Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Frederick Andersen is normally a pretty reserved and quiet guy. He didn’t mind blasting his own teammates last night, though following a 6-1 loss to the Philadelphia that saw the Flyers score four goals, including an empty netter, in the final four minutes of the game. Two of those goals came with less than 35 seconds left in the third, when it appeared the Leafs had just given up.
Following the performance, many of his teammates were apologetic to their goaltender, saying they shouldn’t have left him out to dry like that. It appears Andersen agrees. Check out his comments:
“I don't really worry about me. I worry more about the way we play for the logo on the jersey. Got to be more pride than that. Hopefully we can respond and show what kind of character we have."
Sheldon Keefe, who had a 3-0 record in his first three games as the new head coach but has since lost two of the last three, agreed with his goaltender’s assessment.
"Our response, our reaction after giving up the empty-net goal is not what we want to be about.”
Auston Matthews also agrees, saying the Leafs just folded.
"We let in that empty-net goal and then, I mean, we can't just fold like that. It's unacceptable to do that to our starting goalie, a guy that's stolen games for us, he's been a brick wall for us all year and that's just unacceptable on our part.”
Toronto will have a chance to redeem themselves tonight as Colorado comes to town. It will also mark Nazem Kadri’s first time at Scotiabank Arena as a member of an opposing team after being traded to the Avalanche in the offseason. As of yesterday, the plan was to play backup goalie Michael Hutchinson tonight. He currently has an 0-5-1 record in six starts. If Toronto wants to pull out a W against an offensively dangerous team like Colorado, they’ll need a much better effort than last night for “Hutch.”
