Given the chance to play again, Hurricanes goalie James Reimer proves he’s trustworthy
James Reimer had done a lot of sitting. And some stewing. And preparing.
On Monday, finally given the chance to play again, the veteran goalie helped give the Carolina Hurricanes a victory, keeping his cool and making 31 saves in a 4-2 road win over the Nashville Predators.
It was Reimer’s first game since Aug. 17, 2020. That’s the day he was the losing goalie against the Boston Bruins in Game 4 of their 2020 Stanley Cup playoff series in the Toronto bubble. That’s the day the Bruins got off 16 shots and scored four times in a third-period blitz for a 4-3 win.
Reimer watched goalie Petr Mrazek play Game 5 against the Bruins, a 2-1 loss that ended the Canes’ season. He headed home to Canada to work -- on his conditioning, on honing his game. He returned for preseason training camp, practiced, scrimmaged but did not have an exhibition game, and watched as Mrazek started the first two games of the new season against the Detroit Red Wings.
And then Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour gave him the start. He was ready. The nerves were fine.
“Honestly, the biggest thing is just trusting your game,” Reimer said on a post-game media call. “And the way you trust it is to prepare and work every day. If you don’t put the work in then you can be pretty nervous because you don’t know what’s going to happen. When you come to the rink and try to be honest every day, you just trust in that.
“And you never know how the game is going to go, you know? You can have seven bounces that go off people and in, or have a couple of good shots. Obviously, anything can happen. You just try and have that trust.”
Rod Brind’Amour’s trust of James Reimer
Brind’Amour trusts Reimer. It was Reimer, 32, who replaced Curtis McElhinney last season and teamed so well with Mrazek to get the Canes back into the playoffs, albeit after the long pause caused by the pandemic.
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With a 56-game condensed schedule this season and teams facing a lot of back-to-backs or two games in three days, having two trustworthy goaltenders is more a must than a luxury. Brind’Amour and the Canes have that.
“Every day you try to bring your A-game mentally and obviously physically,” Reimer said. “There’s a big gap between practices and games.”
On Monday. Reimer faced some early shots by the Predators, who had beaten the Columbus Blue Jackets in both of their first two games.
Roman Josi got off an early shot, then Viktor Arvidsson. Nashville had four shots in the first 1:39 of the game and 12 in the opening period, which ended scoreless.
Reimer got feel for the game early
“It’s nice to get shots as long as they don’t go in,” Reimer said, smiling. “It felt good to get in the game and make some saves and kind of get a feel for it and the quickness of the game.”
The Predators scored on a Filip Forsberg breakaway in the second period and later on an Arvidsson power-play shot in the third. But with the Canes leading 3-2 in the third after Arvidsson’s goal, a determined Reimer stopped four shots including a wrap-around attempt by former Canes forward Erik Haula of the Preds.
Nino Niederreiter’s empty-net goal with 36 seconds left in regulation closed it out for the Canes and Reimer, who earned his 159th career win and now is 15-6-2 overall with the Canes.
“He’s huge for us,” forward Andrei Svechnikov said on the media call. “He’s very confident in himself and very confident in the team.”
The team was there for Reimer. Svechnikov had a goal and assist, as did Sebastian Aho and Vincent Trocheck. There was some gritty defensive zone work in front of Reimer, with defenseman Jake Gardiner making a heady play in the zone and then the pass as Svechnikov and Aho converted a two-on-one that had Aho finishing for his first goal of the season.
Soon, the Canes were gathered around Reimer, celebrating a win. For Reimer, it was worth the wait.
