There’s a reason goalies have won the Conn Smythe Trophy the last two years in a row as the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Typically, the team with the best goalie — or perhaps the hottest — wins the Stanley Cup.

Such is the over-arching importance of the position that all eyes will be on James Reimer when the Maple Leafs play their first post-season game in nine years.

“It is a new season now,” said Reimer.

The Leafs will be playing the Boston Bruins, with Game 1 going on Wednesday and Game 2 on Saturday. Toronto has won eight of 13 playoff series against Boston, but the two teams haven’t met post-season since 1974.

The Ottawa Senators will play Montreal after the Sens’ victory on Sunday night over Boston in the last game of the regular season moved them into seventh in the East.

Many around these parts had been hoping for a Toronto-Montreal showdown for historic rivalry reasons, as well as the fact Toronto had a winning record against the Habs and a losing one to the Bruins.

“You can’t be picking playoff teams,” said Leafs assistant GM Claude Loiselle. “That could come back to bite you. You’ve got to worry about your own team. You’ve got to be ready mentally and physically to play.

“We have an identity. We’re a hard working team. The guys that play hard, that compete hard are going to play.”

And it will be a completely different level of hockey, one in which the focus will be on Reimer and every mistake will be analyzed endlessly. At least until the next game.

No one is saying the Leafs have the best goalie in the NHL nor are they saying the team should be considered the favourite for the Stanley Cup. But Reimer has made believers of Leaf Nation, who scoffed a year ago when former Leafs GM Brian Burke said he believed in the netminder.

They critics rose up and spoke up, almost demanding the Leafs trade for Roberto Luongo.

When Ben Scrivens started the season’s first game, it seemed the coaching staff didn’t have faith in Reimer. But game-by-game, he rebuilt his resume and made people remember the Optimus Reim of his impressive rookie season.

Reimer’s performance, aided by the rise of young players like forward Nazem Kadri and defenceman Cody Franson, helped turn a season that was supposed to be more of an evaluation year with low expectations into a playoff year.

“James Reimer has been terrific,” Loiselle said at the Marlies game Sunday. “I’m excited to see how he performs, how these guys perform. You want to see these guys develop. It continues. We feel really good about our coaching staff. They’ve kept the pulse of the team. I’m excited to see what they (the players) are made of.”

Lately, the wheels have come off. Not just with Reimer, but the whole team. Few feel confident that a team continually outshot will win more than it loses.

The season-finale clunker of a 4-1 loss to Montreal on Saturday at the ACC left no one feeling positive.

“We’re not really comfortable after (Saturday) night’s game,” said Loiselle. “But we’re comfortable with our hockey team. We just have to execute.”

The way Reimer responds in Game 1 will speak volumes, says goalie coach Rick St. Croix.

“Great goalies are the ones that regroup,” said St. Croix. “It’s not what happens but how you respond. We don’t need them to be superhuman. We just need them to be themselves. They’re young men and they’ve played well for us. Just give us your game. Enjoy the process. If something doesn’t go quite right, it’s how you respond to it.

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“Play one (game), and move on from there.”

The ever-optimistic Reimer wasn’t too down after the loss.

“You take some of the positives and then you flush it,” he said after his dismal performance, one that saw him removed after Montreal’s fourth goal.

It was not the end of the world for Reimer. It was a learning experience, one of many he’s had in his three seasons in Toronto.

“The bottom line is we didn’t play as well as we could,” he said. “But having said that you look at the 48-game season, you look at all the things you accomplished, how well we played and you know what? Maybe in Game 33 we didn’t play well but we kept plugging away.

“We know how well we can play, we have to stick to our game plan. Even if we had won 10-0, when the game is over it really doesn’t mean anything. It is a new season and we are confident in what we can do and how we can play that hasn’t changed.

“Our goal hasn’t changed.”

The goal when the season began was to get to the playoffs.

Mission accomplished.

The goal now is to go as deep as possible.

A first round matchup against Bruins doesn’t scare Reimer. The teams have faced each other plenty with the Bruins having won seven of the past nine meetings, and have a familiarity with each other.

“We have lots of video from games played against them,” said Reimer. “You learn from the good things, and you learn from the bad things.

“We will have our work cut out for us.”

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