Has Samsonov Returned to Form?

 

Photo From TSN

Now that Shohei Ohtani watch is over, and he’s signed with the Dodgers after using the Blue Jays as a bargaining tool we can turn our focus back to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

 December didn’t get off to the greatest of starts for the Maple Leafs. Things started with an overtime loss to the Boston Bruins followed by a win against the Ottawa Senators, but fans would see Joseph Woll leave with an injury after playing the game of his life. What I thought would be a groin injury turns out to be a High Ankle Sprain and Woll will be sidelined for a few weeks. So now the Leafs goaltending tandem will be Ilya Samsonov and Martin Jones. Samsonov who had been dealing with an illness returned to the crease last night against Nashville and backstopped the Leafs to a 4-0 win. It was his first start since the overtime loss in Chicago but if you look at his recent stretch, he hasn’t had a regulation loss since October 19 against Florida. In 11 starts Samsonov has a record of 5-1-3. He has had his struggles, but he’s also helped the Leafs pick up valuable points in the standings and as we have seen with the Atlantic so far, every point is valuable. Last season when Ilya took the net from Matt Murray, he played well all season and I think it was because he knew the net was his, so it allowed him to focus on his game. Samsonov and the Leafs had a strong regular season and it carried into the post-season as Ilya played an important role in the Leafs making it out of the first round. We would then see Samsonov get injured against the Panthers and Joseph Woll take over and perform very well despite the team losing in five games. This is where I think Ilya’s struggles began. As we have seen Sammy started the season picking up wins but letting in too many goals and quite a few soft ones at that. I think what happened was Ilya got into his head and thought he was going to lose the net. Instead of focusing on only what he could control he was worrying about if/when Sheldon Keefe was going to make a change.

Woll has without a doubt been very good for the Leafs this season and will undoubtedly be a very important piece of Toronto’s future, losing him to injury is going to be a test for the team over the next few weeks but it’s one that I think Ilya Samsonov and the Leafs can and will pass. Again, when Samsonov was winning games but struggling, he was very loud in goal. Now, you’re reading that thinking “What are you talking about?”. Ilya earlier in the season Ilya was over-committing on shots leaving himself out of position or just simply not able to track the puck. Then came the game against Vancouver before the Sweden trip where he helped the Leafs win 5-2. In that game, we saw a calm and confident goalie. He was square to shots tracking the puck better giving him better rebound control he was much quieter, and it carried over to the Sweden trip. As the Leafs began making their comeback against Detroit was saw Samsonov get locked in and focused not allowing Detroit to regain momentum and Toronto would begin the trip with an important divisional win. As I said earlier, he would next start in Chicago where yes, he let in a few goals he would like back but he once again kept the Leafs in the game and helped them pick up a valuable point by getting the game to overtime.

Last night we saw the Ilya Samsonov we saw play last year. Against Nashville, we saw Sammy track the puck fairly well and he was squaring up to shots nicely showing a high level of confidence. It was supported by a great effort from the team in front of him as well, but I think now with Woll sidelined for a little while, I think Samsonov with the help of Martin Jones is going to continue to grow in confidence and we will see the swagger come back in Ilya’s game.

 

Thanks as always for reading.