'F**k That S**t': Maple Leafs' Ilya Samsonov Puts on Goaltending Clinic Against Sabres While Putting Early Season Struggles in the Rear View Mirror
Samsonov made 34 saves to blank Buffalo, a stark contrast from the five goals on 19 shots he allowed during his last visit to the city back in December.
BUFFALO — If the regular season were to end at the end of March, goaltender Ilya Samsonov would have already put his authoritative stamp on the starting netminder's position for the Toronto Maple Leafs with his 34-save shutout in a 3-0 victory against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Saturday.
The Russian goaltender had to be on his game with several high-quality chances from the Sabres as the Maple Leafs really never pulled away from the competition until Auston Matthews scored his 60th goal of the season to ice the game late in the third period.
A couple of difficult stops included a Dylan Cozens rebound from an initial stop on Jeff Skinner. While down, Samsonov was able to read Cozen's shot and just get his glove up enough to get a piece of it.
"I don’t even have words, honestly. It was incredible," Matthews said of Samsonov. "The one he made there on the rebound, I think it was on our power play, I mean, just all night he played incredibly for us and we probably took way too many penalties and he came up big."
Samsonov improved to 20-6-7 this season. His .712 winning save percentage is tops in the NHL among goaltenders who played at least the same amount of games. And the return to form seemed impossible when you rewind to the last time Samsonov went to Buffalo.
In the midst of a struggling season, the goaltender allowed five goals on 19 shots before he was pulled in favor of Martin Jones. The team went on to give up nine goals in a 9-3 loss on Dec. 21, their most in a game since November of 2014.
"I don’t remember what time I was here last time. Nine goals? F**k that s**t," Samsonov laughed. I feel good right now. That's a long time ago. I don’t remember."
Samsonov played in one more back following that disaster of a game before he was waived and stayed away from the club for a couple of weeks for a mental reset that has worked.
Outside of the mental return to form, Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe gave some insight into where the goaltender is at this point of the season.
"I talked to (Maple Leafs goaltending coach) Curtis Sanford after the game tonight. Nevermind the big saves, he just thought technically that this was his best game of the season with how he moved in the net and how he was in control and in position to make those big saves because of how he was managing the game and his depth — all of those things that are so important that I don’t know much about, but when they show me and talk to me, it makes sense.
"He was really good in that area tonight, so he gave himself every opportunity to be in a position to make the big saves when we needed him to."
Samsonov ended the month of March with a 6-1-1 with a .926 save percentage. There are still nine games left to play this season, but given the recent performances, it appears like a no-brainer to go with him over Joseph Woll to start the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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