Maple Leafs make a goalie swap on Monday morning.
The Toronto Maple Leafs start the week by swapping two of their goaltenders.
After a shaky performance over the weekend from veteran goaltender Matt Murray, the Toronto Maple Leafs kicked off their week with a goalie swap on Monday.
According to an official announcement from the Maple Leafs Department of Public Relations, Murray has been sent back down to the American Hockey League's Toronto Marlies. Murray has admittedly played very well for the Marlies this season with a 1.85 goals against average and a .931 save percentage over 8 AHL games this season and it may very well be the case that the Maple Leafs are hopeful he will be able to maintain that level of play in the AHL despite his struggles at the National Hockey League level.
Murray did not have a strong performance against the Washington Capitals on Saturday, allowing 4 goals on 31 shots for a .871 save percentage including some goals where it looked like he was well out of position.
With Murray going back down to the AHL the Maple Leafs have called back up 23 year old netminder Dennis Hildeby from the Marlies. Hildeby has also fared better in the AHL this season with a 2.42 goals against average and a .916 save percentage over 8 games while also struggling at the NHL level. Over 3 games for the Maple Leafs this season H/ldeby has recorded a 3.68 goals against average and a .875 save percentage, but as the much younger goaltender it would make sense that the Maple Leafs would give him a little bit more runway.
The Maple Leafs have a busy schedule this week with a pair of games against the New York Islanders on Tuesday and Thursday and a game against Atlantic Division rivals the Boston Bruins on Saturday. It will be interesting to see if Hildeby gets a start in any of these games with goaltender Joseph Woll expected to take on the bulk of that workload.
