Sheldon Keefe makes controversial goaltending decision.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been put in a tough spot when it comes to their goaltending this season, and that in turn has forced head coach Sheldon Keefe to perhaps make decisions he would have otherwise preferred not to make.

On Saturday the Leafs will play their second game in a back to back, the first which proved to be a 4-2 loss at the hand of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Leafs will take on the Vancouver Canucks later tonight and due to a number of injuries suffered at the goaltending position, Keefe will likely have to make one of those aforementioned decisions.

Coming into tonight's game, Keefe was realistically left with one of two options. The first and most obvious would be to use his only remaining fresh goaltender for tonight's game against the Canucks, with that goaltender being Keith Petruzzelli.

The problem here of course is that the 23 year old former third round pick of the Detroit Red Wings has no experience of any kind at the National Hockey League level and it would be a gamble for Keefe to put him in between the pipes in any scenario. In Petruzzelli's defense though, he has played well in the American Hockey League this season with a 2.31 goals against average and a .922 save percentage over 6 games with the Toronto Marlies.

The other option isn't any better for Keefe. His other option is to play goaltender Erik Kallgren on back to back nights, with Kallgren coming off a loss in which the Leafs gave up 4 goals to the Penguins.

It would appear that Keefe has opted to go with the second option, choosing to delay a potential NHL debut from Petruzzelli and going with Kallgren on back to back nights, as per Luke Richardson.

Kallgren hasn't exactly been dynamite for the Leafs since being thrust into the starter's role and as a result this decision from Keefe has been met with quite a bit of derision for the Maple Leafs' fan base.

Only time will tell if Keefe's controversial decision proves to be the right one.