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Gustavsson’s warm-up injury: Toronto’s latest goalie headache

Jonas Gustavsson

Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Jonas Gustavsson takes a break during stoppage in play during third-period NHL hockey game action against the Vancouver Canucks in Toronto on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Pawel Dwulit)

AP

The old joke is to say that the most dangerous place in the world is between "(insert celebrity/politician) and a camera.” That statement might need to be revised to “in between the pipes for the Toronto Maple Leafs.”

Jonas Gustavsson continued the comedy of errors by getting injured during warm-ups, giving way for Jussi Rynnas. That latest shuffle prompted this interesting fact from The Score: the Maple Leafs have had 15 different starting goalies since the lockout ended.

Using Hockey Reference’s season stats, I decided to track down those 15 goalies, in no exact order:

Gustavsson
Rynnas
Ed Belfour
Mikael Tellqvist
Jean-Sebastien Aubin
Andrew Raycroft
Vesa Toskala
Scott Clemmensen
Martin Gerber
Curtis Joseph
Justin Pogge
Jean-Sebastien Giguere
Joey MacDonald
James Reimer
Ben Scrivens

Boy, that’s quite the motley mixture of not-ready, washed-up or just-plain-awful goalies, isn’t it?

There are any number of potential reasons that explain Toronto’s inept run since the work stoppage, but that list of netminders might be the simplest demonstration of why playoff bids have been nonexistent while misery, snark and frustrations can be found in a nearly endless supply.