Maple Leafs: Is Tonight The Biggest Game of Jack Campbell’s Career?

Is tonight the biggest game of Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Jack Campbell’s career?

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had a fantastic season thus far, but their goaltender has been sub-par as of late. They lost Jake Muzzin to injury which really hurt the blue-line, but overall, Jack Campbell and Petr Mrazek need to be better.

In five of Campbell’s last seven starts, he’s allowed four or more goals (stats: espn.com).

Toronto’s offense has been scoring at will, but they can’t continue to match that goals allowed number every single night. They need to have steady goaltending from their netminder and Campbell needs to prove that tonight.

The Leafs are 2-4 in back-to-back games this season, so their record would indicate that they’re in tough tonight, even against a struggling Seattle Kraken team.

When Campbell last faced the Kraken a few weeks ago, it was one of his best games of the 2022 calendar. He only faced 25 shots, but he stopped 23 of them, as Toronto dominated the game 6-2.

Although Toronto destroyed Seattle in their last game, they shouldn’t expect the same result tonight.

Is Tonight The Biggest Game of Campbell’s Career?

Jack Campbell is clearly struggling and the Leafs need him to get back to normal if they have any chance to compete for a Stanley Cup.

Sure, they have Petr Mrazek for insurance, but if both goalies play like this in the playoffs, you can kiss your Stanley Cup dreams goodbye.

There are still two months left in the regular season, but the NHL Trade Deadline is quickly approaching. With that being said, general manager Kyle Dubas has a big decision to make, if Campbell’s game continues to slide.

Does the front office trust that Campbell can get back to normal for the playoffs, or do they trade for another goaltender?

Marc Andre-Fleury’s name has been rumored and there are many other options who they could turn to, but this is arguably the biggest game of Campbell’s career thus far as a member of the Leafs.

When your team is playing in a back-to-back, the energy levels are going to be lower than normal and the team is probably going to allow more scoring chances that a typical game. As a result, Campbell is going to need to be at his best and will more than likely need to stand on his head to help this team win.

It doesn’t matter that Seattle is struggling and that the Toronto Maple Leafs are seemingly scoring four goals every night. Campbell needs to play the best game of his career and help Toronto to victory.

Campbell needs to get his confidence levels back up, so having a good performance against a below-average team tonight will be incredibly important for him and the entire team moving forward.