Joseph Woll Explains His 'Goofy Body' Following Maple Leafs win Against Stars
Woll had another strong start for the Maple Leafs and made 31 saves.
DALLAS — Joseph Woll continues to excel in the Toronto Maple Leafs' net.
The goaltender made 31 saves in a 4-1 victory against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Thursday. And most of them weren't easy.
In the first period, he had to slide across the net for the first shot he faced. He managed to get his knob on the shot fired off by Stars defenseman Thomas Harley.
Later in the game, Woll stoned Stars forward Jason Robertson by doing the splits.
Does Woll practice the splits?
"I’ve got kind of a goofy body so I don’t really practice it," Woll explained. I actually have to contain my body a bit because I’m pretty flexible so I don’t really do much stretching. I do more stuff to keep my muscles working to keep everything in place."
It's rare to hear a goaltender describe his body as goofy. Woll said his flexibility is "God-given".
Whatever the case may be, it's certainly working. Woll improved to 3-1-0 this season and moved into first in the NHL in save percentage (.961) among goalies that have appeared in at least four games. Oddly enough, Woll passed Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger in that stat (.952) after Woll's longtime friend and Stars goaltender was rested in favor of Scott Wedgewood.
"I found out after the morning skate (that Oettinger wouldn't start), " Woll said. "Definitely a little bummed there."
Woll and Oettinger were teammates at the USA Hockey National Developmental Program and have gone against each other at different levels of hockey.
But the upsetting news for Woll was Toronto's gain and the Maple Leafs couldn't be more impressed with the play of their goaltender.
"It’s not like he’s just making easy saves. He’s making really difficult saves, beautiful saves in important times of the game against great players. I mean, he’s really doing it all," Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said. "We want him to keep rolling. As teammates, we want to try and make it a little bit easier on him. But he’s doing an outstanding job for us."
Rielly opened the scoring for the Maple Leafs in the first period. After Stars forward Mason Marchment tied the game 1-1 at 11:17 of the second period, Mitch Marner put the Leafs back on top with at 18:07.
The Stars continued to press in the middle frame, but Woll stood his ground.
"The Brick did his thing as usual," Marner said, referring to Woll.
Ilya Samsonov is expected to get the nod in goal for the Maple Leafs on Saturday against the Predators but as far as which goaltender is going to get a majority of the games in the short term, there's no question it's Woll.
"Joseph Woll was terrific again for us and brought us the confidence to grind out a good road win," Keefe said.
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