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The Toronto Maple Leafs must depend on a rookie goalie making his first profession playoff begin on Wednesday to try to save their season.
The workforce introduced on Tuesday that rookie Joseph Woll will probably be getting the Recreation 4 begin in opposition to the Florida Panthers after starter Ilya Samsonov was injured of their Recreation 3 loss.
Veteran Matt Murray—who’s a two-time Stanley Cup winner—will function Woll’s backup. Murray was injured late within the season and has not been 100%. He has additionally struggled this season.
Samsonov was injured in a collision along with his teammate, Luke Schenn, on Sunday night time.
It’s a literal must-win recreation for the Maple Leafs as they enter Wednesday night time dealing with a 3-0 sequence deficit. It’s a gorgeous end result contemplating that they entered the sequence as heavy favorites in opposition to the No. 8 seed Panthers. Toronto had among the best information within the league in the course of the common season and was driving the excessive that got here from profitable the group’s first playoff sequence since 2004. They did so by knocking off a Tampa Bay Lightning workforce that had performed in three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals.
However nothing has gone proper for the Maple Leafs within the second spherical as they’ve been considerably outplayed by the Panthers, who’ve been one of many league’s hottest groups over the previous month.
Woll has solely appeared in 13 NHL video games throughout his profession (together with two reduction appearances this postseason) and has proven flashes of being a very good NHL goalie. He had a .932 save share throughout his seven regular-season appearances this season.
This recreation goes to be a very completely different animal although as it would include Toronto’s season on the road in opposition to among the best offensive groups within the league.
If Toronto doesn’t win it might lead to important modifications to the group this offseason. The Maple Leafs have some of the gifted rosters within the league on paper and 5 big-money stars (Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, Morgan Rielly and William Nylander), however have but to have any actual success within the playoffs. Previous to this season they misplaced within the first spherical six years in a row and have now but to win a recreation within the second spherical after lastly advancing.
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