What's Eating James Reimer?

When the eyes and stats match.

Seperately, on the issue of the PK, the old cliche is that your goaltender has to be your best Penalty Killer. James Reimer has not been.

In past seasons, we’ve been able to point fingers at our goalies to blame for the horrible PK – Toskala, Raycroft, Aubin… you get the picture.

So is the only reason we’re not pointing a finger at Reimer this time because his ES figure are sparkling? Yes they say he’s probably a good goalie. But how can they continue to run the same fucking PK out there? If this is a supposed example of “maybe we shouldn’t have been blaming the goalies for the PK”, sweet Jesus Lord why aren’t they completely revamping the PK system from scratch?

Historically awful penalty killing does not scream “status quo”.

/end rant

I hope they put Reimer right back in against Carolina tonight. He’s the better goalie.

As though we needed one of those.

See, this is when I look at our PK and say “this is the fault of coaching more than it is the quality of players”.

Knowing our luck, a good/bad PK is mostly the result of chance, and the Leafs have been the most cursed team since the lockout.

Enjoyable analysis. Now I shall await the sequel: What’s Eating Jonas Gustavsson?

So all Reimer needs to do is stop the next 23 shots on the PK without allowing a goal to get to .855?

/notserious

Is Cronin’s PK strategy a good one?

IMO, I was on the fence early on and I wanted to see how it would work over a full season, but now I can’t really say how I feel about it. IIRC, the strategy was to pressure the opposition in the neutral zone, which would increase the difficulty on the opposition to enter into the offensive zone and set up plays. We saw this early on, which led to some breakaway goals (as some here predicted). Even during their short run of good PK, I saw that strategy being used.

Now? I’m not really seeing that on the PK. In fact, the Leafs seem to have reverted back to their old ways when Keith Acton was the coach. They stay passive, which allows the opposition to set up plays in the Leafs’ defensive zone more easily, and they panic or chase the puck when things don’t go their way. They have difficulty clearing the puck out of the zone (which has led to Bowen’s trademark call, “To the line but not out”), which is probably the result of lack of poise, confidence, and/or experience.

What are your thoughts regarding the PK strategy?

Reimer’s ES sv% was .942 which put him in a tie for 4th with Tim Thomas for goalies with 10+GP. I’d venture to say that if this PK can calm down even a little, Reimer has the potential to carry his team through some bad stretches of play. Which are, of course, inevitable.

So what you’re saying is…if Reimer was getting better stats, he’d have better stats?

The leafs need to play more disciplined hockey. Our PK is terrible and we have seen an increase in minor penalties/game this year. That is inexcusable.

I’m just sitting here drinking beer anyway, so here’s the special teams update. It’s ugly.

We were sitting at 0 or -1 right before the Washington game, now we’re down to -9, 3rd last in the league. So our 2nd best powerplay is helping us a hell of a lot less than our league worst penalty kill. Very disappointing, it looks like my goal of being ‘even’ on special teams for the year isn’t going to happen.

Because he must have visited Soviet Russia, and in Soviet Russia pizza eats you. Therefore, I submit that pizza must be eating James Reimer.

Reimer’s not alone: Giguere is the best Leafs goalie since 2007 on the PK and he was still below league average. Reimer, thanks to this season, is the worst on the PK of everyday Leaf goalies since 07. But he’s still better than CuJo (0.714 4-on-5 save percentage in 08-09).
Full stats for all Leaf goalies at 4-on-5 since 2007-08

One thing I’m worried about: while Reimer’s PK SV% will likely get better, he might also be outperforming his true talent level at even strength. We just don’t have enough data yet.

@jonasTSN1050
Jonas Siegel
Lupul and MacArthur flip lines during warmups.

so you’re saying a bad sh sh% isn’t the goalie’s fault? sounds familiar.

I’ve been a little disappointed with Reimer on the PK, I will admit. But in the long run, a goalie is only as good as the team in front of him. An in the long run, a team’s special teams are only as good as the coaching (or lack thereof) allows.

However, I have come to praise Ron Wilson, not bury him. He has been a quality NHL coach for a long, long time. Maybe too long. And I think therein lies the problem. Maybe Wilson has contracted not blue and white disease, but a dose of Lenny Wilkin’s syndrome. As great as his overall career was, Lenny mailed it in at the end. It was pathetic, his level of disinterest.

Coaches run their career course, then retire or consult upstairs in the GM Suite. Players know when coaches burn out before the GM does, hell, before the coach. Tell me they bring their A game knowing the ship is rudderless a lot of the time. It has to affect confidence. I hate working for a boss who doesn’t give 2 flying fadoos.

Somebody has to take ownership for the PK black hole, it’s festering away like a leper’s lesion. It’s a system’s failure, not a question of talent level. It’s the coach. They have been horrible since Ronnie has been here, with all kinds of different players over his years. This gets resolved pronto, or we can kiss the playoffs goodbye, AGAIN. The move needs to be made sooner than most think, like NOW.

I’ve admired Eakins since he took the Marlies job. He holds players accountable. He’s an excellent teacher of the game. His teams hold him in high regard not because of some rep established in the past, but for how he leads, He knows how to install and maintain special teams systems, his numbers don’t lie. Last I checked, the Marlies were first in the A on PK. I like how he has the call ups ready to contribute from the first shift when they arrive in the show. It took tough love from Dallas over a couple of years, but hey, look at the Naz now.

Let’s be humane about it. Offer Ronnie a consignilare role with Burkie, let him scout the southeast, he can do that out of the Carolinas. Promote Eakins before he is snatched away. Then, all of a sudden, I like my chances of watching the Buds in April.