WINNIPEG – After travelling 6,882 kilometres around North America over the last week, James Reimer landed in the middle of the NHL’s frozen crucible.
"REEEIIIIIIIIIIIIMMMEEERRRR!!!!!" they screamed derisively from the MTS Centre stands shortly after puck drop on Saturday night. Before you knew it, Mark Scheifele had snuck the first Winnipeg Jets shot right through the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender and the welcome would only get less welcoming.
When Blake Wheeler beat Reimer between the pads three minutes later, there was every reason to wonder if the Leafs were on their way to another ignominious defeat. The memories of a 7-1 debacle in Dallas were still fresh, remember.
"The first two goals were goals that I thought were scored in the middle of the net," Leafs coach Randy Carlyle said afterwards. "Those are tough ones. I contemplated whether to (put in Jonathan Bernier) at that point, but I felt we’d get (Reimer) through the period and give him an opportunity to battle and fight back."
The fight back would eventually come – although it wasn’t until after Winnipeg had built a 4-1 lead 8:13 into the second period and chased Reimer from the net. The fact the Leafs somehow salvaged a point from that position was something to savour on the flight back to Toronto.
While the Jets were obviously the happier of the two teams after Dustin Byfuglien’s winner 2:44 into overtime, the Toronto players were far from sad following a 5-4 loss. They put five out of a possible eight points in the bank on a grueling road trip through the Western Conference and are now 6-1-1 dating back to Jan. 12.
They even managed to pull this one somewhat of the fire against a Jets team that has been rejuvenated under new coach Paul Maurice. Carlyle’s somewhat surprising decision to start Reimer – the coach said it was done for sentimental reasons because the 25-year-old is from nearby Morweena, Man. – might have backfired, but it wasn’t a back-breaker because of some unlikely offensive contributions.
Troy Bodie scored his second of the season off the rush before Tim Gleason drew the Leafs back to 4-3 down with a knuckling shot. It was his first goal in 118 games dating back to December 2011. Phil Kessel – who else? – completed the comeback by ripping home his 27th of the season with less than two minutes to play in regulation.
"We were down early in the hockey game," Carlyle said. "We found a way to get a point being down 4-1, so there was a lot of positives that took place after. You’ve got to credit our guys with finding a way to claw back and do that."
You couldn’t help but feel like there would be some ramifications following a wild night in Winnipeg. This was an opportunity for Reimer to earn a little more of the coach’s trust and therefore turned into an inopportune time for him to be off his game.
The Leafs won’t play another set of back-to-back games until after the Olympic break and Bernier could see a good chunk of the action until then. He made 12 of 13 saves in relief on Saturday after Reimer surrendered four goals on 19 shots before him.
And as has been the case virtually all season, the overall defensive play remains a major concern. The Leafs remain on pace to give up the highest amount of shots against in the recorded history of the NHL.
"We have to be better, there’s no question about that," rookie defenceman Morgan Rielly said.
Yet they keep managing to survive the slow walk across the tightrope. One area where the team is feeling better is their ability to play away from Air Canada Centre – something they showed in three of the four games this week.
The atmosphere in Winnipeg was particularly hostile.
"This is one of the toughest buildings to play in in the league," said Leafs winger James van Riemsdyk, who had an assist to match his career high with 40 points. "Those guys were flying over there."
Added Bernier: "The guys battled hard and it’s not easy in that building."
The most important aspect of the unlikely point it got them was that it pushed the Leafs past the freefalling Montreal Canadiens into third spot in the Atlantic Division. While there is still a lot of hockey to be played, that is a far more comforting spot than the one they found themselves in earlier this month when a bad loss in Carolina dropped Toronto out of wild card position entirely.
Not that anyone claims to be paying attention.
"It’s not quite scoreboard-watching time yet," veteran winger Joffrey Lupul said. "I think we’ve just got to focus on what we can do and keep getting better as a group. Our play right now is a lot better than it was three weeks ago, so we’re happy about that."