Reimer Out vs. Blues

The Reimer injury saga continues. The Leafs today announced that Reimer will be held out against St. Louis tomorrow, with Jonathan Bernier getting the start and Antoine Bibeau backing him up. It’ll be Reimer’s second straight game out with a groin injury that he re-aggravated in the third period of Tuesday’s blowout loss to the Islanders.  Reimer has now missed 13 of the last 15 games with injury for the Leafs.

What’s more is that Reimer has actually returned from his injury not once, but twice, only to re-aggravate the injury both times that he’s returned. Originally injured on November 23rd in a game against the Bruins, Reimer returned four games later against Minnesota. Reimer re-injured himself in that game and didn’t return again until last Tuesday. Now it’s anybody’s guess how long he’ll be out, although Reimer says he’s “close”.

This just continues what’s been a whacky year for the Leafs in net. Reimer has played great but he’s been injured now for a little over one cumulative calendar month. Bernier has mostly been awful, although he’s shown at least small signs of returning to form in recent games (let’s not forget he also spent two weeks in the AHL due to his struggles). Garret Sparks was here for a little while and played quite well, notching a shutout in his first ever career start – but he’s injured now too. Antoine Bibeau, the other usually-a-Marlie goalie that’s under contract with the Leafs, has an abymsla .889 save percentage in the AHL after a promising rookie campaign in the pro leagues. He’s been up and down with the Leafs throughout the last couple of months, but has yet to see a second of game action with the Leafs.

In the meantime, the reigns look like they will continue to be Bernier’s, who’s really been Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of late – in his last six starts here are his save percentages: 1.000, .857, .885, .962, .600, and .951.  We’ll see how he does tomorrow when the Leafs host the Blues, who currently have the 4th-most points in the NHL.