Toronto Maple Leafs: Joseph Woll Injured, But Not Before Stealing 4th Win

The Toronto Maple Leafs appear to have developed an absolute stud in net.

For the first time since Felix Potvin, the Toronto Maple Leafs have drafted and developed a goalie who you could get excited about.  James Reimer? That disgrace isn’t even fit to wear the uniform, but he’s about the best the team could do for almost 30 years.

Now, goalies in the NHL are extremely mercurial and there are only a few in the league at any time who are good every single year, but despite that, it’s still worth being excited about Joseph Woll. 

He was unreal last year, splitting his time between the Leafs and Marlies.  This year, he’s all but stolen the net from Ilya Samsonov, and he’s picked up right where he left off last year.

With 4 stolen wins on the year, he’s in the conversation with Connor Bedard for the Calder, and he may just be the leading candidate for the Vezina at the moment.

He may not be at the top of any goalie stats – but that is because his team has been horrendous in front of him.  Be that as it may, he has personally ensured 4 wins for his team in just over 25% of the season.

That in a league where the best skater is usually worth about 6 wins over the course of the season.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Joseph Woll Injured, But Not Before Stealing 4th Win

Last night’s game was terrible.

The Toronto Maple Leafs barely showed up.  The Ottawa Senators have every right to feel great about the game they played, which they deserved to win.

The Leafs were not that good.  Awful, even.

However, on the positive side, Joseph Woll was amazing.  It was the best performance  a Toronto Maple Leafs goalie has had all year, and he already had stolen 3 other wins.

Those eight points would otherwise see the Leafs in 26th place, one point ahead of the Oilers, tied with the Kraken.

Nick Robertson also deserves a shout-out for his excellent game.  Why the coach doesn’t see fit to give him more minutes is beyond me.

Shot-Attempts were 10-2 when Robertson was on the ice.  Shots were 7-2, scoring chances were 5-0, goals 1-0, and the expected goals were nearly 100%. (naturalstatrick.com).

It was an amazing nine minutes, but even his linemate Domi had 11.

Come on Keefe!

Speaking of Keefe, his performance has been pathetic.  I can’t believe he keeps dressing Reaves, who, no surprise, was on for a goal last night.

And speaking of pathetic, it’s just embarrassing that the Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t done anything to fix their blue-line, but having a game where Jake McCabe leads your team in 5v5 ice-time is a reason to fire the coach.

That’s horrible.

As was McCabe. 11 minutes with Simon Benoit and they were unwatchable.  Ottawa had 22 shot attempts, the Leafs had 4.

The Leafs play is concerning. More concerning is the fact that their coach and their GM appear to be completely oblivious to how bad a job they are doing.

Joseph Woll is the only reason this team isn’t competing for a top draft pick right now, and he’s likely out for four to six weeks in a best case scenario.