Sep 4, 2019
Andersen ready to shoulder the load again for Leafs
Toronto goalie hopes tweak to summer routine will lead to a long run of health this season, Kristen Shilton writes.
TORONTO – No goaltender in the NHL has started more games for their team than Frederik Andersen has over the three seasons since he was traded to the Maple Leafs.
That heavy workload inspired a change in philosophy as Andersen spent the summer preparing for his fourth campaign as the No. 1 netminder in Toronto: train smarter, not necessarily harder.
“[I] tried to be on the ice a little bit earlier and not as much, so I could keep that good feeling [going],” Andersen said from the Leafs’ summer skate at Ford Performance Centre on Wednesday. “[You’re not] going on a lot, just once a week to start so you don’t feel like you’re starting all over when you’re putting the gear on for the first time. [Then] keep getting better, keep getting healthy. That’s been the main thing.”
Health is the highest priority for Andersen ahead of this new season, although it’s arguably his least favourite topic to discuss. Back when Toronto’s postseason run ended with a first-round playoff loss in April, Andersen was battling through the lingering effects of a groin injury suffered in late December that never seemed to fully heal as he slogged through starting 30 of the Leafs’ final 38 regular-season games.
The 29-year-old netminder is soft-spoken at the best of times, but especially cagey when it comes to how his body is feeling.
“[It’s] better,” Andersen said succinctly, when asked how much his health has improved since the spring.
Pressed on whether he’d call it “significantly better,” Andersen replied curtly, “Yes; thanks.”
Andersen has missed time each of the last three years with various injuries, ranging from concussions to knee ailments. At the same time, he’s been tasked with carrying a heavier load than any other goalie in the NHL, suiting up in 192 of Toronto’s last 246 games.
Head coach Mike Babcock has stubbornly maintained his reluctance to scale back Andersen's workload, assigning starts to a backup only on one half of the team’s back-to-back games.
Most recently, it was Garret Sparks supporting Andersen, but he was traded to Vegas in July. Come training camp, it will be Michael Hutchinson and Michal Neuvirth, who is attending camp on a professional tryout, vying for the second spot.
Whoever wins the job this year could be more involved than previous backups. In Leafs' general manager Kyle Dubas' sit-down interview with TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie on Tuesday, Dubas hinted that the days of Andersen shouldering 60 or more starts in the regular season, as he has each year since 2016, could well be over.
“[Andersen] knows playing every game in October isn’t going to earn him anything at the end of the season,” Dubas said. “We’re going to…really look at the amount of energy he’s expending throughout the year and make sure he’s set for the end of the season and playoff run.”
Laughing at the idea of “load management, or whatever you call it,” Andersen stayed coy about how many starts he’d optimally like to make, but conceded it’s easier to play often earlier in the year as opposed to when more games are crammed into the schedule following the team’s late-January bye week.
“It’s [just] nice to be healthy,” Andersen said. “And once you feel like you can move at 100 per cent, you’re going to feel more fluid.”
Andersen would also like to apply some fluidity to how he communicates with Toronto’s evolving defence corps. Gone are Ron Hainsey, Nikita Zaitsev and Jake Gardiner from the top-six rotation, projected to be replaced in part by the newly acquired Cody Ceci and Tyson Barrie, as well as other potential new faces in the mix once camp gets underway next week.
Like any good relationship, the one between goaltender and blueliners hinges on good communication.
“You have to get to know each other, how they like to do things, and they have to get used to me,” Andersen said. “You have to get to know some new personalities and for me that’s an exciting thing too.”
Barrie is familiar to Andersen from attending off-season skills camps together in the past. While Andersen says Toronto is “lucky to have [Barrie]” and the other new additions, it's too soon to say just how much better they'll make this year's version of the Leafs, especially before the whole team has even assembled.
“It’s a tough question,” Andersen said of where the Leafs stand now. “[But] we’ll find out sooner rather than later."