Sheldon Keefe confirms his goaltenders for this weekend's back-to-back set
The Toronto Maple Leafs return to the ice tomorrow afternoon for a Black Friday game against the Chicago Blackhawks. Riding a 4-game winning streak that includes 2 games from the Global Series in Sweden, the Leafs will be looking to extend their impressive win streak with their upcoming games this weekend.
Following practice on Thursday, Sheldon Keefe has announced who his starting goaltenders will be against both the Blackhawks and the Pittsburgh Penguins in this weekend's back-to-back. Per Keefe, llya Samsonov will be patrolling the blue paint tomorrow against Chicago, looking for his 3rd straight victory after allowing 2 goals on 33 shots against Vancouver and 2 goals on 29 shots against Detroit.
After a very rough start to the season, he has improved his peripherals a little bit from a .855 SV% to .878% and a G.A.A hovering around 4.00 to 3.56. The Blackhawks will be without Taylor Hall who was ruled out for the season and potentially without Corey Perry, so look for a strong outing from the Russian netminder.
As for Saturday's contest against the Penguins, Keefe has already confirmed that it will be Joseph Woll tending the twine. The rookie goaltender is currently 6-4-0 with a .909 SV% and a 2.90 G.A.A. and similarly to Samsonov, he is also riding a 2-game winning streak. He allowed 4 goals on 28 shots against the Calgary Flames and 3 goals on 36 shots against the Minnesota Wild.
The hope here is to keep both guys as involved as possible and help them clean up the details of their game and remain sharp, as both netminders will be counted upon this season. Sheldon Keefe seems intent on working his netminders pretty evenly, until someone steps up and proves that they deserve to go on a run.
| POLL | ||
NOVEMBRE 23 | 321 ANSWERS Sheldon Keefe confirms his goaltenders for this weekend's back-to-back set Are you at all concerned with how Joseph Woll has played this season after a strong start? | ||
| No, Woll is fine. Early season rust. | 130 | 40.5 % |
| Yes, he hasn't been as good as I'd hoped | 57 | 17.8 % |
| It's too early to judge either way yet | 134 | 41.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
