Just as the Maple Leafs found their stride on a successful road trip, the team faces a potential crisis in the crease after Joseph Woll exited Thursday’s win with a concerning lower-body injury.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Just when things were starting to look up for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team faced yet another sudden wave of adversity.
The Maple Leafs defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 5-1 at the Lenovo Center on Thursday. The result should be celebrated, as the club finished a road trip with a 4-1-0 record following a significant struggle to start the season. Much of the club’s recent success had been driven by the stellar play of goaltender Joseph Woll, who had started in eight of the last nine games for the Leafs.
However, Woll left the game during the second intermission with an apparent left leg injury sustained in the second period. During the third period, Woll was seen walking around the locker room in a training shirt and shorts as he was assessed by team staff. He didn't seem to be laboring, which is a good sign. However, it is not a definitive indicator that the goaltender avoided a lineup-changing injury.
“You never want to see that. You know, we're all hoping it's nothing too serious,” Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews said of Woll. “He's somebody that looks after himself extremely well, puts a lot into his craft. So we're obviously hoping for all the best there.”
Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube confirmed it was a lower-body injury. When asked about the severity, he said he couldn’t answer, quickly pivoting to praise backup Dennis Hildeby’s seamless performance.
“I really like the way Beast came in and handled it,” Berube said.
Since returning to the club after a month-long absence for personal reasons, Woll has posted a 4-3-1 record with a .927 save percentage. The Leafs were leaning heavily on him as Anthony Stolarz has been out since Nov. 11 with an upper-body injury. Berube confirmed that Stolarz has not been on the ice since the injury, which is certainly problematic for the prospects of the club’s short-term future in net if Woll suffered anything serious.
“Yeah, it sucks, obviously. He's kind of been the backbone of our team for this road trip, you know, carrying us through it all,” Matthew Knies said of Woll. “You don't want to see him go down like that. But Hildeby stepped in and did a great job, and fortunate to get the two points tonight.”
The Leafs had one of the strongest goaltending tandems in the NHL last season, but neither Stolarz nor Woll has been able to dress in the same game together. It may not be out of the realm of possibility that neither of these goalies is ever capable of playing 50+ games in an NHL season.
The Leafs will get more news soon, but it certainly looks like Toronto will have no choice but to lean on Hildeby in the short term if that's what it comes to. At that point, they have to hope that it doesn’t disrupt the momentum they have built over the course of the trip.
“He played great for us the first two periods. It's hard in game to kind of go through that and think about that,” [Maple Leafs Player] said. “I guess in the next couple of days we'll see what's going on.”
In seven appearances his season, Hildeby has a 1-2-1 record with a .919 save percentage. He made 33 saves on 35 shots in a 7-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the middle of the five-game road trip.
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