Toronto Maple Leafs: Jack Campbell Is Human Afterall

The Toronto Maple Leafs were spoiled by Jack Campbell who won his first 11 games of the year, but he’s regressing back to normal.

When Jack Campbell was acquired by the Toronto Maple Leafs last year, the team thought they were trading for an inexpensive back-up with a chip on his shoulder. Nobody expected that he would break an NHL record for most wins in a row to start an NHL season.

After being an irrational Leafs fan last week and making the case that Campbell deserves the Vezina trophy, he’s looking more like a back-up goalie as of late. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

In Campbell’s first 10 games this year, he allowed two or less goals eight times and recorded two shutouts. Since then, he’s recorded three or more goals in three consecutive games and got pulled after 13:49 of action in his last start (via: hockeyreference.com).

There was no way that Campbell’s hot start was going to continue until the postseason, but it doesn’t mean the Toronto Maple Leafs should be calling for Freddie Andersen to come back immediately.

Every goalie goes through tough times and Campbell’s first 10 games have given him the benefit of the doubt to get out of this rut and continue to be the number-one starter.

Campbell Shouldn’t Lose Starting Job

After being without Auston Matthews and William Nylander last game, the Leafs looked flat during the first period against the Winnipeg Jets. Head coach Sheldon Keefe did Campbell a favor by pulling him early because things got very out of control.

It had nothing to do with his performance, rather than the opponent they were playing and the lack of fire-power that Toronto had that night. So although he got pulled, it shouldn’t effect his job and mean the team should play David Rittich more. Instead, Toronto should go back to Campbell and let him run the table until there’s another back-to-back game.

With an extra day off due to a schedule change, it should allow Campbell more time to reflect on his recent performance and get back to the fundamentals that were working in those first 10 games.

Although he’s struggled a little bit, he still has an 11-2 record, 2.199 GAA and .922 SV%. Toronto clearly wants to win the North Division to gain home-ice advantage for the first two rounds, but at the same time, there’s no fans, so I really don’t understand why it matters this year.

Obviously you’d prefer to sleep in your own bed and play in a rink you’re familiar with, but without your home fans, I don’t see an advantage. Instead of worrying about that home-ice advantage and winning the division, the team should continue to play Campbell and let him work out his struggles and gain back as much confidence as possible.

Andersen is going to return at some point, but if Campbell can get back to his play during the first 10 games of the season, there will be no rush for Andersen and the team can count on Campbell to be their starter during Game One of the first round.

Watching Campbell struggle is never fun, but he shouldn’t lose the net. Keefe needs to go back to him on Sunday night and ride him until the playoffs start.