{"id":458961,"date":"2024-12-19T16:02:57","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T21:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=458961"},"modified":"2024-12-19T16:02:57","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T21:02:57","slug":"maple-leafs-goaltending-performance-means-the-team-is-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/12\/19\/maple-leafs-goaltending-performance-means-the-team-is-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs Goaltending Performance Means the Team Is Safe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs took a big injury hit with Anthony Stolarz<\/a>. TSN announced<\/a> Tuesday that he would be out four to six weeks and had a Wednesday-scheduled “procedure<\/a> to remove a loose body within his knee” in New York. As fans, it was easy to bite our nails when we have one of the best goalies in the NHL this year so far – and he’s out for that long. Thankfully, the Maple Leafs goaltending performance since his departure has been promising. It is no secret we’ve got goalie depth from the NHL to the AHL.\u00a0The Leafs star goalie at the moment is 26-year-old Joseph Woll<\/a>, who’s been hot this year so far. In 13 games, Woll has nine wins, a shutout, a 2.30 goals-against average, and .918 save percentage.<\/p>\n

On Friday, December 13, the Maple Leafs recalled<\/a> the 23-year-old Swede and left-catcher Dennis Hildeby<\/a> from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies “on an emergency basis.”\u00a0The Hockey News<\/em> recently reported<\/a> that Maple Leafs General Manager Brad Treliving praised both Hildeby and Murray.<\/p>\n

“When I refer to the depth, it’s not just one guy. We’ve got three guys that have been playing well [with the Marlies],” Treliving said Tuesday<\/a>, the context being talking about Toronto’s goaltending depth.<\/p>\n

Treliving noted Hildeby’s excellent season with the Marlies last year. During this season<\/a>, he played 41 games, notched four shutouts, a .913 save percentage, and 2.41 goals-against average.\u00a0The Swede also had a good NHL game during the Leafs 5-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 15. In his first NHL game since Oct. 22, Hildeby made 24 saves on 27 shots against for an .889 save percentage.<\/p>\n

But of course, it was apparent not long after Stolarz was confirmed out for a while that it could pave the way for the NHL comeback of another Marlies goalie.<\/p>\n

Matt Murray<\/a>‘s Possible Call-Up<\/h2>\n

The same night as Woll’s great performance in Dallas saw Toronto Marlies netminder Matt Murray notch a 27-save shutout. Murray is also a two-time Stanley Cup champion<\/a> with the Pittsburgh Penguins (2015-16 & 2016-17). With Stolarz out, the Leafs needed some AHL helpers. Murray missed all last season<\/a> because of hip surgery. So, it was not obvious at first that the star veteran should be called up. However, Maple Leafs Head Coach Craig Berube praised him for his excellent performance, experience, and wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s encouraging. That\u2019s great for him and the Marlies. And this guy\u2019s got a lot of experience, and he\u2019s won,\u201d Berube said<\/a> after the Leafs beat the Stars 5-3 Wednesday night. \u201cSo, we\u2019re gonna look at everything and make some decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

And this afternoon, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported<\/a> on X:<\/p>\n

“Sounds like it is Matt Murray time in Toronto. Readying to make his first NHL appearance since April 2023”.<\/p>\n

On July 1 of this year, Murray signed an $875,000-contract<\/a> with the Leafs, and it would be awesome to see him between their pipes again.<\/p>\n

Maple Leafs Goaltending Performance Wednesday Against the Dallas Stars<\/h3>\n

Picked<\/a> by Toronto first in the third round (62nd overall) in 2016, Woll has already proven to be an excellent goaltender. This is despite not yet playing a full NHL season. The most games he played in one was last year (2023-24) with 25 games and 23 starts. It is no secret he made some amazing saves in Texas Wednesday night. In addition to great individual saves, Woll notched<\/a> a .923 save percentage (3 goals allowed on 39 shots against). Woll has also been a great playoff performer in the blue-and-white, notching a very impressive .964 save percentage (on 56 shots against) and a 0.86 goals-against average in three playoff games<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

The star goalie hopes to remember the lessons from the Dallas game and utilize them going forward.<\/p>\n

“It is a little bit about taking it day-to-day and you can stack good games and good days on top of each other, it’s always nice. So, yeah, I’ll look back on this game and take what I need moving forward and you know, put it in the pocket and go on,” Woll said<\/a> in a postgame interview following the victory over the Stars on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

He also praised the Maple Leafs’ third forward line.<\/p>\n

“A lot of skill, [they] play fast, and play the right way. So, it was good to see all three of them score tonight. Pretty awesome.”\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs took a big injury hit with Anthony Stolarz. TSN announced Tuesday that he would be out four to six weeks and had a Wednesday-scheduled “procedure to remove a loose body within his knee” in New York. As fans, it was easy to bite our nails when we have one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5243,"featured_media":459011,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4548,4547,34,18],"tags":[1169,1092,72,6472],"class_list":["post-458961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl","category-hockey","category-news","category-leafs","tag-anthony-stolarz","tag-joseph-woll","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-goaltending"],"modified_by":"Tommy Bennett","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5243"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458961"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459012,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458961\/revisions\/459012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}