Toronto Maple Leafs: Jack Campbell continues to inspire confidence
Picking up another crucial victory over the Arizona Coyotes, Jack Campbell continues to show the Toronto Maple Leafs why he was worth the price.
It might be only three games, but Jack Campbell continues to provide something the Toronto Maple Leafs were desperately lacking, confidence from the backup goalie position.
Getting the first star following a 3-2 overtime win over the Arizona Coyotes, Campbell was without question the Leafs best player. What’s more impressive about what the 28-year-old has done is that he was thrown into a tough situation and hasn’t backed down from the challenge.
While Campbell expects to be perfect every time he starts, he has been asked to do more than any backup has recently including playing on back-to-back nights. The results certainly speak for themselves.
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Toronto has secured five points in three games with Campbel between the pipes, something that would have been tough to imagine with the options the team had in Garret Sparks or Michael Hutchinson. You notice with a big difference with Campbell in net as the Leafs don’t necessarily have the mindset of having to outscore their opponent in order to make up for the subpar goaltending.
You can bet that Campbell has earned a lot of respect from his teammates considering he can be counted on to make the saves when it matters. Sure he would have wished to keep the Anaheim Ducks off the board in the third or bail out the team in Montreal when the team only registered one shot on goal.
Campbell wasn’t the only bright spot from Tuesday’s win as Zach Hyman continues to produce when the Leafs didn’t have a lot going. With 16 goals and 30 points in 38 games, one can only wonder where the Leafs would have been if Hyman didn’t have to miss the start of the season finishing his rehab from off-season surgery.
It was also nice to see Kasperi Kapanen end his goal drought with the overtime-winner after what has been a difficult stretch for the 23-year-old. Since being a healthy scratch, Kapanen has a goal and three assists which is encouraging considering things were starting to look rather bleak.
Leafs have opportunity to make up for lousy week. dark. Next
What have you made of Campbell’s performance lately? Can the Leafs maintain their playoff position? Let us know in the comments below.