Frederik Andersen makes it sound so simple.

“Work hard,” the Maple Leafs goaltender said after his club’s morning skate on Thursday.

“That’s all there is to it. Sometimes you lose your game a bit here and there and you just have to battle to get it back. That’s what you do, you stay positive and work hard.”

Andersen gets a chance to put his game back on track when the Leafs play host to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night at the Air Canada Centre. Since recording back-to-back shutouts two weeks ago, Andersen has struggled, posting nothing better than an .878 save percentage in any of his four starts.

As much as the Leafs have to tighten up defensively, Andersen recognized it’s on him to improve as well.

“You have to take ownership,” Andersen said. “If it’s a big scoring chance (that produces a goal against), still have to look at what you could have done different. That’s how you get better. You can't just pass the blame (to others) every time. You have to know when it is realistic for you to improve and do something different. It’s how you get better.

“You pull from any kind of experience you have had, even before this year. I think that’s key to getting out of this and feeling good again.”

The game against the Blues will mark Andersen’s 44th appearance of the season. That’s one more than he played in during 2015-16 with the Anaheim Ducks, and 10 fewer than he played in two seasons ago, when he was in the crease for a career-high 54 games.

Andersen, 27, remains on a learning curve as he adjusts to being a full-time starter in the National Hockey League.

“It hasn’t been good enough,” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said of Andersen’s recent play.

“But there are times in the year you have little dips and you make sure you work hard every day and those dips are shorter and they don’t happen as often.

“I think he played around 42 games last year. We want him to play a lot more. So the challenge for him is to be able to handle that.

“(Backup Curtis McElhinney) did a real good job last game for us. Freddie goes tonight with an opportunity to bounce back. Our team was no good against St. Louis (in a 5-1 loss last Thursday in St. Louis), we weren’t competitive.

“This should be a better opportunity for Freddie because our team will play better and now he has to do his part.”

Down the hall at the ACC, Blues goalie Jake Allen could commiserate with Andersen’s struggles. Allen, who will start against Toronto, has got back in a groove in recent games and is coming off a 30-save shutout against the Senators in Ottawa on Tuesday.

“I’m sure I am going to have more (rough patches),” Allen said. “You just trust in yourself and go back to the basics. People tend to overcomplicate things when really it is a simple game.

“Stay within yourself and let the game come to you a little bit. It was a tough couple of weeks there for me, but really found a way to get out of it. I think it’s more mental than physical. Everybody in this league has the ability to play. It’s all the other stuff.”

Since losing in St. Louis, the Leafs have gone 2-0-1 and are in third place in the Atlantic Division with 60 points; since beating the Leafs in the first game for head coach Mike Yeo after the firing of Ken Hitchcock, the Blues are 2-1-0. With 59 points, the Blues hold down the first wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Thursday, meanwhile, marks the first anniversary of the Leafs trading of captain Dion Phaneuf to Ottawa in a swap that involved nine players and a draft pick.

“Let’s not take away what Dion did for us here,” Babcock said. “He was fantastic and still would be. He is doing a good job in Ottawa. We have a different team now, so to look at the leadership is harder that way because you are comparing an apple and an orange. We are way more talented, way quicker, have a better team, so it’s probably an easier group to be around.

“When you are not very good and you are losing a lot, that is when leadership is really hard, and (Phaneuf) was fantastic. Our young guys are a work in progress, they are going to end up being the leadership group of this team and you’re just working on it every day.”

tkoshan@postmedia.com

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