Leafs must rest Ilya Samsonov or put playoffs in jeopardy

Maple Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov, always likely to get the starting nod for Game 1 against the Lightning, now faces the prospect of a greater workload than expected down the final stretch of the regular season. Matt Murray left the game injured in Toronto's loss to the Detroit Red Wings, leaving 24-year-old Justin Woll as the team's backup netminder.

Video Transcript

OMAR: Now that everything is clinched, we know who we're going to face, and now the goal is just to get into the lineup as healthy as possible, I think it's time to make some executive decisions when it comes to goaltending. First off, I think Joseph Woll should start playing a lot more. Why? Because Matt Murray-- we don't know what his status is. He left the game with concussion protocol. He took a nasty fall. He hit the back of his head on the ice.

There's no update there. Ilya Samsonov had to go in on the second half of a back to back after having a shutout the game before, and he looked a little sore. Shaken up at times. We don't know if that's going to be a thing. I don't think he's injured. I don't think he's hurt, but that's still concerning, again, because for everything to go well, we need every area of the Leafs lineup to click-- forwards, defensemen, and goaltending.

And we've all seen way too many times in the past where goaltending has been a deciding factor that goes against the Leafs. So this is my ask for Sheldon Keefe for the rest of the season. I think you sit Murray, or you deal with whatever the health update is there, and I think you give Samsonov maybe like one, two, three games-- who knows? But you give the rest of the one way to Joseph Woll, who I think is likely going to be a key aspect and a key individual within the organization for years to come.

And any time he's played for the Leafs-- anyway, this season-- he's looked steady. He's looked solid. He's never been a liability. If he has lost games, they haven't been because of him. I think now is the time to really lean into him a little bit, because you want to make sure that if anything-- that at least Ilya Samsonov is as close to 100% as possible, because the things like this can't happen. We can't have Samsonov have a shutout with his post over 30 saves, and then go into a game again the next day of going in cold, sore, and then risk of tweaking something.

We really need to make sure that Samsonov is OK. Hopefully Murray is OK as well. But if one or both of them aren't, they got to get Woll in there. We can't have goaltending be the reason why things go south. And to be honest with how Ilya Samsonov has been playing this year, he can be a serious difference maker. And if that means sitting him out more than he wants to as the season wraps up, I'm 100% OK with that.