Despite Samsonov Shut-Out, Maple Leafs Still Desperate for Help in Net
The Toronto Maple Leafs still need a goalie. Ilya Samsonov had a great game on Wednesday, and hopefully. he finds himself, but he is well past the point where the Leafs can rely on him for the playoffs.
The current situation is untenable, and the fact that the team hasn't acted to fix it amounts to a
dereliction of duty by GM Brad Treliving. Think about how much luck the Toronto Maple Leafs have had since Woll was injured: not only did Martin Jones go on a bizzarre and unexpected hotstreak, but Ilya Samsonov been able to return to actually steal points.
But if those two extremely unlikely things had not occured, the Leafs season could already be over, and therefore I believe that Leafs management deserves a lot of criticism for how they've done nothing but let fate decide what will happen.
Never, in my entire life watching hockey, have I seen a team that is should be a contender ignore such a glaring hole on their roster.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Still Need a Goalie
I cannot believe the Leafs haven't made a move to bring in a goalie yet. To entrust the season to Martin Jones and whatever version of Ilya Samsonov you get night-to-night just doesn't make any sense.
If the Leafs had a legitamate number-one goalie waiting to return from injury, it might be a different story (and even then, I don't know how you don't at least upgrade on Jones), but they don't. As good as Joseph Woll has been this season, the Leafs can't rely on him.
I think experience is overrated, but Woll has never played a full NHL season, let alone a playoff game. In the last three years he's barely played one full season combined, and a high ankle sprain is a difficult injury to come back from, especially, one assumes, for a goalie.
Since you can't count on Woll, and you can't count on Jones or Samsonov, the Leafs have no choice but to go for a goalie.
Martin Jones has been a bad NHL goalie for over 5 years. His current statistics are too good for who he is, and so odds are that he will continue to regress.
Ilya Samsonov cannot be trusted, and even though I think his shutout the other was magnificant, you can't just stake the whole season on it.
The Toronto Maple Leafs desperately need a starting goalie they can trust for the playoffs, and it doesn't seem like he is currently on the their roster.
This team also needs a left winger, a third-line centre (ideally one who should be on a second line) and
several defenseman. Ironically, it took firing Kyle Dubas to make this team into what it's least informed critics always said it was: a team with offense, no defense, that was too top heavy and too star reliant.
Brad Treliving, needs to wake up hibernation and do something to help this team before it is too late.
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He must realize that if he misses the playoffs that Brendan Shanahan will likely be fired and
that means he'll only be a one-season GM.