Leafs announce an injury, a roster recall and tonight's starting goaltender
After what ended up being a wild game against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs return to action tonight, hosting the St. Louis Blues at Scotiabank Arena. Following their morning skate, Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe revealed that the Leafs are battling a handful of injuries which includes Martin Jones.
Keefe did not go into details regarding Jones' injury, but noted he would be day-to-day. That means that Ilya Samsonov, who was doing his usual starter's routine with goaltending coach Curtis Sanford during the morning skate, will get the nod between the pipes tonight.
Joseph Woll took part in his first full practice with the Leafs yesterday, but will not return to the lineup tonight to back up Samsonov. Instead, the Leafs have recalled Dennis Hildeby from the Toronto Marlies, fresh off of his first career AHL All-Star Game, to back up Samsonov.
Samsonov will be making his sixth start in the Leafs' last seven games and has gone 4-1-0 over his last five starts. Since returning from his absence in early January, Samsonov has largely looked like last year's version of himself, but clearly needed a rest on Saturday as he appeared to be reverting to bad habits (being too active and sliding too much) against the Dallas Stars last Wednesday.
Samsonov is running out of runway, though, to prove that he deserves to be the #1 option in Toronto. A strong performance tonight against St. Louis would go a long way towards allowing the Leafs to feel like they can really take their time with Joseph Woll and can trust Samsonov to do an amicable job night in and night out for the organization. Another lacklustre performance, however, might mean that he'll remain the team's second fiddle once Woll returns to action after a couple months on the sidelines.
| POLL | ||
13 FEVRIER | 897 ANSWERS Leafs announce an injury, a roster recall and tonight's starting goaltender Do you think the Leafs can win in the playoffs with a Woll/Samsonov tandem? | ||
| Yes | 545 | 60.8 % |
| No | 352 | 39.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
