OTTAWA — As Joseph Woll required help from teammates to even get off the ice, it was difficult to imagine a worse scenario for this Toronto Maple Leafs team. From afar, it looked like the Maple Leafs goalie was unable to put weight on his left leg as he struggled to even move a few inches forward in the tunnel while propped up by two Leafs staffers.
Advertisement
The 50 minutes before Woll made a routine glove save and then awkwardly collapsed on his lower body had made one thing abundantly clear: He had claimed full ownership of the No. 1 job with his performance in a 4-3 win over the Senators on Thursday night. Woll stopped 29 of 31 shots in those 50 minutes, bailing out a team that suffered a sluggish start in front of him with multiple highlight-reel saves. It’s what he’s done repeatedly through 15 games this season.
Woll went down after this pic.twitter.com/pYAzCbABPV
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) December 8, 2023
Woll’s .916 save percentage this season climbed toward the top of the league among goalies with that many games played. Beyond just stealing the starter’s job from incumbent Ilya Samsonov, Woll, 25, had put himself in the Calder Trophy conversation as the feel-good story of the season for an up-and-down Leafs team.
But those good vibes felt secondary as Woll walked on crutches postgame.
“(Woll) is going to miss time for sure. We’ll determine the extent of it when we get home,” coach Sheldon Keefe said. “He’s a big reason why we get two points here tonight.”
Depending on the severity of Woll’s injury, the Leafs now have the largest hurdle so far of their season to scale.
Their blue line has been decimated by injuries, sure, with half of their top six on opening night out of the lineup. Missing William Lagesson, a surprise addition to the back end, to illness meant Max Lajoie was forced to play just his second game for the Leafs this season. Outside of some sturdy play from Morgan Rielly and Jake McCabe, the defence struggled to move the puck cleanly out of its own zone early against the Senators.
But acquiring help on defence via trade has already been a priority for Leafs general manager Brad Treliving. Finding upgrades via the trade market could be done in due time.
Advertisement
The Leafs’ top scorers haven’t been as consistent or dominant as they have in seasons past, which has been another reason for slight concern. But if you’re betting on players to find, and elevate, their games, betting on the likes of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander is safe enough. Marner and Nylander each scored at five-on-five against the Senators.
But, and this is a sizable but, getting help in goal if Woll will miss a lengthy period of time? That could prove too tall a task for Treliving, if it’s one he even considers.
Instead, this is a problem the goalies on the Leafs’ roster will be tasked with fixing.
First, on Woll: There is a reason the air was sucked out of the Canadian Tire Centre when Woll went down. Watching a player and a person as positive as him — appreciated by teammates and committed to personal growth — hobble off the ice with injury is painful. This is a player who has battled through adversity after posting the second-worst save percentage in the AHL during his rookie professional season but who consistently improved afterward.
Woll has endured injuries in the past, too. He suffered a shoulder injury in March 2022 with the Marlies that kept him out for eight months. During the rehabilitation from that injury, he endured a minor setback as well as an ankle injury, keeping him out of training camp to begin last season.
It makes Woll’s climb to becoming the Leafs starter this season all the more remarkable.
“We hope he’s OK. He’s been playing outstanding for us,” Rielly said.
Woll had become the first goalie the Leafs had drafted and developed since James Reimer, and had done so without taking any shortcuts in his mental and physical preparation.
“It’s unfortunate. He’s been playing so well and building such great momentum in his season and his career,” Keefe said.
Advertisement
With every game, Woll has looked more and more like the kind of goalie Keefe could depend on in the playoffs, just as he did last season when Samsonov went down with injury.
That the Leafs have relied on him as heavily as they have speaks as much to his composure and athleticism as it does the oft-inconsistent play of the team in front of him.
It stinks something rotten, and the Leafs knew it postgame.
“It’s brutal. You don’t wish that upon anyone,” Marner said.
Next, what happens in goal from here for the Leafs?
Samsonov last played Nov. 24, allowing four goals in an overtime loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. He was held out of Thursday’s game against the Senators with illness. Samsonov has hardly looked like the goalie who was one of the Leafs’ most important players last season. Through 10 games, his .878 save percentage is fourth worst among goalies with that many games played. Samsonov entered last season, his first with the Leafs, as a happy-go-lucky type. But he has been open about his struggles this season.
“If I’m saying I feel great, it’s not true,” Samsonov said Oct. 27. “I feel (like) s—. … (But) I’m a guy who will be fighting through this. I will be fighting every day.”
The Leafs are going to need him to keep fighting for the foreseeable future. With a day off Friday to help squash the bug he’s been dealing with, it feels like Samsonov could get a run of games starting Saturday against the Nashville Predators.
They’ll need him to show a lot of what made Woll so valuable to the Leafs this season: calm and composure. At worst, Samsonov’s game has looked erratic. You can count the number of games this season when he’s posted higher than a .900 save percentage on one hand.
Martin Jones was signed to a one-year, $875,000 contract to be the team’s third goalie this offseason. The team’s management and coaching staff were notably relieved when he passed through waivers Oct. 9. That relief was likely multiplied when he came off the bench for Woll in his first Leafs appearance and stopped nine of 10 shots in 10 minutes.
Advertisement
Is he ready to continue as an NHL backup, or even as more of part of a tandem should Samsonov not get his game back on track in the near future? Jones has spent the entirety of this season with the Marlies, playing five games. His .870 save percentage in the AHL this season doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, but his 445 NHL games do with Keefe.
“The confidence and faith is high,” Keefe said. “He’s a veteran goalie. A situation like tonight, coming in, that wouldn’t rattle him. He’s been a tremendous teammate when he’s been here, he’s been tremendous when he’s been down with the Marlies, he’s handled this whole situation incredibly well. That’s why you sign veteran depth.”
Is he the same goalie he was in 2016 when he backstopped the San Jose Sharks to the Stanley Cup Final with a .918 save percentage in the regular season? No, but the Leafs don’t necessarily need him to be. Just relying on his experience, not getting fazed by the immediate change in his situation and holding down the fort in whatever game time he sees while the Leafs defence tries to improve should be enough.
Still, the Leafs are now just another freak injury or even a flu bug away from calling up Dennis Hildeby. The 6-foot-7, 2022 draft pick is putting together an impressive start to the AHL season, taking the starter’s job as a rookie and posting a .925 save percentage, one of the league’s best.
Hildeby, 22, might be a goalie of the future for the Leafs. But he has played only 11 professional games in North America.
The Leafs can boast a far deeper goalie pool than they had a few years ago, but the likes of Hildeby and Artur Akhtyamov are still years away from NHL consideration.
That’s all part of what has made Woll so valuable to the Leafs. And it’s partly why, even with just their sixth regulation win this season, there was a dark cloud hanging over the team postgame.
Advertisement
Starting Saturday, the Leafs’ schedule will get compressed with eight games in 15 days. Both Samsonov and Jones will undoubtedly see action during this time.
And their play could determine whether Woll leaving the ice in obvious pain will end up being a turning point in the Leafs’ season or a hurdle they end up overcoming.
(Photo: André Ringuette / NHLI via Getty Images)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57lGppa2hgbXxzfJFsZmpqX2WEcLbOrJypoF2svK24jKWcmp6jYravttSrsGain6OytHnSmqSsp56kw3A%3D