OverDrive - Siegel on Woll's leash in the crease, the goaltending playoff options and the mentality of the team

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

The Athletic Maple Leafs Writer Jonas Siegel joins to discuss the headlines around the Maple Leafs, the defeat to the Sharks, Joseph Woll's stance in the crease, the starter for Game 1 for the team, the Stanley Cup Playoffs mindset on the group and more.

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Made in Canada, played in Canada. On the free iHeartRadio app and at iHeartRadio.ca. It's gonna get loud. Here he is from the athletic Hollywood, Jonas Segal. Nice of you to find time for us. Thank you, Jonas. Sorry guys, I wasn't trying to big time ya. Well, it's Hollywood Jonas Jones Hollywood Jonah Siegel now

you know just trying to track down scoops and talk to players you know how it goes and we're trying to track down the goalie or did he talk or what he did talk today both goalies talk today i was not in those scrums i should say uh... why Were you bothered that he did not talk last night? I'm not bothered by anything, man. I don't care what they do, but I just find it weird how a goalie in the NHL loves talking when he's great, but just when it doesn't go his way, like the term, we got to protect him is tossed out there. I find that to be insane.

Yeah, it's hard to say what exactly happens in those situations. I've been there a lot. Is it the player saying he doesn't want to talk? Is it the team deciding they'd rather have someone else talk? He was not, he's part of the story last night. He's not the only part of the story. Should he have talked? Probably. Does it matter?

I don't know. Yeah, in the end, they're going to move on. But I do think it is a scenario. You're the starting goalie inhl you give up five you give fluke if back all of it a blooper goal that he created last night and that's two games of the role it's been ugly uh... yet and berube so we set after the game like we're joking for a lot earlier

this week jonas i think a last week when you're in about uh... you know you hear something from a coach and then you run to the player or the players and then you run to the player or the player says something and you run to the coach. Would that have been a scenario last night where Barube, his assessment was team wasn't good enough but the goalie wasn't good enough either. What do you make of his analysis of Joseph Wohl in particular? If you notice, he wasn't asked about the goalie in that question. He brought it up.

That is not something I have heard him do maybe at all this year. Like he is, it's funny, like he had this impression coming in that he was going to be much harder on the players publicly and maybe even privately. And at least publicly it hasn't really happened. Like he doesn't really call out anybody that hard. Like I was thinking afterwards, like that after that game that might have been a game in seasons past that sheldon keith comes out and and kind of rips into the top players and like he has in the past like you guys remember elite players gate like whatever game that was i

think it was against arizona but they didn't play very well and i think he said like something like their elite players are better than our league players or something like that I can't remember so the fact that he actually went there with wall I think is interesting I mean it's it's a Interesting time for the goalies like they're trying to figure out which goalie is going to play for them the playoffs And I don't think that there's a clear answer right now. I think like Stowars is maybe I don't know 53% right now What do you guys think like something like that? maybe 53% right now. What do you guys think? Something like that. So he's trying to figure this out. He was clearly disappointed. The goaltending wasn't good enough last night, clearly. But he also made a lot of saves to kind of keep them around in that game too.

So yeah, I don't know. I was just going to follow up on that. Do you get the sense from being around the team like they are leaning towards Stolarz? And if it is, it's just a slight edge just based on, because we're down to 10 games, you know, and if you're mapping things out, you need to figure out, you know, who's getting the keys to the car game one and really I would think in the last 10 games you're going to try and lean towards one guy instead of the other. Well, and as we've talked about before, you notice which goalies they play in certain games.

Like that's not an accident. We saw it in the past. We talked about it in the past. And the way this sets up, like they have wall play against the worst team in the league, not like Stoller's had started the previous game. And then now you're probably going to have Stollers play tomorrow against LA a better team and then they play Sunday in Anaheim. You would think that goes to Wall.

That's another not great team and then that would theoretically set up Stollers to play Wednesday against Florida. So like you kind of read between the lines a little bit in terms of like who they're playing but does that mean Stollers has the job for game one? I don't think so. Like I don't, I can't imagine it's determined, but the way it's gone for Wall here in March, like it's not really helping his case. And if it's tied, like let's say the two of them are tied,

don't you guys think it's just going to be Stolars? Like if it's, it's really close just based on his body of work this year is probably been better than Wall. I think it close. Yeah, just based on his body of work this year is probably been better than wall. I Think it is yeah, Jonas Do you get any sense like you've been around the team for a bunch of years? And you're around them every day or a lot of the days like when the playoffs are where they are ten twelve games away Do you get any sense from looking at the players or listening to the playoffs that the build-up is coming? And I'm not talking, like I don't expect them to be the London Knights and all go shave

their heads and say this is for the playoffs, but do you get the sense that's around the corner? Like what does the build-up feel like from the players end that's translated towards the media or if any? So that is a good question and it actually is something that I can sense and it doesn't usually happen now. I start to feel it with like five, seven games left. Like it's interesting like right now for me I'm trying to talk to some of the players about the playoffs knowing that they're not yet in that playoff mode where they kind of shut down a little bit and don't really get

super introspective. So like in the last couple days I've talked to Neal and Daryl, I've talked to Marner and just you can feel that they're not there yet in terms of like their headspace for the playoffs but I think when there's five games left I think the mentality will change, the intensity will change but I don't think it's there yet. Well and I'm wondering how you marry that with the fact that they're chasing the Atlantic which has a playoff feel kind of. there yet. Well, and I'm wondering how you marry that with the fact that they're chasing the Atlantic, which has a playoff feel, kind of. Do they ever talk about that?

How much does that mean to them? I asked Matthew that last night, and he said it's something that they've been thinking about the whole year. And we've heard otherwise from other players that it's not something that they think about, but obviously it's something that they want to win. And that's why you look at like these games, like last night, the Nashville game, the other San Jose game. And it's like, like those are the games.

That's how you lose the division. And then I'm reminding myself that if that happens and they finish, I don't know, second or third, that like, we can't do this whole song and dance about, oh, you know, it's tougher that they have to play a better team and the road to the final and all that stuff is harder because like those little games that don't really feel like much the March 3rd game at home against San Jose that they lose in a shootout, I think they were up to nothing in that game. You know what I mean?

Like that's how you lose the division. So like we can't really keep making an excuse for it if they don't win it in this scenario when the division is clearly weaker than it's been. Absolutely Uh, leafs kings tomorrow leaf santa heim, uh, enjoy hollywood jonas. We appreciate you doing this You got it guys later. There he is hollywood jones. Oh later He's got big plans out there. He's he's hollywood hills. I guarantee it tonight, later. He's got big plans out there. Big shot. Hollywood Hills, I guarantee it tonight man. Probably, he's getting access to places the Kardashians couldn't get into. is full of climate experts sharing their advice on how we can protect our planet. Everything from avoiding microplastics to sustainable fashion

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