It was while watching Matt Murray stand on his head and stop chance-after-chance during a 5-on-3 penalty kill — what Toronto’s Auston Matthews described as the turning point in a 4-0 win against Dallas on Tuesday — when a familiar question once again emerged.
Would Jack Campbell have made those saves?
As the Canadian national soccer teams head to their respective FIFA World Cups, Derek Van Diest is on the scene to cover all the action. Expect expert insights and analysis in your inbox daily throughout the tournaments, and weekly on Thursdays for the rest of the season.
Thanks for signing up!
A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
The next issue of Corner Kicks with Derek Van Diest will soon be in your inbox.
How about Cam Talbot? Or Marc-Andre Fleury or Darcy Kuemper or even John Gibson?
All of those goalies and more had been targeted by Toronto last summer. And the Leafs would have been happy to get any one of them. But in a span of a couple of days, each was taken off the board, leaving GM Kyle Dubas without anywhere to sit in what became a fierce game of musical chairs.
Then again, maybe dodgeball is a better analogy for what happened last summer.
After all, the Leafs may have dodged a bullet in not bringing back Campbell, who has been a disaster since signing a five-year, $25-million contract with the Edmonton Oilers. The same can be said of Talbot, Fleury or any of the other goalies who had been linked to a Leafs team that because of cap constrictions ended up going with Plan B and acquiring a couple of unwanted backups in Murray and Ilya Samsonov.
To go back to the musical chairs analogy, it was the equivalent of sitting down on a three-legged stool that was missing one of its legs.
Murray, who was acquired for nothing more than future considerations, had been considered damaged goods. He was a goalie no one — not even the Ottawa Senators, who let him go and signed Talbot in the off-season — wanted. Often injured and lacking in confidence, he at one time had been one of the bright young stars of the league, but was now considered overpaid, overrated and somewhat over the hill.
Samsonov, whom the Leafs signed to a one-year contract worth $1.8-million, was not considered any better. A former first-round pick of the Capitals, he wasn’t even offered a contract last summer as Washington went after Kuemper in free agency. Even the Leafs weren’t sure what they were getting, which explains the hesitancy in giving him a long-term deal.
For a team looking to finally get over the hump and win a playoff round, this was not the sort of tried-and-true tandem that transforms you into a Stanley Cup contender. Some even wondered if Murray and Samsonov would be good enough — or healthy enough — to get Toronto into the playoffs.
Those fears were immediately amplified when Murray injured his adductor a day after playing in the season opener. But two months later, they have since quieted down.
Murray is no longer talked about as an off-season gamble that has blown up in Toronto’s face. Instead, with 6-1-2 record and a .932 save percentage that has him ranked as the second-best goalie in the league (among those who have played in nine games), he’s regarded as the biggest steal of the summer.
The same goes for Samsonov, who is 7-2-0 and is fifth in the league with a .924 save percentage.
As a team, Toronto’s combined save percentage ranks fourth overall, with only Boston and New Jersey having allowed fewer goals per game. It’s a significant improvement from a year ago, when the Leafs ranked 13th in goals-against average and were 22nd in save percentage.
And to think, all it cost them was an additional $1-million.
Chances are the Leafs would have spent a lot more in bringing back Campbell. Or signing Fleury or Kuemper. And chances are that they would not be any better.
Based on what we’ve seen so far, they’d probably be a lot worse.
Since arriving in Edmonton, Campbell lost the starting job to Stuart Skinner for a team that is clinging to a wild card spot. Ottawa’s Talbot has a .907 save percentage and Anaheim’s Gibson has a .897 save percentage for two of the worst teams in the league.
Fleury looks old in Minnesota. And Washington’s Kuemper is proving that Colorado may have a Stanley Cup in spite of its goaltending — not because of it.
The Leafs, however are not winning in spite of their goaltending, like many of us had expected. Instead, they are winning because of their goaltending. This is a team that has been without its top-3 defencemen in Morgan Rielly, T.J. Brodie and Jake Muzzin. Against Dallas on Tuesday, the Leafs also lost Victor Mete.
Only you wouldn’t know it, because the Leafs, who are second in the Atlantic Division, are on a run where they’ve picked up points in 12 straight games. During that span, they have allowed only 24 goals.
It turns out Murray and Samsonov are not damaged goods or a flash in the pan. If anything, Murray’s become a dark horse candidate for the Vezina Trophy, while also putting himself on Canada’s radar whenever the next best-on-best international tournament occurs.
Don’t believe it? Well, just take a look at the alternatives.
At one time, the Leafs did. And whether they planned it or not, they chose to go another route.
Two months into the season, they aren’t regretting their choices.
mtraikos@postmedia.com
twitter.com/Michael_Traikos