Berube: Maple Leafs' goaltending 'in a good spot' with 10 games left
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Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube doesn’t sound like he is worried.
Not when it comes to the Leafs’ goaltending, as inconsistent as it has been at times since the 4 Nations Face-Off break ended.
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Berube: Maple Leafs' goaltending 'in a good spot' with 10 games left Back to video
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“Little up and down, but they have had real good games too,” Berube told media in Los Angeles after the Leafs practised on Friday. “Little bit like our game, a little bit inconsistent at times, but they have played really well for us this year.
“They have been really solid. They’re going to have off-nights like everybody has off-nights.”
With 10 games remaining in the regular season, now is about the time that one of Anthony Stolarz or Joseph Woll should be taking the starter’s ball and running with it.
But after Woll was shaky in a 6-5 shootout loss in San Jose against the Sharks on Thursday to start the Leafs’ three-game trip through California, Berube didn’t automatically announce Stolarz as the starter for Saturday’s game in L.A. against the Kings.
“Maybe,” was Berube’s response when he was asked whether Stolarz would be in goal.
There has been talk on the outside about which goalie the Leafs would prefer to have in net for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, but in reality, what it should come down to is who plays best in what’s left of the regular season.
Whether it’s Stolarz or Woll, each has to have an uptick in his game in his remaining starts.
The numbers of both goalies have slid since the 4 Nations break ended.
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Prior to the break, Stolarz played in 18 games, going 10-5-2 with a .929 save percentage and a 2.08 goals-against average; since, he has played in 10 games, going 5-3-1 with a .895 save percentage and 2.96 goals-against average.
For Woll, the pre-break record was 19-11-0 in 30 games, with a .909 save percentage and a 2.65 goals-against average; since, he is 5-2-1 in eight games with a .892 save percentage and a 3.42 goals-against average.
The next game for Stolarz will be his 29th, a career-high. Woll’s 38 games are a career-high, as his previous high was 25.
“That’s part of the rotation we have used,” Berube said about managing the workload in net. “These guys have not had that much work in their career ever. I think we have managed it well with the rotation.
“I think they are in a good spot. I don’t think they are overused or tired, not sensing that and I’m not sensing that from them.”
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On top of the increase in work, Stolarz had to deal with a knee issue that kept him out for nearly two months.
“I feel really good about it,” Stolarz said of his game since the 4 Nations break. “My job is to come in here and win games. Doesn’t matter if you give one, two, four or five.
“If you get scored on, you have to forget about the goal, worry about the next shot because you can’t do anything about the last one. There is a lot of positives in my game that (goalie coach) Curtis (Sanford) and I have been working on, a couple of little things. Getting extra work with him last couple of days has been huge and I really like (his own) last two games against the Rangers and Flyers.”
Whoever watches from the bench on Saturday will get the start on Sunday in Anaheim against the Ducks.
For Woll, the key is to forget about his poor play in San Jose.
“I don’t think it was my best performance,” Woll said. “I know that and the important thing is to have a short memory.
“I will do the work of making sure I’m learning from the experiences as best I can and staying in my process as well as I can. From a team standpoint, I thought it was pretty awesome by the guys to come back and score two late ones (in the final minute of the third period).
“It was pretty cool to see them pick up the slack for me a little bit like that.”
LOOSE LEAFS
Berube, as is his way, had a straightforward answer about the Leafs’ improved defensive play as a whole this season. “More than anything, it’s just a commitment,” Berube said. “Defence is a commitment. I don’t care what system you play, teams win with different types of systems. It’s a commitment to doing it and doing the little things within that system that really buckle you down defensively.” It helps, of course, that the Leafs signed defenceman Chris Tanev to lead in that area … After captain Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner both played more than 25 minutes in San Jose, each took the option of not practising on Friday … Berube said forward Pontus Holmberg will get back in after he was scratched the past two games, but Berube said he was not sure who would be sitting out … Woll on the goal by the Sharks’ William Eklund, which came when Woll accidentally banked the puck into the net off the skate of the hard-charging Eklund: “Just a bad play. Sometimes you make bad plays. I think I was looking up ice and the brain turned off for a second.”
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