Did the Maple Leafs make the same mistake as the Pittsburgh Penguins back in the day?
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Jeff DrouinOctober 24, 2021 (3:03 PM)
Humiliated 7-1 by a decimated Pittsburgh Penguins team on Saturday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs are really not off to the expected start to the season. Still sitting in fourth place in their division, the Leafs have won just two of their first five games, and their big guns Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and John Tavares have just one goal between them so far.
In net, goaltender Jack Campbell is certainly not the biggest culprit in the team's woes, but his performance yesterday still leaves some doubt as to whether or not he is capable of being a full-time number one goaltender. This brings us to another question, because let's remember that the Leafs made the choice, last summer, to let go of Danish goaltender Frederik Andersen in order to keep Campbell.
Unfortunately for general manager Kyle Dubas, Andersen is off to a phenomenal start in a Carolina Hurricanes uniform. Andersen has set a franchise record by winning his first four starts with the organization, maintaining a goals-against-average of 1.75 and a .944 save percentage in those games.
Did the Maple Leafs make the right choice in retaining Jack Campbell as their starting goalie? It's doubtful. It's certainly reminiscent of the Pittsburgh Penguins' choice to keep young Matt Murray over Marc-Andre Fleury in the 2017 Vegas expansion draft.
The rest you know. Fleury won a Vezina Trophy and reached the Stanley Cup Final during his time in Vegas, while Matt Murray has yet to establish himself as a number one goalie and is now with the Ottawa Senators.
Let's hope that the Leafs don't turn out the same way as the Penguins, but one thing is for sure, this is one more in a long list of questionable decisions made by this organization in the past few years...
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