That was a nice little run there. The Leafs had won three straight games, James Reimer played his way into the NHL’s Three Stars for last week, and Mike Babcock’s rebuilding Leafs were on the upswing. Two awful goals and a loss to the Rangers later and here I am writing about some of the worst goals the Leafs have allowed in recent memory.
Let me tell you – Jonathan Bernier is not alone.
JONAS GUSTAVSSON
It’s one thing to allow a bad goal. It’s another to allow a bad goal in overtime. It’s on another level when you direct a shot that was going wide into your net for the OT-winner. Let’s also throw in the fact that the goal-scorer was Mark Fayne, who has just 15 goals in 331 NHL games.
What a neat little time capsule this clip is. Joffrey Lupul is still on the Leafs but look at the guys surrounding him. Matthew Lombardi, Tim Connolly, David Steckel, and head coach Ron Wilson. Compared to last season that clip qualifies as “the good old days”.
This odorous goal from Nick Johnson in 2012 deserves honourable mention for how uniquely “Jonas Gustavsson on the Leafs” this goal was. It’s in the dying minutes of the game, he’s just minutes away from a shutout and Nick Johnson – again, 14 career goals in 113 games – scores from behind the icing line.
For all the grief the man they call “The Monster” has taken for his time in Toronto, Jonas Gustavsson has put together decent numbers and a decent NHL career, mostly as an NHL backup.
VESA TOSKALA
Remember that time the Leafs traded Tuukka Rask for Andrew Raycroft and then the Leafs weren’t happy with Raycroft so they traded a first-rounder (Lars Eller), second-rounder (Aaron Palushaj), and fourth-rounder (Craig Smith) for Vesa Toskala and Mark Bell? No? You blocked that out from your memory and have no recollection of it after years of therapy? Allow me to remind you.
For the current generation of Toronto Maple Leafs fans, this goal is the worst they’ve ever seen a Leafs goalie allow. In fact, this might be the worst goal-against in Leafs history. Rob Davison scored one of his three career NHL goals in 219 games from 197 feet away. Do you think a small part of him regrets not stepping back three feet to make it the full 200?
Whenever I see Winnipeg Jets fans confused as to why Paul Maurice is playing Ondrej Pavelec so much I just want to send them this clip. He has seen worse.
BEN SCRIVENS
This is subtly and secretly one of the Leafiest moments of the past 10 years.
The Toronto Marlies are in Game 3 of the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup Final. The Marlies are down two games to none against the Norfolk Admirals and in a must-win scenario. Ben Scrivens is pitching a shutout into overtime when suddenly…
Mike Kostka – yes, the Mike Kostka – puts a shot awkwardly off the glass, it took a bounce when Scrivens left his net to play it, and that put the Admirals just one win away from the Calder Cup. That stings, right? Couldn’t get worse, right? Oh, it does.
Look closely at the replay. Notice anything? There is still a Norfolk player in the Marlies’ zone when Kostka fires the puck in. The play was offside. This isn’t one of those fan conspiracy theory “Oh he should have been offside” scenarios. The American Hockey League actually issued a press release saying that the goal was offside and should not have counted. Did they take it back? Of course not. It’s not like you can just re-play an overtime. Knowing that, the press release was essentially “LOL sorry, but hey, good luck in Game 4?”
JAMES REIMER
No, I am not going to show you the four most heartbreaking goals in a playoff game that may or may not have ever happened. There’s no need for that. There is a reason, however, that Jonathan Bernier played 55 games for the Leafs in 2013-14 and 58 last season: James Reimer got outplayed. While the tables have definitely turned and Reimer has played some of the best hockey of his career in the past two weeks, he also allowed one of his worst goals.
Congrats on your 300th goal, I guess. When you score a milestone like that do you even keep the puck?
JONATHAN BERNIER
Before I start with Jonathan Bernier’s greatest hits, I want to remind everybody that this guy had a sparkling .923 save percentage in 55 games in 2013-14. This recent goal from Derek Stepan makes that kind of hard to believe.
While this goal was brutal, it wasn’t a record-breaker like last year’s hail Mary from Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
As amazingly awful as Stepan and Ekman-Larsson’s goals were, I still rank them below this all-timer.
At least Stepan and OEL scored their goals with shots that were actually on net!
We could play this game all day. I’m sure right now you’re yelling at the screen because I forgot to add some terrible goal allowed by the Leafs in recent years. Listen, this site doesn’t have the bandwidth to support every stinker scored on the Leafs since Ed Belfour was bought out. If you have a personal favourite, feel free to tweet it at me or mention it in the comments.
