SIMMONS: Leafs Opening Night: Jack Campbell’s Chance of a Life

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For nearly 11 years, bouncing league by league, team by team, trying to find himself and his game, Jack Campbell never had an invitation like this.

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This is your chance to launch the opening day. This is your call to the mound. Only, in her case, it’s a chance to kick off the first night of the Maple Leafs season, a chance she’s never had before.

It is what every goalkeeper wants and many never achieve.

And here’s Campbell heading into Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena, against the hated Montreal Canadiens, the team that beat him three times in a row to lose a playoff series, with the building packed again and the usual pomp and circumstance and the accompanying pipe noise. On opening night, you will be well dressed and ready to win.

For at least one night, the network will be yours. On Thursday, veteran Petr Mrazek will make his debut in goal for the Leafs. And with him, the competition begins, if that’s what being in the Toronto goal is all about. But for the first time in his professional life as a hockey, Campbell has the opportunity to be the man, the number one goalkeeper for the Leafs, to earn the job, to be Sheldon Keefe’s goalkeeper of choice.

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All you have to do is act.

All you have to do is be somewhere close to where you were a season ago when you rescued the Leafs in a year when Frederik Andersen wasn’t healthy enough or willing to score when needed.

The stakes are high for Campbell as the season begins. It’s about tonight. It’s about becoming the chosen one, ahead of the historically middle of the Mrazek road. But more than that, it’s about making it easy for his coach, as most starting goalkeepers do.

There is an old expression in hockey and soccer. If you have two goalkeepers or two quarterbacks, it really means you don’t have one. If you have to ask: Who is our doorman tonight? It usually means that you don’t have an easy answer to the question.

In last year’s short season, Campbell played almost at the level of the stars. His goals against the average were 2.15. His save percentage was a more than respectable .921. His analytical numbers, how he played when he was understaffed, how he played in high-danger opportunities, all left the impression that he could be a starter in the future.

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If only he could stay healthy. If only it could be available for 50 or more games. If only he could translate the short-term success he had – even his playoff goals against average were an impressive 1.81 – then that bodes well for the Leafs this season and bodes well financially for Campbell going forward.

At $ 1.65 million per season, Campbell could be one of the lowest-paid opening night goalkeepers in the NHL. And this is his free agent year. Unlike Morgan Rielly, who will be in that $ 8 million range next season no matter where he’s playing, Campbell’s next pay will depend on what type of season he has.

The Leafs need him to be great and probably at the same time they can’t afford to be too great. But Campbell, in a way, represents the biggest question of this Toronto regular season. We know that once he returns, Auston Matthews will score goals. We know what Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander will do, within reason. We know the Leafs defense is deeper and probably stronger than it has been in years. We know, I think, that this is a 95-105 point type of team.

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But what we can’t know, and within the Leafs, the decision makers will tell you themselves, is which Jack Campbell will be in goal?

The one who played in Toronto last season?

Or the one who spent years trying to live up to the impossible standards of his draft position?

If there was a moment of sheer pathos and pain in the documentary All Or Nothing, it was seeing Campbell in the Maple Leafs locker room after Toronto lost in Game 7 to the Canadiens. I was shaking and crying after the defeat. I was inconsolable. Jason Spezza came over and hugged him and basically assured him it wasn’t his fault – the Leafs didn’t score in Game 7.

Campbell would have had to be perfect to force the game into overtime. And it was clear how emotionally and personally he took the Leafs’ first-round collapse, his first real shot at the Stanley Cup playoffs.

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The thing about Campbell is that he can’t possibly not like it. He’s the kind of goalkeeper who blames himself and never points a finger. He is the teammate that everyone looks up to. And that makes him more than just an unusual goalkeeper.

Now all you have to do is play cool. The Atlantic Division has the best goalkeeper in the world, Andrei Vasilevskiy in Tampa, and when he’s healthy in every way imaginable, there will finally be Carey Price in Montreal, the best goalkeeper among Canadians. The division has Sergei Bobrovsky in Florida and awaiting the return of Tuukka Rask in Boston. And where Campbell fits in, if he’s the Leafs starter, will be determined by time and winning percentage.

The opportunity that awaits you has never been so close before. All you have to do is make the decision for them. Everything it has to be is great.

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