How about the other goalie ?

NEXT ! 

That other new goalie the Toronto Maple Leafs signed this summer, 25 year old Ilya Samsonov late of the Washington Capitals, got the call tonight for the home opener @ Scotiabank Arena.  His counterpart Matt Murray didn’t fare so well last night in Montreal allowing 4 goals in the loss – mostly up over his shoulders.  He’s a big man at 6’4” – why does he go down so often and so quickly?

Anyways, Samsonov was not offered a renewal contract by his former team and ironically tonight’s opponent, the Washington Capitals.  He started for the Caps in last year’s 1^st round playoff exit and surely must be highly motivated to prove himself worthy tonight.

Coach Keefe was highly critical of his team’s effort last night, calling it unacceptable.  Was it the 12 x 2 on 1’s given up, the dash 3’s by the Muzzin/Holl pair or the mediocre goaltending performance by Murray.  Hard to say.

The “new guy”, Samsonov got into his debut quickly with a sharp glove save off a one timer.  The Leafs had a great power play, generating 5 solid shots when Marner fed a nifty cross ice pass to Reilly who sent a clever feed to Tavares waiting at the side of a wide-open net.  Three minutes later Jim Dowd converted a nice pass from Eric Gufstaven to tie things up followed by a “softie” from Marc Johanson who slipped one thru Samsonov’s body and elbow.  The Leafs outshot the Caps 22 to 11 and deserved better.  Dare I say – they were out goaltended?

The second period didn’t really add fuel that fire as the checking from both sides shut things down.  In fact, the Leafs didn’t have a shot on net over a 9 minute stretch.  Early in the period however Cale Jarnkrok did tie things up off a beautiful net front pass from 3^rd linemate Alex Kerfoot.  It seems that Toronto has settled on it’s 6 penalty killing forwards.  In no particular order or pairings, Keefe’s choices are: Kampf, Marner, Kerfoot, Aube-Kubal, Jarnkrok and Ashton-Reese.

A very competitive third period allowed both teams to wheel and deal back and forth and you could almost feel the blood pressure rising from both coaches.  A Marc Giordano point shot was barely touched by Rocket Richard Trophy winner Auston Mathews,  but it was enough to count as the winner.  The Capitals had 3 straight PP opportunities in the third but could not put it past Samsonov despite pulling their goalie for the final 3 minutes.

HOPPER NOTES:  I know it’s just a small sample size, but I think the new 3^rd and 4^th line wingers are going to be OK….Man, that Bunting is a good shit disturber…guys I wish I had on my team:  Jim Dowd…final SOG were 34 TML, 26 Caps….look for a new You Tube video from Hopper on Hockey tomorrow afternoon…comments please – CHEERS !