Joseph Woll addresses alleged Maple Leafs goalie controversy
Trouble brewing in Leafs land?
HockeyFeed
The Toronto Maple Leafs got consistently good goaltending out of Ilya Samsonov last season, whom they brought aboard courtesy of now-former general manager Kyle Dubas in the form of a one-year contract. And while the two sides would eventually find themselves in salary arbitration, the Russian goaltender would soon put ink to paper on another one-year pact with the Leafs to try and build off the success of last year.
But despite Samsonov's decent record of 2-1-1 through four games, his goals against average of 3.99 and .841 save percentage leave plenty to be desired. He's been highly critical of his own play, which has seen head coach Sheldon Keefe look to backup Joseph Woll of late.
Woll is currently sporting a 3-2 record with an impressive 1.89 goals against average and .941 save percentage. While last night's game against the Los Angeles Kings (4-1 loss) didn't go Toronto's way, Woll made several key saves to give his team a chance to get back into things.
But is there a goalie controversy brewing? Not according to Woll, who is loving the time that he gets between the pipes and is simply just trying to do his job.
"It's been great," Woll said. "It helps you to really settle in and find your game, especially in this league and there's a lot of games that happen quickly and I've been very happy to get in the net as much as I have. Each time I'm trying to do the best I can and help the team win."
But there's no worry of any kind of competition with Samsonov other than of the friendly variety. Woll is saying all of the right things of his relationship with the Russian net minder, saying that they are a duo focused on helping the Leafs succeed.
"I think the biggest thing is that we're a duo," Woll said. "We're a partnership and the goal is to help the team win and I think it's been awesome to be able to work with him and learn from him over the last year. I hope just like me, he takes as much pride and joy in my success as I take in his."
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