There’s a Game of Thrones feel to Leaf Frederik Andersen’s quest for revenge against Bruins

But if you do that job exceedingly well in the days ahead — well, the impact can be outsized, too. Play a big game at the right moment and you could singlehandedly inspire convoys of horn-honking, flag-flying yahoos to flood the thoroughfares from Woodbridge to the waterfront. You could turn sports bars into standing-room-only love-ins, set off a baby boom, be responsible for a generation of girls and boys commemoratively named Freddie. And that’s just if you stone the Bruins in round one.

So it’s probably best not to think about that stuff. And it’s essential to take an interest in a raft of off-ice diversions. Andersen, let’s be clear, is as dedicated and diligent an athlete as the Maple Leafs employ. He treats self-improvement as a full-time job. He keeps a personal performance coach on salaried retainer. When it comes to taking care of his athletic vessel, he’s the LeBron James of the NHL, back before LeBron discovered game-night wine and six-month off-seasons.

Still, a man needs hobbies. So with Thursday’s Game 1 against the Bruins still a while away, Andersen was happy to take questions about, say, who’s going to win the Masters.

“Tiger Woods. We’re pulling for him,” Andersen, a huge golf fan, was saying Monday.

And more to the crux of Andersen’s passion of the moment: Who’s going to win Game of Thrones, the smash-hit HBO TV series that begins its final season Sunday night?

“It could be anyone that wins it,” Andersen said, speaking of the fictional Iron Throne, the ultimate prize in the political chess match. “They set it up from day one that anyone could lose their head at any moment.”

In other words, Game of Thrones figures to be about as unpredictable as the impending Stanley Cup tournament, only with better ratings and gratuitous nudity.

“Yeah, we’d get fined for that, probably,” Andersen deadpanned, speaking of the latter.

Another commonality between Andersen’s favourite TV show of the moment and his day job: Both are made intriguing by the ever-present prospect of revenge. Last week, when the Maple Leafs clinched their playoff berth and cemented a second straight opening-round matchup beginning Thursday in Boston, it was Andersen who used that very word: “Hopefully, we can get revenge for last year.”

Andersen will be in search of something else, too: professional redemption. Three years into his tenure as the Maple Leafs No. 1, the Dane is well aware that his performance against the Bruins in last year’s playoffs ranked as his lowest moment in blue and white. He gave up five goals in Game 1, surrendered three on five shots before being chased in Game 2. And while he was also a big reason why the Maple Leafs rallied back from a 3-1 series deficit, he wasn’t at his best in Game 7, either. The six goals he gave up in that 7-4 defeat amounted to the most he’d ever ceded in 41 career playoff games. So while he’d been ousted from the playoffs before, last spring’s exit felt like an especially cruel trap door.

“You feel like your life just came to an end,” Andersen said. “But obviously life goes on. Your career goes on. And again, those are bitter lessons to learn. I think you’re better off afterwards. You learn what it takes to win a series, how hard you’ve got to play. You can use it for either good or bad, so why not choose to use it for something good?”

The ways in which Andersen redoubled his off-season training and re-examined his in-season workload have been well documented. And save for a hiccup of a subpar March — the same month that tripped him up last season, and which also saw a swoon in the play of Boston No. 1 Tuukka Rask, who’ll be a worthy adversary — Andersen has been destined for a spot on the Vezina ballot from the get-go. But the trophy nomination, whether it comes or not, isn’t why he came to Toronto. He came and stayed, he’s been saying ever since he got here from Anaheim, because he wanted to play the game he loves where it’s loved most passionately.

And he came here to test himself. Certainly his restraint promises to be tried against the Bruins. At times this season, Andersen has expressed frustration with the crease crashing that’s become an NHL fixture.

“There’s no respect for goalies anymore,” he said a few months back.

But knowing how extracurricular contact is a matter of course, on Monday Andersen underlined the importance of not overreacting it.

“For goalies, you kind of want to be not too amped up — keep your cool and keep your emotions and all that stuff in check,” Andersen said. “Keep your focus on what you can control, and that’s trying to be in my crease and stand my ground, and not get too involved in guys coming through the crease or pushing back and stuff.”

In a season that saw Andersen hold himself out of an eight-game stretch in December with a groin injury in the name of preparing his body for the big games in April, the moment of truth is about to arrive. No sweat. No stress. It’s only the pent-up expectation of generations riding squarely on your every butterfly.

So it’s Tiger for the Masters. And who again to win Game of Thrones?

“Samwell Tarly,” Andersen said.

From one underdog to another. You can wager on Tarly to “win” the fictional TV show at many of the same portals that’ll presumably kindly hold your winnings before the Maple Leafs hoist an actual Stanley Cup. The odds on both, as of Monday, were about the same: 20-to-1. Consider a bet on either a bet on Andersen.

Dave Feschuk is a Toronto-based sports columnist. Follow him on Twitter: @dfeschuk