Woll's numbers do not look great since he returned in February, but his mind seems to be in the right place.
Woll's numbers do not look great since he returned in February, but his mind seems to be in the right place.
Joseph Woll had just given up the first goal on the opening shot he faced for the third time in his last four starts when he went to face the music and spoke to reporters following a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday.
Was there any concern about giving up those shots?
"I don't think it's a pattern I need to make anything of," Woll said.
Asked what he could do to prevent that from happening again going forward, Woll's response provided some levity.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoyrUX7iJJE[/embed]
Yeah, ideally a save," he laughed. "Yeah, but I try my best to stop the puck, so it's not something I can really control in that way. I do the same thing for every game and I have the same mindset. That's my game plan coming up."
Still considered a rookie by NHL standards, Woll started strong out of the gate this season with an 8-5-1 record and .916 save percentage until a high-ankle injury suffered in December against the Ottawa Senators sidelined the goaltender for nearly three months.
Woll has long talked about how he's used meditation to keep himself centered during times of turbulence. Even though his momentum has stalled, his attitude appears to be in the right place, unlike where Ilya Samsonov was when he struggled and showed signs of visible frustration before finally correcting things after a mental reset.
Woll has shrugged off his 3-4-0 record and .887 save percentage since returning from injury in February, staying committed to his process. In his loss to the Lightning on Wednesday, Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe pointed to one of the first three goals allowed as one where his team could have used a stop, even though he wasn't fully to blame for the chances allowed.
"You probably need to save on one of those three, you know, to keep us going, especially with the quality of goaltending at the other end," Keefe said of Woll. "That's just the reality of the game. But he made a couple of big saves. Once it was three (goals by Tampa) keep it there and allow us to get a chance to stay in the game. So, he did his job in that sense."
While Woll is Toronto's possible goaltender of the future, Samsonov's play has made him the goaltender of the present. Although there are seven games to go in the regular season, Samsonov is the frontrunner to start Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs after a March that saw him go 6-1-1 while posting a .926 save percentage.
Expect both goaltenders to split the number of starts remaining in the final seven games as the Leafs look to have both playing at their best ahead of the postseason.
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