Toronto Maple Leafs Going Shorthanded Against Sharks

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in San Jose to take on the Sharks tonight.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will start goalie Joseph Woll, who won every NHL game of his career so far.  That’s just two, but so far, so good.  Holl even got a shutout in his last game, which was last Sunday vs the Islanders. 

Tonight he will be playing his second game in three nights, sparking a massive goaltending controversy in Leafs Nation. Just kidding, but considering some people wanted to trade Marner last week, you wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

Campbell has been something close to the NHL’s best goalie for about a year now, and has earned a night off. The Leafs are facing a mid-level opponent and have been playing great, so why not give Woll another game?  You’ve got to play the back up sometimes.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs San Jose Sharks

Besides using Woll tonight, the Leafs will also have some other changes.  Ondrej Kase will miss the game, and he will be replaced by Kirill Semyonov.  David Kamf is a game-time decision.

It’s not the playoffs, so I don’t know why they bother to push guys to play through injuries. If he can’t for sure got by the time he wakes up on game-day, just rest him.  You’re playing Woll anyways, so who cares?

One assumes if he can’t go that Kyle Clifford will make his second Toronto Maple Leafs debut.

Semyonov has gotten into two games so far this year, and I don’t really have an opinion on him one way or the other. He only played about ten minutes in each game and I don’t remember really noticing him or thinking about him too much one way or the other.

He’s a point per game so far in the AHL, and I was a fan of the Leafs signing him.

My hope is that the injuries give Pierre Engvall a chance to shine with some extra minutes and that he can build on the two points he scored the other night. Engvall has played great all season and considering his extreme usage, his point production isn’t as bad as you’d otherwise think. He is getting a lot of chances and he plays good defense on top of that.

Injuries are never a good thing, but sometimes all a player on the edge who could go either way just needs an opportunity, and I think Engvall is going to be a difference maker.  Like everything else, we shall see.