Leafs coach gives honest thoughts about Ilya Samsonov's pre-season debut

Samsonov stopped all 17 shots he faced in the Leafs' 2-1 win last night before Keith Petruzzelli relieved him for the 3rd period. Following the game, Leafs bench boss Sheldon Keefe was asked about Samsonov's performance. His response was pretty much what you might have imagined. He was pleased with his number 1 netminder and is very hopeful that his solid play will continue.

"I thought he was solid. We didn't give up a lot, but there were some flurries around the net there that he had to really compete for," said Keefe.

"From our perspective, this is probably as good as you could ask for. It was not an overwhelming amount of work, but certainly, there was enough there that he had to still track the puck and battle. He looked very solid. He looked very confident. He kept the puck out of the net, so from my perspective, it was a great night for him."

The logical progression here will be to have Martin Jones, Joseph Woll and Samsonov each start one full pre-season game of the remaining 4 games before the regular season begins. With Jones dressing for tonight's game, along with Dennis Hildeby, perhaps we'll see them split the game tonight, with Jones drawing back in for one of the final 3 games of the pre-season next week. I'd expect that Samsonov will get the final pre-season game before the season begins, as that game should be as close to the actual NHL roster as possible before the final few cuts are made.