What do you do if you’re Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe?
The Marlies finished the AHL season in first place, scored the most goals, and have incredible depth. This is leading to tough lineup decisions on a nightly basis.
On one hand, this is the sort of problem coaches dream of. On the other, this problem isn’t just limited to skaters.
Who is the Marlies’ starting goaltender? Logic says Garret Sparks. After all, he spent several months and 17 games in the NHL this season while Antoine Bibeau is still waiting to face his first NHL shot. But it might not be that simple. Let’s look through each goalie’s season.
Antoine Bibeau allowed 11 goals on 108 shots in October for a .908 save percentage. Not awful but not ideal either. His November must have felt like an eternity, allowing 24 goals on 125 shots for a ghastly .839 save percentage. This month also featured Bibeau’s worst night of the season, and one of the most bizarre nights of the Marlies’ season as a team.
The Marlies allowed Bibeau to face 34 shots in the first two periods of their Nov. 14 game against the St. John’s IceCaps.
Bibeau allowed eight of them past him.
“It was my first tough one of the season,” Bibeau recalled. “I think that weekend after I had two other games against St. John’s that I lost again. At that point for two weeks it wasn’t going my way.”
Sparks entered that game with an 8-4 Marlies deficit. He faced three shots for the remainder of the game, stopped them all, and the Marlies stormed back for a 9-8 overtime victory.
When November was over, Bibeau had a .869 save percentage while Sparks was at .938. The writing appeared to be on the wall unless Bibeau made some changes.
“I talked with the organization and I had the chance to talk with Lou (Lamoriello) and Mike Babcock,” said Bibeau. “They just told me to have fun. When I got sent back down in December that’s when I really took off. It’s been really good. I worked hard with Piero Greco, the goalie coach.”
The hard work appears to have paid off.
Don’t let Bibeau’s .909 save percentage on the season fool you. From the beginning of December onward, Bibeau stopped 831 of 902 shots, good for a .921 save percentage over that span. Over his last eight games of the season: 223 saves on 237 shots (.940), and two shutouts.
“I think I improved. I think overall I had a good season. I just had a couple of tough games after my first call-up; they kind messed up all my stats and then it was kind of bumpy after that,” said Bibeau. “After since pretty much December, I think December to February I was 14-2 and after the trade deadline I had a little bump, tough weekend.
“I feel like I’ve improved and I feel like I’m a better goalie than I was last year.”
So is this the goalie that Bibeau is, one week shy of his 22nd birthday?
“Yeah I think so. I feel really comfortable, I feel really confident right now. I have jam to my game and I’m just having fun out there. I don’t put any pressure on myself, I just go out there and try to give the team a chance to win. It’s been pretty cool so far.”
Bibeau credits a lot of his improvement to Marlies goalie coach Piero Greco.
“We work a lot on positioning; that’s all that we talk about. Just be square with the puck and when you’re square with the puck you always give yourself a chance to make a save. That’s the one thing I really worked on; my puck-handling, too. I wasn’t really good at it and I wasn’t really confident and now I’ve been playing the puck a lot. It gives the team confidence, too. They like when I play the puck and we get transitioned better and quicker, too.”
Then there’s Sparks.
Toronto Marlies goaltender Garret Sparks. (Christian Bonin / TSGphoto.com)
Leafs Nation got to know Sparks when he shut out the Edmonton Oilers in his first career NHL game. The crowd cheered, he cried – it was one of the nicest moments in a Leafs season dying for nice moments.
It wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine for Sparks after that though. In 17 games, he mustered an .893 save percentage at the NHL level; not exactly the kind of finish you hope for after a Disney-movie beginning like that.
Would Sparks recover from a rough introduction to the NHL?
Sparks only played one game with the Marlies after the Leafs’ regular season finished, but in it, he stopped 45 of 47 shots, facing the most shots the Marlies had allowed in a game all season long, behind a roster resting almost all of their starters for the playoffs.
Like Bibeau, Sparks also credits Greco for helping him adjust.
“It’s been great. Me and Grecs have a long-standing relationship and I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am without him,” said Sparks. “To be able to get back here and work with him this week and kind of pick apart the things I was doing up there and try and get me back closer to… myself.
“It was an important thing for me. I think that I did a good job of showing what he can do to a goalie in five days.”
Now we know about the seasons Bibeau and Sparks have had, their highs, their lows. You can only have one goalie in the net at a time, though. Does this mean that Bibeau and Sparks have a deep, bitter, fiery hatred for each other? Not according to Sparks.
“I mean we’ve both been through a lot this year. He’s had his successes and he’s had his struggles, I’ve had my struggles and I’ve had my successes,” said Sparks. “It’s nice to have somebody that you can lean on, a friend in the locker room. Somebody you’re excited to see everyday and work with and compete against.
“I think if you look at teams that are successful in the playoffs, a lot of them ride one goalie but you look no further than the Chicago Blackhawks last year. They don’t win a Stanley Cup without Scott Darling. You need to have all your players playing their best going into the playoffs.
“I’ve always said that we’re going to make it further in hockey together than divided. Having somebody that you’re able to lean on and work with and compete against everyday and who brings out the best in you is the best situation for a goalie in our position.”
