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The Toronto Maple Leafs face a crossroads as the halfway mark of the regular season approaches, with an extremely tight race for the Eastern Conference playoff race. The Leafs have a precarious one-point lead over Tampa Bay for third place in the Atlantic Division and over Washington for the final wildcard spot as they take on another bottom dweller in the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena on Friday.
The Leafs have split their first two meetings with Columbus, coming back from a five-goal deficit to earn a point in a 6-5 overtime loss at Scotiabank Arena earlier this month and a 4-1 victory on December 23rd, but desperately need to show up and earn two points against a club without team captain Boone Jenner, winger Patrik Laine, and defenseman Zach Werenski.
Toronto will get veteran blueliner Mark Giordano back in the lineup after missing a month with a broken finger. Giordano skated with Timothy Liljegren at practice on Thursday, and it is expected that William Lagesson will sit.
The player with the most focus on him will be goalie Ilya Samsonov, who makes his first start since being pulled in Buffalo on December 21. Samsonov has been suffering a crisis of confidence for most of the season, losing the starting job to Joseph Woll before being injured, and now apparently for veteran Martin Jones.
The Leafs have said all the right things, and have given Samsonov time to gather himself, but with likely another month before Woll is ready to return, Toronto needs their primary starter to at least provide them with competent goaltending alongside Jones to get through January. That has been far from the case so far, as Samsonov has allowed four or more goals in half of his 14 starts.
Part of the reason why the Leafs have been so patient is they do not have many options available to them. Recalling 22-year-old Dennis Hildeby from the AHL Marlies would be completely unwise based on his lack of experience and an act of desperation.
Acquiring a goaltender via trade (even an inexpensive backup capable of sharing the duties with Jones) would cost Toronto assets they are reserving to upgrade on defense closer to the deadline, and the netminders that have been waived recently, like Carolina’s Antti Raanta, have a salary too large for Toronto to accommodate, even if they send Samsonov to the AHL.
GM Brad Treliving does not want to go down the road having to add a goalie to his trade wish list, but another start or two of Samsonov struggling may force his hand.
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