Leafs starting goalie for the Heritage Classic revealed
With the Heritage Classic matchup between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton expected to kick off at 4:00pm ET on Sunday, the question that a lot of Leafs fans had in their minds was "who is going to start in goal?". We now have our answer.
The Athletic's Jonas Siegel confirmed on Friday that Leafs backup Petr Mrazek will be the starter for the Leafs on Sunday. Why is it so shocking that Mrazek and not rookie Erik Kallgren would be getting the start in the Heritage Classic game? Well, because Mrazek's play has been horrendous and Kallgren looked solid in relief on Thursday, stopping 10 of the 11 shots he had faced, including a grade A chance in overtime to keep the Leafs alive.
Kallgren came in for the Leafs in the second period of Thursday's game against the visiting Arizona Coyotes after Mrazek had allowed 4 goals on 12 shots, most or all of which were awful. Much to the delight of the Leafs and the entirety of Leafs Nation, Kallgren actually played very well and gave the Buds an excellent chance to win the game, but unfortunately, a horrendous non-call on a blatant hold by Yotes defender Jakob Chychrun on Leafs forward Auston Matthews led to a 2-on-1 chance in OT, where the guilty party, Chychrun, would score his 2nd of the game to win the game and rob Kallgren of what might have otherwise been his first NHL win.
At the end of the day, the Leafs needed to figure out a way to help Mrazek to build some confidence. Benching him in favour of playing a rookie in arguably the biggest game of the year for the Leafs would not have been a great way to do that. If Jack Campbell was healthy, I think we can all agree that Mrazek would not be starting. The difference between Campbell and Kallgren, though, is obviously that Campbell has actual NHL experience and had been playing at a Vezina-caliber level early on this season. Plus, who knows? If Mrazek has a similar outing on Sunday to the one that he had last night against the Coyotes, maybe we'll even get a chance to see Kallgren during the Heritage Classic?
Mrazek has appeared in 16 games for the Leafs this season, owning a career-worst .884 save percentage and a 3.43 GAA, also a career-worst. Surprisingly, he does hold a 10-5 record, but that speaks more to the offensive output of the Leafs than it does to his performance this season.
| POLL | ||
11 MARS | 248 ANSWERS Leafs starting goalie for the Heritage Classic revealed Should the Leafs have elected to start Kallgren instead? | ||
| Absolutely | 144 | 58.1 % |
| No, he has no experience | 51 | 20.6 % |
| Don't care - just win, baby! | 53 | 21.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
