Maple Leafs Make Inexplicable Change Prior To Game 7 Vs. Bruins

05/05/2024 01:41

BOSTON — The Maple Leafs don’t really don’t like making things easy on themselves, do they?

Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe is making a stunning change to his lineup.

Ilya Samsonov led the Maple Leafs out onto the ice for Game 7 on Saturday, signaling that he’ll get the start in goal for a do-or-die game at TD Garden.

It’s a seemingly innocuous change, right? Nope.

Samsonov is 1-3 in the series and seemingly lost his job to Joseph Woll, who led Toronto to back-to-back victories in Game 5 and Game 6. Samsonov has a .899 save percentage in the series, as opposed to Woll’s outstanding .964.

It’s unclear why Keefe made the change, though Woll did make an odd save in the closing moments of Game 6 in Toronto. He wasn’t dealing with an injury as far as the public knows, though that would seem to be the only explanation.

Woll, Samsonov and Martin Jones all arrived to TD Garden on the same bus, according to Elliotte Freidman of SportsNet. which led to speculation that a change could be made. It was, as Jones will back up Samsonov.

The Maple Leafs will need Samsonov to step up if they hope to exercise their playoff demons against the Bruins.

UPDATE (7:41 p.m. ET): Maple Leafs public relations confirmed Woll suffered an injury in Game 6.