Maple Leafs' Joseph Woll to 'Miss Some Time For Sure' Following Injury in Spectacular Performance Against the Senators

He robbed Ottawa Senators forward Vladimir Tarasenko twice on a 2-on-1 break. He stopped Mathieu Joseph from a big breakaway. But at the 10:22 mark of the third period, Woll made a bit of an awkward save while down in the butterfly on Sens forward Rourke Chartier. At that moment, Woll was down, and he couldn't get up.

"It's unfortunate. He's playing so well and he's built such great momentum," Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said of his goaltender. "It's a setback. He's going to miss time here for sure, we'll determine the extent of it when we get home."

Teammates Ryan Reaves and TJ Brodie helped Woll get to the locker room. The goaltender could not put any weight on his left leg and that continued to be the case after the game.

It was 3-2 Toronto when Martin Jones made his Maple Leafs debut, called up on an emergency basis to back up Woll as Ilya Samsonov continued his recovery from an illness and did not dress. Signed to a one-year, $875,000 contract in the off-season, Jones made nine saves. With both teams trading goals, Jones ended up picking up his first victory as Leaf as well.

At that point, the Leafs had discovered their game. The opening period was difficult with Ottawa having 82 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5, according to NaturalStatTrick.com.

Although the second period saw improvement in their game, Woll was effectively the reason Toronto turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes.

"It's brutal," Mitch Marner said of Woll's situation. "He's been making saves for us all year. Jonesy coming in with no warmup or anything, he made a couple of massive saves as well."

Goaltending has been an ongoing topic of discussion ever since Samsonov struggled out of the gate this season. Heading into the 2023-24 season as the presumptive No. 1 goaltender, the Maple Leafs were hoping the Russian netminder would build off his first season in Toronto where he finished with a .919 save percentage and backstopped the club to their first playoff series victory in 19 years. Instead, Samsonov has struggled. Woll twice bailed out the 26-year-old in games against Tampa and turned sure losses into victories.

Throughout the last couple of weeks, Keefe began giving Woll consecutive starts to see if his rookie can establish himself as the team's go-to netminder. Performance-wise, Woll showed all the makings of someone who can be a No. 1 in the NHL.

During his five consecutive games as the go-to starter, Woll put forth a 2-1-1 record with a .929 save percentage.

"He's been huge," William Nylander said of Woll. "Like those two saves (on Tarasenko) on the backside could have easily been goals and he owned them."

What happens next?

With Woll expected to miss some time, this will give Samsonov another opportunity after a long layoff to attempt to re-establish himself. Martin Jones will likely have the emergency tag removed from his call-up and move into the club's backup role. 

Samsonov is 4-1-3 this season with an .878 save percentage and hasn't played since Nov. 24. The Leafs are off on Friday and an update on the extent of Woll's injury will likely come following the team's full morning skate on Saturday ahead of their game against the Nashville Predators.

Until then, the Leafs are just going to have to roll with the same next-man-up mentality they've been using for some of their injuries on defense.

'We've got a lot of trust in our goalies no matter who's in net," Marner said.