Darren Dreger has notable comparison for Ilya Samsonov

The Toronto Maple Leafs dropped Saturday night's game against the Nashville Predators in Music City, 3-2 in overtime after defenseman Roman Josi blasted a slapper past goaltender Ilya Samsonov in the extra session. 

For Samsonov, it was the latest setback for him in what has been a less than ideal start to the 2023-24 season. He's already blasted his own play in a brutally honest assessment.

Analyst Darren Dreger made an appearance on TSN 1050's First Up this morning and had an interesting comparison for Samsonov that Leafs fans are all too familiar with - former Leafs goalie Jack Campbell, who is now struggling with the Oilers. 

"Well, he's a very honest man," Dreger said of Samsonov. "I think that's abundantly clear. You know, it reminds me a little bit of Jack Campbell, right? And how Jack would wear his losses, he'd wear the bad goals and sometimes undeservedly so, right? Like, come post-game, he'd talk about a game that got away from the Maple Leafs, maybe he'd let in a bad goal or another sketchy one, whatever, and he'd take on that loss like there was nobody else on the ice."

As you remember, Campbell suited up for the Leafs for a handful of seasons and for the most part, performed well. The first half of the 2021-22 season, Campbell was in the conversation for the Vezina Trophy before his play took a turn for the worse in the second half.

Samsonov took his own play to task after the game on Saturday, critiquing each goal that he allowed but saying that the next two periods went better. 

"I watched this goal, I need to go to butterfly right away I didn’t see his stick," Samsonov said of former teammate Ryan O'Reilly's first goal of the night. "My bad, I’m sorry."

"Second and third I feel my game. It’s good for me," he said of the subsequent two periods of play.

So far this year, Samsonov is 2-1-1 with a 3.99 goals against average and .841 save percentage. He's also seen backup goalie Joseph Woll step in and play well, just as he did in the postseason last year after the former went down with injury.

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