Something funny happened during the battle for the Maple Leafs starting goalie job between J.S. Giguere and Jonas Gustavsson heading into 2011.
Neither of them ended up between the pipes.
Instead, a 22-year-old AHL goalie who had never started an NHL game in his life has completely stolen the show.
He made his first career start on Jan. 1, and since then, James Reimer hasn't looked back. He's appeared in five of the past six games for the club and is a major reason why they currently find themselves on a four-game winning streak.
The Winnipeg native, who has bounced around between the WHL (Red Deer Rebels), ECHL (Reading Royals, South Carolina Stingrays) and the AHL (Toronto Marlies) since 2005, was called up to the Leafs when Giguere went down with his reoccurring groin injury.
It was expected he would simply sit on the bench and fill a roster spot, but after Gustavsson went through a less-than-impressive stretch of games, Ron Wilson decided to give him a chance.
And it would be fair to say, it's the best call Wilson has made all season.
Since that Jan. 1 start in Otta ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Jon Neely
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January 12th, 2011 by Jon Neely Leave a reply »
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