Leafs announce starting goaltenders for two final pre-season games, the home-and-home against Detroit
While the regular season technically starts tomorrow with the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators duelling it out in the Czech Republic, over the pond in North America, the Toronto Maple Leafs - as well as several other teams - have a few more pre-season games to finish off before their 2022-23 campaign is officially set to begin.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are set to do battle with the Detroit Red Wings on both the 7th and 8th of October, in a home-and-home scenario. The Leafs have announced that Ilya Samsonov will be starting in goal on Friday when the Leafs head over to Detroit and then Matt Murray will close out the pre-season on Saturday in front of the Leafs faithful at home in Toronto.
The Leafs are entering the 2022-23 season with a brand new goalie tandem after Jack Campbell signed with the Edmonton Oilers in the off-season and Petr Mrazek getting traded to the Chicago Blackhawks at the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.
Matt Murray, who has 2 Stanley Cups to his name, is coming off a rough couple of seasons - one with Pittsburgh before being traded to Ottawa. Last year his peripherals weren't too bad for a downtrodden Senators team as he posted a .906 SV%, which was better than his previous 2 seasons of .893% and .899% respectively.
As for Ilya Samsonov, he never fully realized his potential in Washington even though he posted a 52-22-8 record in parts of 3 seasons. His peripherals were not attractive in the slightest as he holds a .902 SV% and 2.81 G.A.A for a contending team.
The Leafs are hoping both goaltenders can realize their full potential as they had to go the cheaper route this summer in letting Jack Campbell walk into free agency. With how good their offense is, the Leafs need their goaltending to at least hold down the fort and provide league average goaltending or better if they have any plans of taking the Atlantic Division crown and then advancing past the first round of the playoffs for the first time in nearly two decades.
| POLL | ||
6 OCTOBRE | 287 ANSWERS Leafs announce starting goaltenders for two final pre-season games, the home-and-home against Detroit Will the Leafs steal the next two preseason games against the Red Wings? | ||
| Yes | 175 | 61 % |
| No | 36 | 12.5 % |
| They may win one, but not both | 76 | 26.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
