Ilya Samsonov is finding his new surroundings to his liking.
“Pretty comfortable,” the Maple Leafs goaltender said. “Better and better every day. Everybody is great — leadership and young guys, too. I’m so happy to be here.”
The small sample size of Samsonov’s pre-season work reflects that. For the most part, Samsonov was solid in a victory in Belleville against the Ottawa Senators on Friday, making a couple of key saves in the third period before his teammates pulled away. Last Saturday, Samsonov stopped all 16 shots in his 40 minutes of work against Ottawa.
You can bet that Samsonov’s early play is reassuring to the Leafs’ organization, which is banking on bounce-back seasons from Samsonov and fellow goalie Matt Murray to help finally solve the first-round riddle in the playoffs.
Of the Leafs’ remaining three pre-season games, it’s expected that Murray will start two and Samsonov one.
Following a day off on Saturday, the Leafs will return to practice Sunday at the Ford Performance Centre, in all likelihood remaining with two groups, coach Sheldon Keefe indicated.
Keefe said the Leafs will take more of an NHL-type roster to Montreal to play the Canadiens on Monday than the group that won in Belleville.
“I think it’ll be a good chunk of our guys playing in that game,” Keefe said. “It will start to look a little bit closer to what we expect to look like when we start playing for real.”
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