Being a goaltender for the Toronto Maple Leafs is not an easy task. Being a goaltender at the professional level at all is hard, but it takes a specific type of netminder to play, and thrive, in Toronto. There’s a lot of outside noise, and more often than not, if the team is struggling, you’re going to hear the brunt of it unless you’re putting up top-5 numbers.

Joseph Woll has never struggled in that department. If anything, the fact that he hasn’t been able to stay healthy is why he hasn’t been touted as the next big thing between the pipes for the Maple Leafs. His calmness in games and demeanour talking to the media, regardless of how he’s playing, are perfectly cut out for the job. He earned a three-year contract extension with the team following the 2023-24 season, and part of the reason he got it was his performances on days like Game 6 in Toronto.

After the Maple Leafs fell behind 3-1 to the Bruins in the first round, they made a change in net and started Woll for Game 5. He stood tall and backstopped the Leafs to a win, but most of the attention that night was on Matthew Knies, who scored the game-winner in overtime. Woll was the center of attention in Game 6, stopping 22 of 23 shots to help the Leafs to a win. He faced less action than he did in Game 5, but you had to have been watching the game to understand just how clutch his performance was. If you missed the game, can’t remember, or forced yourself to forget everything about that series, here’s a nice little recap.

The devastating part of this is that right at the end of the game, as he made arguably his biggest save of the night, Woll’s injury issue reared its ugly head and struck at the worst time. The Leafs were forced to go back to Ilya Samsonov for Game 7, and while he wasn’t the only reason they lost the game, it does leave you wondering how the end result would have looked with the hot hand in net.

Woll’s having a solid season as the counterpart to Anthony Stolarz in what’s been a largely successful Leafs tandem so far, with a record of 9-6-0 complemented by a 2.61 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage. Those latter two numbers are slightly inflated by a couple of bad games going into the Christmas break, but considering some of the all-time bad goaltending they’ve gotten at times in recent years, it’s still more than okay for the 1B in the tandem.

If both goaltenders keep up their strong play, it will be interesting to see if they simply ride the hot hand in the playoffs or adopt a Bruins’ style tandem approach. Regardless of what they end up doing, they have the comfort of knowing Woll can handle playoff hockey in Toronto.

From December 26th to 29th, we’re dropping our biggest sale of the year—and trust us, you don’t want to miss it. Here’s the lineup: 20% off all gear—yes, all gear. Hoodies, tees, hats—whatever you need to rep your team in style. Plus, free shipping on orders over $200, so you’re saving on both gear and delivery. This is your chance to stock up and save big while looking sharp in the best gear out there. But don’t wait—when this sale ends, it’s game over. Head over to nationgear.ca right now to take advantage of these deals. Gear up. Save big.