from Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star,

In other words, if the Maple Leafs had been wholly and truly committed to victory on Saturday night, there is no known universe in which Sparks would have been their No. 1 goalie.

Knowing all this, Leafs fans should be thankful. Before this season the franchise piled up a well-documented history of squandering favourable lottery odds with fruitless late-season surges. Not that staying at the bottom of the NHL standings guarantees Auston Matthews will be destined for Toronto in the fall. Staying at the bottom of the standings simply maximizes the chances of good things happening for the Maple Leafs when the ping-pong balls fly on April 30.

Sports franchises play the percentages in every other endeavour. Why wouldn’t they play them here? Saturday’s choice in net, in other words, amounted to an evolutionary adaptation to the reality of the situation that had been too often unseen in Leafland.

Still, Leaf fans need to understand it can’t have been easy for Babcock to give Sparks the nod in three of the past four starts — all three of which the Maple Leafs have lost. For all the talk of the importance of seeing what Sparks can do in the wake of the James Reimer trade, that’s a management concern. For a coach who runs a supposed meritocracy to ice any option but his best, pride must be swallowed and ego must be shelved.

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