SUNRISE, Fla.鈥擨t鈥檚 the time of year when it seems inevitable that at least one ex-Maple Leaf will find himself on a playoff team that goes deep聽鈥 or at least deeper than Toronto鈥檚 NHL team has been in a generation.
Former Leafs Zach Hyman and Connor Brown are both big parts of an Edmonton Oilers team that is awaiting its opponent in the Western Conference final, with hopes of a return trip to the Stanley Cup final very much alive after last season鈥檚 seven-game epic against the triumphant Florida Panthers.
And the good news for the Leafs, as much as Game 5鈥檚 6-1 loss cast a pall, was that as of Friday afternoon, as the Leafs prepared for a do-or-die Game 6 in their second-round series with the Panthers, there was still hope 海角社区官网might soon be pitted against another familiar face in the Eastern Conference final.
That would be Frederik Andersen, the Leafs鈥 former No. 1 goaltender, who after a handful of injury-riddled seasons has emerged as one of the stars of these NHL playoffs with the Carolina Hurricanes. The 35-year-old Andersen is leading the post-season in a bevy of important metrics, including save percentage (.937) and goals saved above expected (14.96 in nine games played, Given how Andersen missed the bulk of last season with a scary blood-clotting issue and another 39 games this season recovering from knee surgery, his return to form is as unexpected as it is inspiring.
“I’m happy to still be playing,” Andersen told reporters recently.
For a lot of his five-season run with the Leafs, Andersen was the ultimate workhorse. In his first four seasons, he started 60 or more games three times. Over that quadrennial, no goaltender in the league made more starts, stopped more pucks. He ranks fourth on the franchise win list. Only Turk Broda, Johnny Bower and F茅lix Potvin can claim more victories, and among that group only Bower owns a better career save percentage.
After an injury-riddled 2020-21 season that saw Jack Campbell command the net for the duration of an ill-fated playoff series with the Montreal Canadiens, the Leafs essentially gave up on Andersen, who signed with the Hurricanes. Among the knocks was that Andersen couldn鈥檛 stay healthy, and that he shrunk in big playoff moments. But the argument can be made that Toronto鈥檚 poor goaltending depth led the team to overwork him, which led to Andersen losing steam by the playoffs, which eventually led to the injuries, which led to the parting.
However you see it, you don鈥檛 need to watch the NHL particularly closely to know that 60-game starters are hard to find, and maybe even harder to keep healthy.
As for Hyman and Brown, they鈥檙e both indispensable pieces of Edmonton鈥檚 lineup. Former Leaf Kasperi Kapanen, claimed off waivers earlier this season, has also come up big in limited action for the Oilers, scoring the second-round series clincher in overtime to dispatch the Vegas Golden Knights. Former Leafs goaltending farmhand Calvin Pickard, meanwhile, was 6-0 in the playoffs before a lower-body injury took him out of the Vegas series in Game 2. Pickard is not expected to be available to begin the Western final.
Hyman鈥檚 knack for using his big body to carve out net-front real estate was on full display in Edmonton鈥檚 five-game dispatching of the Golden Knights, wherein Vegas goaltender Adin Hill boiled over with frustration at Hyman鈥檚 presence. In one memorable Game 4 moment, Hill decked Hyman with an authoritative shove. But you can make the case Hyman won the war, as Hill鈥檚 .893 save percentage in the series didn鈥檛 exactly impress. Considering how the Leafs have been short on hard-area residents in the years since, Hyman鈥檚 free-agent flight to Edmonton in 2021 remains one of the hardest decisions to justify of Kyle Dubas鈥檚 tenure as Leafs GM.
Brown, meanwhile, is an Andersen-esque comeback story. Last season he mostly made headlines for the wrong reasons, at one point going 54 games without a goal as he struggled in the wake of knee surgery that kept him out of all but four games during his previous season with the Washington Capitals. And last spring, when the Oilers began their run to the Cup final with a first-round series against the L.A. Kings, Brown was a healthy scratch, although he did work his way into a regular role for the duration of the run.
He鈥檚 already had more of an impact this year. Not only has he logged more penalty-killing minutes than any other Oilers forward in the playoffs so far, but he鈥檚 found a way to score four goals in 11 playoff games.
“Overcoming things like (last season鈥檚 struggles) help you in these big moments,鈥 Brown told reporters after he reeled off a three-point night in a series-clinching win over the Kings earlier this month. 鈥淚’m having fun, providing some offence. I’m back to my old self.鈥
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