****UPDATE****
Per numerous reports this afternoon, Coach Ron Wilson has decided to start James Reimer tonight in Boston, with Jonas Gustavsson backing him up.
This should provide a great emotional boost to the club.
******
With James Reimer slated to be in uniform tonight backing up Jonas Gustavsson and likely penciled in to start in New York on Monday, the Maple Leafs goaltending situation has finally returned to its season opening status.
Once he has been activated, the Leafs will have to make room for Reimer on the roster and logically would send rookie Ben Scrivens back to the Toronto Marlies.
The 23-year-old goaltender missed almost 6 weeks as a result of Brian Gionta's errant elbow and was replaced by Scrivens and Gustavsson, who had their series of ups and downs but managed to backstop Toronto to over .500 record in his absence, which prevented the club from falling behind in the race for an Eastern Conference playoff spot.
Each goaltender had their challenges. In spite of having a 2-4-1 record, the 25 year old Cornell grad did show flashes of great potential, especially in his professional debut in Columbus and a key road victory in St. Louis, but still needs to hone the finer aspects of his game starting regularly down in the AHL.
Gustavsson's performance was expectedly inconsistent based on his track record with Toronto. His play was spotty early on and in spite of having all the physical tools to be a superior NHL goaltender, the mental aspect of the game still plagued him, as he gave up a number of soft goals at inopportune times that cost the Leafs valuable points. These struggles necessitated Wilson to start Scrivens more than he probably would've liked.
In the last two weeks, he received the benefit of strong offensive support from his teammates, but also stepped up his play and showed more of the qualities that earned him the “Monster" moniker and intrigued GM Brian Burke in the summer of 2009.
The last six weeks has provided Burke and his minions some valuable evidence regarding the depth of their organization’s goaltending, which may come into play as soon as the NHL trade deadline in March.
Scrivens is a restricted free agent at the end of this season, has played well at every level during his brief professional career, is well liked by the Leafs organization and seems like a good fit as a future number two NHL goaltender.
Gustavsson is an unrestricted free agent after the year is completed and clearly had aspirations of being a front line NHL netminder, but with the fact that Reimer is the undisputed main man in Toronto, he would likely opt to find another NHL club where the path to starting is less inhibited.
In spite of his inconsistency in his almost 2 ½ seasons with the blue-and-white, there are some teams around the league where Gustavsson would be a significant upgrade or valuable insurance.
Dallas for instance was the main competition for “The Monster” back in 2009 and their goaltending situation is in shambles right now with Kari Lehtonen out of the lineup with a groin injury and starting former Leaf Andrew Raycroft. One of the main contributing factors to the demise of the Blue Jackets has been the inability of Steve Mason to recapture his Calder Trophy winning form and Columbus has now resorted to playing veteran journeyman Curtis Sanford.
Nothing will be acted on until the Leafs are confident that Reimer is hitting on all eight cylinders, but if he returns to form, the organization could preemptively move Gustavsson to get something valuable in return.
The Leafs complete the home and home matchup against the Bruins tonight at the TD Garden in Boston.
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