The emergence of Jonas Gustavsson of late has led to many people questioning the future

of James Reimer as the future of the Leafs' goaltending. The 'what have you done for me lately?' mentality is almost completely a result of Reimer's poor save percentage of .899 and goals against average of 3.01. So is Reimer just going through a typical sophomore slump or is there some hidden meaning behind his decreased stats?

The answer is that there doesn't seem to be any cause for concern. First, let's take a quick peek at the apparent stats of Jonas Gustavsson and James Reimer:

            It seems quite clear Gustavsson is the better goalie right now. However, here are the save percentages for both at even strength and the penalty kill:

Gustavsson's increased PK save percentage is almost completely the culprit in his much higher overall save percentage. A save percentage of .857 is not out of the ordinary, though it certainly isn't exceptional. One at .771 is definitely much more indicative of poor play, or at least it would seem so. The difference is that when Reimer returned from his injury (Dec. 3rd), the Leafs' penalty kill was almost historically bad. From November 27th until December 31st, the Leafs suffered 20 powerplay goals against on 53 opportunities, for a dismal PK% of 62.3%. It's easy to blame this all on Reimer (although Gustavsson did give up some of those PKGA), but it's immediately obvious to anyone who watched the games during that time that the Leafs were running around like pre-novice kids when the other team had the man advantage. Some of the goals he let in were bad, but that is true of all goalies. It's difficult to make a ton of saves when shorthanded if the opposition is allowed to go wherever they please.

The important thing to take away from all of this is that Reimer has been in no way completely awful. The current makeup of the Leafs, with only 16 times shorthanded in the last 10 games, is now perfectly suited to Reimer's elite level even strength play. His stats at even strength are magnitudes higher than those of Gustavsson and it is on these stats that one can make the prediction that James Reimer's next few starts are when he's likely to steal the starting gig back. Though it may not seem so at first glance, Jonas Gustavsson has been good and James Reimer has been as impressive.

Joe Cino

@MLSH_Joe

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