The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without their hottest goaltender Saturday night when they try to end the Nashville Predators’ three-game winning streak.
Joseph Woll, who was emerging as Toronto’s No. 1 netminder, was injured while making a save midway through the third period of a 4-3 road victory over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.
Woll, starting his fifth consecutive game, made several superb saves in stopping 29 of 31 shots before his injury. With Ilya Samsonov (illness) out, veteran NHL goaltender Martin Jones took over and allowed one goal on 10 shots. Jones had been recalled from the AHL Toronto Marlies for the game because of Samsonov’s status.
“It was tough to watch, obviously,” Jones said. “You don’t want to see that. Just tried to get my head in the game and get ready to go. (Woll) is solid. I mean, he does everything really well, the way he moves, the way he competes. You saw a couple saves tonight that were just unbelievable, just competing and battling in there.”
Woll could not put weight on his left leg as he was helped off the ice by two teammates. He was seen leaving the arena on crutches.
“It’s unfortunate, right?” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “He’s been playing so well, and he’s building such great momentum here on his season and his career. It’s a setback here. Now he’s going to miss time for sure. We’ll determine the extent of it once we get home. But, obviously, he’s the big reason why we got two points here tonight.”
The Predators, meanwhile, dominated the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 on Thursday night.
The Predators, who have won nine of their past 11 games, were 4-for-4 killing penalties against a good Lightning power play. Three of the power plays came in the second period. The play of goaltender Juuse Saros, who made 32 saves, was a key factor in the penalty-killing.
“We certainly tested ourselves there,” Nashville defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “Obviously, we talk about trying to stay out of the box and we probably gave them too many opportunities, but it was a huge job there and probably the difference as far as keeping the momentum and keeping the score the way it was.”
“We’re really happy for the penalty kill,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “I think to step up the way they did against (one of) the greatest power plays of all time. Obviously (Saros) played a big part in that, but those were big kills in squashing the momentum we might have lost, and our power play was opportunistic and got a couple of big goals.”
Juuso Parssinen and Filip Forsberg scored when Nashville had the man advantage.
The Predators will face a Toronto team dealing with more injuries than just Woll’s.
Toronto defenseman John Klingberg (hip) is out for the remainder of the season. He will have surgery for the injury and is expected to miss five to six months. Klingberg, who signed a one-year, $4.15 million contract with Toronto on July 1, had five assists in 14 games.
The Maple Leafs are also without defensemen Mark Giordano (fractured finger) and Timothy Liljegren (lower-body injury).
–Field Level Media