The law of averages catching up to Murray, Samsonov; should we be alarmed?
Heading into the season, many felt the Toronto Maple Leafs' goaltending would be the team's demise. After all, the Leafs have a tandem of Matt Murray (who had only played 20 games in the previous season) and Ilya Samsonov (a first round pick that the Washington Capitals gave up on). But that was not the case in the early-going of the 2022-23 season. In his first 10 games with the Leafs, Murray posted a .926 save percentage while earning 7 wins in 10 games. Meanwhile, Samsonov was sporting a .939 save percentage and earned 9 wins in his first 11 games.
Since then, a lot has changed. Since December 15th, the Leafs' goaltenders have struggled, and that's putting it mildly. In fact, the team's save percentage since that date is a league-worst .852. Ouch.
Both goaltenders have struggled of late, that can not be denied. But, is it time to panic yet? Not necessarily. What we're seeing should not be a huge surprise. After how well we saw each goaltender play at the start of the year, we knew there would be a market correction of sorts. There's a reason why we only saw 5 goaltenders who played at least 7 games finish with a save percentage higher than .920 last season. It's very rare and difficult to go an entire season as a netminder without a cold streak or two. Additionally, no one expected the Leafs' goaltending to be above a cumulative .920 SV% all season. And even after allowing 5 goals on 26 shots last night, Matt Murray still owns a .913 save percentage on the season. As for Samsonov, his save percentage for the season currently sits at .914. So, despite the recent stretch of poor outings, when you look at their entire bodies of work, the two goaltenders have given the Leafs more than they may have expected so far this season - above average goaltending.
Both goaltenders have shown Leafs fans that they are capable of competent play and are both capable of going on a heater. Now what they need to show is resilience in order to get out of this recent funk. I'm confident that we'll see peaks and valleys all season, much like what we see with just about every other team. But hey - the regular season doesn't matter, right? It's all about what these guys can do in the playoffs.
| POLL | ||
JANVIER 6 | 97 ANSWERS The law of averages catching up to Murray, Samsonov; should we be alarmed? What goaltender are you more comfortable with right now? | ||
| Matt Murray | 26 | 26.8 % |
| Ilya Samsonov | 17 | 17.5 % |
| Neither - going to need to acquire a goalie | 35 | 36.1 % |
| Both! | 19 | 19.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
