Auston Matthews defends teammate amid media speculation
The Toronto Maple Leafs salvaged their four-game road trip by defeating the Seattle Kraken 3-1 last night. The win was also Ilya Samsonov's first win since a shutout of the Nashville Predators in back in December. Samsonov wasn't overly busy as the Kraken were limited to just 17 shots over the game, but he did make a number of stellar stops, including a dazzling split-save early in the third period.
While his workload was not extensive, the timely saves he made helped secure the win and led to Auston Matthews passing the game belt to Samsonov. Matthews, who scored his 38th of the season to open the scoring was asked about handing the belt to Samsonov as a "feel good" type thing and he quickly shot down that idea.
The fact that Matthews had to defend his decision to pass the belt to Samsonov is ridiculous. We don't see all the work Samsonov has put in the past couple of weeks or how hard it has been on him the way his teammates do. Yes, he only had to face 17 shots, but the game could have very easily swung in Seattle's favour had he not made a half-dozen sprawling saves. Anyone who was watching the game last night would agree that Samsonov was a very deserving recipient of the player of the game honour.
Hopefully this is a building block for Samsonov to string together consecutive wins for the first time since the middle of November.
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 22 | 725 ANSWERS Auston Matthews defends teammate amid media speculation Is Ilya Samsonov re-gaining his confidence? | ||
| Yes, he looked fantastic | 577 | 79.6 % |
| No, a fluke win last night | 148 | 20.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
