Beleaguered Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov is doing his best to stay positive despite his struggles this season.
"The last three games, I didn't see a lot of luck. ... It's easy to put your head down and just cry and be sad," he said following his team's 6-5 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, per Sportsnet. "I'm sad about this, but I need to continue to work. Maybe next game, maybe next three games, the luck is back."
Samsonov made just 15 saves on 21 shots Friday night and conceded 4.4 goals above expected at all strengths, according to Natural Stat Trick. The Maple Leafs outshot the Jackets and held a two-goal lead on two separate occasions, but Johnny Gaudreau sealed Columbus' comeback in overtime.
"Tough game for me, bad result," Samsonov said. "I don't know, a lot of emotion right now after the game. I need to prepare for the next game, this game's over. If you start thinking too much, it's probably worse. It's (my) first game after Christmas break, just head up, continue to move."
The Russian owns an .862 save percentage this campaign, which is the worst clip by a Maple Leafs goalie through his first 15 starts of a season since Allan Bester in 1989-90 and the lowest by any NHL netminder since Dan Cloutier in 2006-07, according to Sportsnet Stats.
Only Carolina Hurricanes netminder Antti Raanta (.855) has a worse save percentage among the 60 goalies who have made at least 10 appearances this season.
Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe suggested he wanted more out of the whole team after Samsonov's latest setback.
"We gave up 21 shots, so I don't know how poor defensively we were, but we made bad mistakes at bad times that you can't make," he said. "That's what we've got to do better. Play that game over 100 times, we probably win it 99 times, but you can't make those types of mistakes with the way Sammy's going through it right now."
Keefe added, "We've got to support him better if we want to win the game, but we score five, we should win that game nearly every time."
The Maple Leafs will turn to third-string goalie Martin Jones on Saturday against the Hurricanes. Promising rookie Joseph Woll remains unavailable due to an ankle injury. 22-year-old Dennis Hildeby is enjoying a remarkable campaign with the Toronto Marlies in the AHL, but this is his first full season in North America.
"It's the NHL, we need saves, we need points, and we need wins," Keefe said, per The Hockey News' David Alter. "So I'm sure (general manager Brad Treliving) is going to consider everything."
The Maple Leafs sit third in the Atlantic Division with a 17-9-7 record.
