TORONTO – This might be the worst stretch of Jonathan Berniers brief and mostly impressive career as a Maple Leaf. Over his last 10 starts Bernier holds an unflattering .891 save percentage, both he and his teammates sliding in a stretch that looks like it will cost the club yet another playoff berth. Bernier feels like hes just been off by the slightest margin, not quite awful, just not good enough to rescue his team from the failure of 14 defeats in 17 games. You just need that one extra save, he said. I dont feel like my game has been that bad, I just need to make that one extra big save to keep the team in it. Though sputtering recently, Bernier is one of the few solid foundations of a Toronto team that once again finds itself in transition, this time under the direction of Brendan Shanahan. Big, looming and difficult questions face Shanahan and his front office team in the coming offseason, the 26-year-old among them. Bernier is set to become a restricted free agent on July 1, due a large and potentially long raise with his second NHL club. To date there have been no contract talks between the team and their No. 1 goaltender, according to Bernier and later confirmed by his agent, Pat Brisson. If they come up to my agent and they want to start talking Im sure well [talk], Bernier told TSN.ca following the teams first practice after the All-Star break. Bernier called it a shock to see former teammate and fellow Cup champion Mike Richards placed on waivers by the L.A. Kings Monday and that in some ways is the delicate balance clubs face when locking up core players for the long-term. Theres plenty of risk involved, one thats perhaps different with starting goaltenders, whose performance tends to fluctuate from year to year. Jonathan Quick, for example, excelled with a .929 save percentage in the 2011-12 regular season, only to tumble to .902 in the lockout-shortened 2013. But the Kings knew they had their guy in goal – based largely on two sensational playoff runs – and felt fine parting with Bernier in a deal with Toronto. Do the Leafs believe theyve got such a piece in Bernier? Up until and even including his recent struggles, Berniers numbers look solid, if not quite near the superb highs of his first season in Toronto and more specifically, his first three months as a Leaf – in which he owned a .930 save percentage. Bernier sits 19th amongst NHL starters with a .914 save percentage this season – tied with Ben Bishop – and 19th with a .922 even-strength save percentage – tied with Marc-Andre Fleury. Since the start of the 2013-14 season, he sits 12th among his peers with a .919 save percentage, just a touch behind Cory Schneider and a touch ahead of Corey Crawford. Signs point to the former first round pick being an above average goaltender, if not quite on the same level of Henrik Lundqvist or Carey Price. Which begs the question with restricted free agency lying ahead: what is Bernier worth to the Leafs? How much and for how long will the Leafs commit to their No. 1, who has made exactly 82 starts as a Leaf? Bernier signed for two years at an annual cap hit of $2.9 million when he landed with the club in the summer of 2013. That number promises to balloon come the summer months. Last year at about this time, Colorado re-signed Semyon Varlamov for five years at an annual cap hit of $5.9 million. Like Bernier, Varlamov was due to be a restricted free agent the following summer and like Bernier, in line for his third NHL contract. He was also a first-round pick whose career numbers lined up comparably to Bernier at similar points of their respective careers. (Varlamov held a .912 save percentage after his first 147 games in the league, a smidge below Bernier, who owns a .917 mark through his first 151 games played.) Have the Leafs seen enough to commit to such term and money (perhaps more in both cases) for Bernier? The question is two-fold, both for Bernier and the team. A long-term deal, say in the neighbourhood of 5-7 years, offers security for Bernier and certainty for the Leafs at a position thats wobbled in Toronto since the days of Ed Belfour. The risk is obvious to the team though. If Berniers performance proves to be only average or just a smidge above it they could get stuck paying an inflated fare for the long haul. Less obvious is the risk to such a deal for the player. Bernier gets security by joining up with the club long-term, but risks not only the cap rising higher in the years that follow, but his performance advancing with age, both of which could mean more money down the line. Signing a short-term deal rather, say one that takes him to age 30, means Bernier could cash in the middle of his prime at a time when the cap could be much higher than the $71 million or so numbers that have been speculated in recent weeks. A backup for most of his NHL career, Schneider opted for the long-term route shortly after he landed in New Jersey. He signed for seven years and $42 million one year after he was plucked from Vancouver. Sergei Bobrovsky, meanwhile, went the shorter-term (but still rich) route. He signed for four years and nearly $30 million earlier this month, a free agent-to-be in his early 30s and in line to cash in again down the line. Complicating matters for the Leafs and perhaps reason for Berniers camp to wait until the summer to start negotiations, is the clubs uncertain cap future. The Leafs project to have limited cap space for the 2015-16 campaign with Nazem Kadri (restricted free agent) and perhaps Cody Franson (unrestricted free agent) still to be signed. That pressure could be alleviated with a summertime trade or two and could conceivably free up more money for Bernier, who turns 27 in August. Bernier certainly takes notice when fellow goaltenders sign – such as Schneider, Bobrovsky – but he tries to keep thoughts of his own deal to a minimum. This is the first time, mind you, that hes held some degree of sway, even leverage in a contract negotiation, since he joined the league in 2007. Its easy to let it creep in a little bit, Bernier says. [But] to me its really one year at a time, one day at a time. I really want to make a big difference for this team and thats really what I focus on. I want to make the playoffs and then well talk in the summer and then well see whats the plan. Nike Shoes From China Outlet . 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Wholesale Nike Shoes From China . - Rookie Kyle Larson will start from the pole position Saturday night in the NASCAR race at Richmond International Raceway after a thunderstorm arrived just in time to wash out qualifying.If I ever needed a brain transplant, Id choose a sportswriter because Id want a brain that had never been used.- Norm Van Brocklin When I was 13, I transferred to a new school for the first time. I had spent ten years from junior kindergarten through Grade 8 at the northwest corner of Bathurst Street and Viewmount Avenue in midtown Toronto. It was my home court advantage. I knew the roll of the rims and the carom of the walls and which teachers were lax at taking attendance. It couldnt last forever. At some point a promotion was coming, and my record setting minor league career wouldnt matter once new maths and makeup-laden girls challenged all that I had honed. I was heading to St. Andrews Junior High. Grade 9. The Show. Embarking on my first day in the wilds of the public school system, I knew I had to make my mark early. Mr. Pelech, my clever English teacher, noticed my t-shirt just minutes into the first class. It was a tattered, ink-drenched Grateful Dead concert tee. He remarked that "Grateful Dead" was an example of a contradiction. Contra what now? Coach tapped my shoulder and I hopped the boards. I proceeded to argue with a shellshocked Mr. Pelech for several minutes. My arguments were lithe, varied and completely illogical, but I had been trained to stand my ground no matter how ridiculous my position. Eventually, a hapless Mr. Pelech scanned the class and sputtered, "Just who is this guy?" Each one of my classmates shook their heads sheepishly as if to say uh, dont look at me. Mark made. Within two weeks I owned that school. They didnt realize the repressed explosiveness that ten years of private school Yiddish lessons would unleash. It is in this brazen spirit I introduce myself to you now, Dear Reader, as your new weekly columnist for Bardown. Why was I chosen as The One to guide you through the international sports landscape, particularly with so many scribes vying for your sports-saturated eyeballs? Commence the elucidation (AKA bring da noize): Basketball. This is my wheelhouse. I know all the lyrics to Kurtis Blows Basketball and I have for decades. I own a Sweet Georgia Brown-humming Harlem Globetrotters pinball machine from 1979. I still play pickup every week at a local high school against stiff competition in their very extremely late twenties. Also, I was an associate producer for the Toronto Towers of the NBA for nearly 500 games, post-games, pre-games and exactly five playoff games. Ooh, another thing, I call the Toronto Raptors the Toronto Towers because I have some self-respect. Baseball. I spent five teenage summers selling peanuts outside the Dome under the alias Mike Simmons. Despite a promising career as a sidearm Eephus pitch-throwing specialist, the leagues advanced scouts were never able to unravel the mysteries of my potential, because apparently throwing over the plate was a "prerequisite for success". Racists. I submit that using the All Star Game to decide home field advantage in the World Series is akin to the winner of the submission portion of Americas Funniest Home Videos determining the nominees for The Oscars Best Picture award. Also, you can thank me for getting the old Blue Jays logo back, as days after writing this piiece, the marketing director for the Jays was following me on Twitter, and months later a new logo was born.dddddddddddd Also, my therapist says I have something called a narcissistic personality disorder. Football. In 1998, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue the dream of being rich and famous which is why you know me so well today. That same year I became a fan of an upstart outfit known as the Baltimore Ravens because I thought Ray Lewis was almost definitely innocent of murder and I am obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe. Fifteen glorious seasons later I have two championship rings (made of foil and buttons) as my testament. I have correctly predicted, in pre-season, the Super Bowl participants for 13 consecutive years and I defy you to prove otherwise. (Note: Please dont reference my Twitter feed. Just be cool. This claim is all I have.) Hockey. I worked camera on the 2003 documentary A Day in the Life of the Maple Leafs so I know a thing or two about hockey. Well, exactly two things. One, when I was eight years old, my teenage neighbour convinced me his Mats Naslund rookie card could be mine for the extremely low price of my 1979 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gurtski rookie card. (Note: I have forgotten how to spell that particular Edmonton Oilers name. At least my night terrors have subsided.) Two, I have developed an algorithm demonstrating the NHL to be the worst run league in the history of Industry. It involves a complicated geometric measurement involving my eyes and common sense. (A fact I will gladly prove over and over again until they, oh I dont know, realign the conferences to have an equal amount of teams. Lets start there.) Fantasy Sports. I Am Legend. In its heyday of 2001, my sprawling website, mikegallay.com, was a sports fantasy powerhouse boasting 16 writers covering all sports, catering to an audience of nearly 16 unique daily readers (and fans of ravines who misspelled mygulley.com). Chances are, if you were a Canadian sports fan in the early 2000s, you were reading articles about topics we also covered on mikegallay.com. The Professor And Mary Ann. I will happily cover all the secondary sports every time a participant either murders someone, is attacked by a spouse using the tools of their own sport, has sex on camera on TMZ, or breaks an important racial, cultural or gender barrier while also keeping our interest for more than eight minutes. Thats my pledge. Am I the precisely correct author to bring you whimsical, satirical, deadly accurate analysis of the sports that matter to you? Absolutely. And can I say that with total sincerity because part of my contract stipulates I have no editor? Two for two. Have I earned your attention to read my column next week? Lets put it this way. My topic will be 23 Ways to Make Over 7K a Week Working Part Time From Your Couch. My third column will be Bardown Seeks New Columnist, No Experience Required. Gallays Poll #1 What would you like to see Gallay write about in his next column? a) A 20,000-word essay conclusively proving Mike is the third Williams sister. b) Doug Gilmours Secret Recipes for 3am Snacks. c) My Weekend In The Hamptons With Barry Bonds. d) No column, just use this space to expand Badminton coverage. ' ' '