The Toronto Maple Leafs are back from the All-Star break and will be back in action with a home-and-home against the Columbus Blue Jackets starting tomorrow night. It doesn’t look like they’ll have one of their regular goaltenders for the back-to-back situation, though, as Matt Murray landed on injured reserve today.
Toronto has recalled Pontus Holmberg, Alex Steeves, and goaltender Joseph Woll from the AHL.
It’s been the same story for Murray this season. Pretty good when healthy – not healthy often enough. This is his second stint on injured reserve, after missing a month with a groin injury earlier on. He’s played in 19 games so far, posting a .911 save percentage, but hasn’t appeared since January 17. The lion’s share of the goaltending duties will again fall on Ilya Samsonov, who has done well so far carrying the load but is still relatively inexperienced.
Samsonov, 25, set a career-high with 39 starts last season and finished with his worst performance since debuting in 2019. While his .913 save percentage so far for the Maple Leafs is encouraging, pushing him every night is a recipe for disaster. Toronto needs two goaltenders that they can rely on, and so far, that hasn’t been Murray.
Perhaps it will be Woll, who is having a fantastic bounce-back after recovering from injury. Through 14 games for the Toronto Marlies, he is 13-1 with a .930 save percentage. The 24-year-old was a highly touted prospect at one point, but has struggled to stay healthy through the early part of his career and has just four appearances in the NHL so far.
There is no clear timeline for Murray’s return, but he was on the ice today at practice. Since he has been out so long, his IR stay can be backdated to allow his activation whenever deemed healthy enough to go.
Eeesh, it’s a straightforward thing. Barring an epic collapse, no one’s catching Boston. Barring a similar epic collapse, the Leafs aren’t in danger of missing the playoffs. Just about the sole thing that’s still at stake for them in the regular season is whether they have home ice advantage over Tampa Bay or not.
So while, as a native Bostonian, it’s something of a giggle to proffer advice to Toronto, for pity’s sake, play Woll. Find out what he can do *now* — when there’s not a lot at stake — instead of after the trade deadline when there’s nothing they’ll be able to do about it.
Home ice is Irrelevant, If you are a good team you can win regardless of your surroundings, Also there is alot of science that tells us there is NO distinct advantage to having home Ice advantage.
It’s not about surroundings. It’s about last change.
the revenue doesn’t hurt either…