Joseph Woll is going to take some time between injuries and actually start a game for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
We last saw Joseph Woll in game six of the Toronto Maple Leafs playoff series vs the Boston Bruins, and he looked fantastic. He looked so good, in fact, that pretty much everyone who likes the Leafs was ready to declare victory ahead of game seven.
Then of course, Woll couldn't play. And, since its the NHL, we don't know why. We are left to speculate wildly because all the league will tell us is if it is an upper or lower body injury. I assumed he was injured at the Upper Canada Mall, but was unable to get confirmation from the team. A butterfly could have landed on him and separated his shoulder - I have no way of knowing.
I do know that he couldn't play, the Leafs lost, searched for a real goalie, couldn't, or wouldn't, pull it off, then circled back to Joseph and his Amazing Technicolored Medical Chart. Ok, we told ourselves, this is crazy, but they must believe in him a lot to risk it........
....and he gets injured before the season even starts! C'est la vie!
Taking some time between injuries, Joseph Woll will start tonight's game
The pressure is on tonight because not only is Woll going to have to make it all the way to 7PM without re-injuring himself, but the Leafs need to recovered from the beating they took at the hands of the NHL's worst team on Tuesday.
In fact, this is another in a strange series of lineup decisions the Leafs coach has made this year. From sitting Timothy Liljegren to not even trying Max Domi with Auston Matthews, the Leafs lineup seems to confound on a nightly basis. Now Berube is going to sit out the NHL's hottest goalie for a second straight game.
Max Pacioretty is injured, and so the Leafs fourth line will feature Kampf back in after being a healthy scratch and the always unplayable Ryan Reaves. Pontus Holmberg will once again get a chance to prove he can hang in the top nine (which, at least give him one of Marner or Nylander to give it a chance to work).
Craig Berube is of course facing his old team, and the Leafs will want to give a better showing than they did on Tuesday. Auston Matthews is not often invisible for two games in a row, so I would expect the Leafs to win this one, regardless of who's in net.