The Maple Leafs and Washington Capitals practised at the MedStar Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, Va., on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s game.
Leafs winger Max Domi had some high praise for Joseph Woll following Saturday's overtime win in Tampa.
"He really kind of reminds me of Carey Price's demeanour," the former Montreal Canadien said after watching Woll stop all 29 shots faced in a relief performance. "He's very calm and relaxed both on and off the ice ... He's very similar to Pricey. Super low key. Super humble and just wants to do his job."
Woll can't help but smile when those words are relayed.
"That's very nice of him," the 25-year-old from St. Louis said. "It's pretty cool. I grew up loving Carey Price. He was my favourite goalie as a kid and someone I've modelled my game after growing up a lot so that's a very nice compliment."
What did Woll admire about Price?
"He's so good technically, but at the same time he can play athletic and make saves when he needs to," the Boston College product said. "Plays pretty free, but also very stoic."
Woll will make just his 13th career regular season start on Tuesday in Washington, but he's already built a lot of trust with the Leafs. The team turned to their third-round pick from the 2016 draft instead of Matt Murray in the playoffs last season after Ilya Samsonov got hurt.
"He doesn't seem to be bothered by the moment," observed coach Sheldon Keefe. "He is just focused on the work. That is what has been nice from my perspective. I just step back and watch a lot of times. He has been really, really focused and committed to just doing the things that he needs to do and controlling what he can control, allowing his talent to take over from there."
It wasn't always easy for Woll, who found the transition from college to the American Hockey League tricky.
"The past couple years I spent a lot of time making sure my mindset is right and being able to stay in the moment and that allows me to play play free and trust myself," he said. "I think I have a very thinking mind so the best I can do when I'm on the ice is kind of quiet that and just let myself play."
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Woll entered the season as the No. 2 goalie on the depth chart behind Samsonov, who started four of the first five games. But Samsonov has struggled, allowing 14 goals and posting an ugly .831 save percentage. He was pulled on Saturday after allowing three goals on four shots.
"It's not easy," the 26-year-old Russian said. "It's hard to go to the bench after [four] shots. It's not what I want to see, but I need to stay positive and keep working, working hard in the practice. Sometimes we have bad situation, yeah, but most important is how you learning [from] this."
Samsonov is looking to get back to basics with goalie coach Curtis Sanford.
"Just forget everything and start simple," he said, "especially after this game."
"He is handling it fine," said Keefe. "Obviously, he is not happy with it, but he just continues to put in his work."
It's a nightmare start to a big year for Samsonov. He signed another one-year deal with the Leafs in the summer following an arbitration hearing and is due to become an unrestricted free agent after this season.
Tuesday is a scheduled start for Woll, but there's now a chance he'll get more than anticipated if he keeps performing well. Keefe made that clear after Saturday's game when asked if Woll is pushing Samsonov.
"Oh, he's pushing," the coach quipped.
That's OK with Samsonov.
"You have a more motivation," Samsonov said. "We try to push each other all the time."
Keefe is quick to point out this situation isn't unexpected or out of the ordinary in today's NHL.
"That is very healthy," the coach stressed. "There are lots of teams in that situation. I think it is proven more and more that teams require two goalies to not just push each other but share the workload ... Obviously, you would like to have two goalies that are really thriving. That is the goal. But that is the idea when you have two: If one is slipping a little bit, you have another guy to go to. You can work with the other and look to get both of their games rolling. If the other one starts to slip, you hope the other one is on the rise. That is kind of the beauty of having two guys that we believe in. We hope that there are no true lulls in the goaltending."
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Washington's Evgeny Kuznetsov was surprised to learn his former teammate and good friend Samsonov wasn't starting on Tuesday.
"I guess now we have to try a little more harder," the 31-year-old centre said with a laugh. "It's all jokes, right. I'm very close friends with him and his family."
Samsonov, who spent three years with the Capitals before the team decided not to extend him a qualifying offer following the 2021-22 season, met up with countrymen Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin on Sunday. He plans to pass along some insider information on his pals to Woll.
"We will be talking about Ovi, yeah, a little bit," Samsonov confirmed. "I will a little bit try and help him."
Woll is relishing the chance to face one of the game's greatest goal scorers.
"As you start to play more games you start to play these guys you grew up watching," Woll said. "It will be special to be on the same ice as him."
Ovechkin is without a goal through four games, which matches his longest-ever drought to start a season. He also went four games without a goal in 2013 before scoring in his fifth game.
"Getting there," the Capitals captain said of his play. "I do have to do my best job, my best thing to do, you know."
"I couldn't notice one instance where I've seen frustration or him pressing," said Capitals coach Spencer Carbery.
The Capitals rank last in goals per game this season (1.25) and have yet to score on the power play. They need Ovechkin to help jumpstart the offence. Carbery liked what he saw from the 38-year-old on Saturday in Montreal.
"I felt like it was closer to the the first game where he was getting a ton of opportunities, getting in more of those spots that you traditionally see him in," the coach noted. "Now, [they] haven't gone in for him, but it's only a matter of time. He keeps getting in those spots and they will go in for him."
After being held without a shot in consecutive games for the first time in his career, Ovechkin fired five shots on net and picked up an assist during Saturday's overtime loss to the Canadiens.
"This was our best game," Ovechkin said. "Obviously we lost, but chances we generate through all those three periods, it was a good sign."
The Capitals hope the floodgates are about to open, especially for Ovechkin.
"As a goal scorer you feed off that, right," said Kuznetsov. "You want to score, you want to get the chances, you want to get the looks, but I'm pretty sure that as soon as it's going to be one in the net then the storm's coming. It's one of those moments when he probably hasn't dealt yet in his career but, at the same time, it's pretty exciting to see what's going to happen after he gets one."
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Ovechkin is usually a Leafs-killer with 41 goals and 74 points in 56 regular-season games against Toronto. However, he was held without a point in all three games against the Leafs last season and was limited to one assist in three games the previous year. The Capitals didn't play the Leafs during the 2020-21 season. So, Ovechkin actually hasn't scored on the Leafs since Oct. 29, 2019.
That was the day Ovechkin made waves by saying the Leafs core needed to change in order to win.
"I hope they're going to learn," Ovechkin said in a pre-game scrum. "It's up to them how they want to do it and if they want to play for yourself, or if they want to win a Cup, they have to play differently."
Four years later, Kuznetsov was asked if he sees any similarities between the current Leafs situation and what his Capitals went through before finally breaking through and winning the Stanley Cup in 2018.
"So, you trying to stay they're going to win the Cup," Kuznetsov shot back with a laugh.
Well, it could happen. Kuznetsov agreed.
"I've kind of been a little bit of a fan of their game and the way they play," he said. "It's a fun hockey team to watch, but same time there's a lot of good teams in this league and I know you guys in that city has no patience. You think that Stanley Cup could win tonight. Teams build for 10, 15 years sometimes. I wish them all the best and I feel like they go in the right direction."
The Capitals didn't win the Cup until Ovechkin's 13th season. This is year No. 8 for Auston Matthews, who inked a four-year extension with the Leafs in the summer.
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During their catch-up session on Sunday, Samsonov and his old teammates discussed Kuznetsov's slow shootout move, which has proven to be controversial.
"It's really hard for goalie," said Samsonov. "Everybody ask me what to do. I think some goalies want to hit his stick."
"I don't get the point when some people put in the bad comments," Kuznetsov said. "I'm not trying to be cocky, it's just something that helps my team to get goals and if it's going to continue to work I'm going to continue to do that stuff ... I'm not trying to be bad example, I'm just found a way that's been working for me."