Brian Burke and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ brass can put down their phones for at least one night. Ben Scrivens justified Ron Wilson’s gut decision to start him by stopping 38 shots in a 3-2 shootout win over the St. Louis Blues.
In the span of one game, Scrivens strengthened his chances of at least being the backup in Toronto and gave Ken Hitchcock his first defeat as the Blues’ bench boss.
It probably wasn’t designed this way, but it really was a great test for Scrivens, as the Maple Leafs seemingly sat back on a 2-0 lead. After out-shooting St. Louis 14-8 in the first period, the Blues fired 32 shots during the next two periods and overtime. Jason Arnott and Patrik Berglund were the only ones able to get a puck by Scrivens, who didn’t allow a single shootout score either.
Sure, it’s just one game, but this a promising sign for just about everyone in Toronto not named Jonas Gustavsson.
One could argue that it’s a promising sign for Hitchcock as well - his team clearly responded to something during the first intermission - but we’ll have to wait and see if that’s really the case.