In another showdown against his old team tonight, Martin Jones is set to defend the Toronto Maple Leafs home crease against the San Jose Sharks. Thus far, what a surprising season he’s had. Jones was originally signed for goalie insurance, just in case something happened to either of the Maple Leafs’ top two goalies heading into the regular season – starter Ilya Samsonov and backup Joseph Woll.
Well, something did happen. Samsonov struggled mightily and Woll went down with an ankle injury. The pipes have been Jones ever since. Lucky for the Maple Leafs, Jones has been up to the task.
Jones showed himself to be a reliable netminder for the team. He enters tonight’s game fresh off a solid 23-save game, in which the Maple Leafs won by a score of 4-1 victory over San Jose on Saturday. Now, Jones is on a three-game winning streak. And, during that streak, he stopped an impressive 81 of 83 shots.
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Jones Season Has Been Leaf-Saving
This season, Jones’ play between the pipes has been excellent. He now has a strong 7-3-0 record, putting up two shutouts along the way. His impressive stats are a 2.08 goals-against average (GAA) and an outstanding .932 save percentage. In short, he stood tall (pun intended) in the net under pressure.
Jones has been in stellar form with these three straight wins. He gave up only two goals in that span. During a recent interview, I heard him attribute his success in the net to the team’s collective effort in front of him. From my perspective, he’s right. For some reason, the team’s total defence seems locked into playing harder to protect their goalie. It’s working.
Only guessing, but I’m wondering if it might be the recent tough love that the Maple Leafs head coach has been showing the bottom-six forwards by sitting them if they make mistakes or don’t show up as vigorously as he expects. Recently bottom-six, defensive center David Kampf and more recently Nick Robertson sat out games.
What Might Maple Leafs Fans Expect from Jones?
As Jones continues to make his mark with the Maple Leafs, fans can anticipate him building on this successful stretch. The team has little choice except to keep playing him in such a crucial role. He seems right now to be the only game in town.
For Maple Leafs’ fans, Jones’ performance not only shows that he’s capable of individual success but also highlights the collective potential of the Maple Leafs as the team works toward setting itself up for the postseason.
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