | 2 | |
Roman Josi | 2 | - | 2 | |
Kirill Marchenko | 2 | - | 2 | |
Kyle Palmieri | 2 | - | 2 | |
Sebastian Aho | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Leon Draisaitl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Matt Duchene | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Samuel Girard | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Claude Giroux | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Oliver Kylington | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Complete stats |
STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 21 | 17 | 4 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 20 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 30 | |
Devils | 23 | 14 | 7 | 2 | 30 | |
Hurricanes | 20 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 29 | |
Golden Knights | 21 | 13 | 6 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 20 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 27 | |
Flames | 21 | 12 | 6 | 3 | 27 | |
Stars | 19 | 13 | 6 | - | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 19 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 25 | |
Conference | Cumulative |