Petr Mrazek was distracted, hoping for a fresh start
At times it's been a rough year to be a goaltender for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season. With Jack Campbell coming off a Vezina-worthy first half and then falling off a cliff, possibly due to the current rib injury that has him sidelined. But it's been an even worse year to be Toronto's backup netminder, Petr Mrazek. Mrazek's name has been mentioned in numerous trade rumours; he's been waived, pulled for a rookie and let in some of the worst goals in the league this season. Not exactly what you want to happen after just signing a new 3-year deal with a new team during the off-season.
Despite having a record of 12-6-0 this season in 19 games, Mrazek has struggled mightily when called upon, posting a 3.31 goals-against average and an .890 save percentage in those games.
According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet on The Jeff Marek Show, Mrazek could be gearing up to go on a run now that the trade deadline has passed, effectively putting all the rumours of his departure from Toronto to rest, at least for the time being.
Mrazek, a veteran netminder, has been around the league a while, but I doubt the speculation around him and his lacklustre play thus far this season has ever been so loud. After all, the Leaf's media has a history of running players out of town over what is often unjust criticism.
Mrazek is coming off a 5-2 win, last Sunday over the Florida Panthers, in which he stopped 34 of 36 shots to lead his team to victory. Now that the noise around him has stopped for the rest of the season, is he ready to show why he signed in Toronto last summer in the first place? Beating Florida was a solid place to start.
| POLL | ||
Do you think Petr Mrazek can turn things around? | ||
| Yes | 90 | 39.3 % |
| No | 139 | 60.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
