The Maple Leafs will need Frederik Andersen but his audition is to be the team’s No. 2 goaltender

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This article was published 12/05/2021 (1912 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Is Freddie the Unready and Undesirable?

At this point in his career, it’s almost ridiculous that Frederik Andersen’s immediate fortunes were riding on a one-game audition in Ottawa on Wednesday. Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe insisted that he wouldn’t take the measure of Big Red — as teammates refer to their ginger-haired veteran goalie — on the evidence of a single rust-laden performance. But D-Day for the Dane has surely loomed.

Fifty-four days had passed since Andersen last occupied the net for the Leafs because of a knee injury that has never been spelled out. There was a one-and-a- half game conditioning stint with the Marlies in which Andersen’s play was less than reassuring and scarcely a week of full practice with the parent club.

Reasserting his No. 1 bona fides at this late stage, with Jack Campbell wresting away the starring role, is manifestly impossible.

Almost as preposterous, however, is the scenario of entering the post-season with either David Rittich or Michael Hutchinson as backup. With the Leafs tuning fork quivering to make a deep playoff run, no goalie can be expected to go the entire breadth of what could be a two-month second season.

Depth in net is key to a lengthy playoff whirl. Last year, by the second round, half a dozen regular-season backups were functioning as No. 1s, including: Anton Khudobin, who played 25 games in place of the injured Ben Bishop, steering Dallas to their first Stanley Cup final in two decades; Robin Lehner, who took over from Marc-André Fleury in Vegas (prompting Fleury’s agent to post an image on social media of Fleury being stabbed in the back with a sword); Thatcher Demko, who assumed the position as Mr. September for the Canucks when Jacob Markstrom was hurt; Jaroslav Halak, who was pressed into starting duty for Boston when Tuukka Rask left the Toronto bubble due to a medical emergency involving his young daughter; and even Hutchinson, a third-string goalie for Colorado who came up large, winning two games in the Western Conference semifinal before the Avalanche bowed out to the Stars in a Game 7 overtime defeat.

No. 2 matters a hell of a lot.

And who do you want bringing up the rear to a playoff virgin, for all that Campbell has acquitted himself with inspirational aplomb?

It’s a sad state of affairs for Andersen, slouching towards the denouement in the waning days, perhaps even hours, of his well-established tenure in Toronto. Any goaltending controversy would be a manufactured dilemma. Campbell’s the guy and Andersen, barring a complete disaster — not even then, frankly — is the No. 2.

The penultimate regular-season game was hardly a disaster for Andersen, if not clutchy. He slid out of position on a shortie by Connor Brown after making the initial breakaways stop. then flopped around the crease when Parker Kelly banked a shot off him for his first NHL goal. He took a Brady Tkachuk blast off the mask to boot, with no evident damage.

“I actually felt really good, just some weird plays, some unfortunate bounces too. Maybe that’s rust. Maybe if I do a few things differently, those were saves,” Andersen said afterward, claiming he tried to approach it like any other game.

“I felt like I was moving really well. I felt confident out there. I felt pretty calm in the net. Unfortunately some of the goals were some weird bounces.”

As a litmus test, it was difficult to assay Andersen’s worthiness. It could be spun any which way in the 4-3, nine-seconds-into-overtime loss, with the Leafs rather phlegmatic in the wake of clinching first place in the North Division, excepting No. 41 for Auston Matthews.

But to say Andersen was inconsistent before injury double-struck is an understatement, dragging along his unsightly .897 save percentage and 2.91 goals against average. There is, as well, the freak-out factor, derived from Andersen’s bad timing in giving up wretched playoff goals, the kind that sinks a team’s spirits.

We know by now his frailties. Though it may feel like the five-hole is Andersen’s Bermuda Triangle — those stick out in memory — his primary weakness is actually high blocker: 30 goals scored there this season, tied with Ottawa’s Matt Murray for the most in the league, including the shot defenceman Nikita Zaitsev pumped past him in the first period Wednesday, his sightline blocked. Further analytic scrutiny of Andersen’s year: beaten for 19 goals high glove (12th in the league); eight low glove (seventh); five low blocker (15th), five 5-hole (23rd).

Middling at best. Yet, if he hits his stride, if he finds his sweet spot lickety-split — as much a question of mental sinew and self-confidence — he could and should provide the yin to Campbell’s yang. More crucial, it would foster belief from teammates in him.

Merely dressing the 31-year-old who has backstopped Toronto through four playoff engagements — albeit never leading the club beyond a first round — required salary-cap-space contortions, necessitating a dispersal of players to the minors and taxi squad. It was discomfiting for the roster as Keefe had only two regular-season games remaining to get a closer look at what he’s got, with a clutch of players coming off their own injury woes, with precious little Leaf history as deadline trade acquisitions.

Andersen deserved at least this much, however — an opportunity to make his case. He’s done the Leafs a solid on plenty of occasions since arriving from Anaheim and it’s entirely possible that his injuries can be traced back to carrying way too much of the load, particularly in the Mike Babcock era. But has he worn himself straight out of a job out on the cusp of unrestricted free agency?

When the Leafs were in a goaltending crisis earlier this season, when Andersen missed four games with the knee ailment in late February, he rushed back into the crease while Campbell was still recovering from his own lower-body injury. Clearly Andersen played hurt until he couldn’t play anymore.

That didn’t account for his slide in 2021 … or 2020 … or 2019 … each season trending downward in goalie stats. Before conceding that he simply wasn’t game-fit and needed an extended period of time to hopefully recapture the essence of himself between the pipes, Andersen dropped five of his last six starts, surrendering 22 goals. He was beaten on four of 18 shots in his last appearance.

While Leafs GM Kyle Dubas has shown ample loyalty, repeatedly stating his faith in Andersen’s snap-back ability to recapture form and declining to pluck a replacement from the plethora of quality goalies available in the free-agency cohort over the off-season, the playoffs aren’t a sentimental journey.

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Players have a crush on Campbell. They’re certainly beholden to him. But they love-love-love Andersen, still. Should that be an element factored into the decision?

“He’s put in so much work and we’ve witnessed it every single day at the rink, to get himself prepared,” Matthews said. “He played really, really well tonight. I think at times we didn’t really give him (a chance) on a couple of those. That’s purely on us, but I thought he looked good, looked confident.”

And from captain John Tavares, regretfully: “We wanted to get him a win.’’

But, as Tina Turner sang the blues: What’s love got to do with it?

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno