Maple Leafs Facing Goaltending Controversy?

Before the season started there were so many thoughts and speculations being made about this revamped and younger Maple Leafs Dressing Room.

However, there was one thing that everyone knew was going to possibly be the only bright side for the Leafs this entire season: the strong goaltending of Vesa Toskala. Unfortunately, almost a quarter of the way through the season, this has not been the case for Toskala and his Leafs.

Toskala has struggled so far, posting an unforgiving 2.24 GAA and a measly 8.78 SV percentage in 15 games this season. Last night's loss to the Vancouver Canucks was nothing new to Leaf fans as Vesa struggled once again.

He allowed four goals on only nine shots in a game that should have been tight the whole time. I can't say all the goals were Toskala's fault, as many of them came from brutal turnovers by the other Leafs on the ice. However, there's still no excuse for an outing of four goals against and only five saves.

Curtis Joseph entered the game halfway through the second period of play. This seemed to spark the Leafs players, as they did not allow a shot on goal for the rest of the period.

In fact, the first shot on Cujo did not come until there were 15 minutes left in the last period. The shot turned out to be a beauty of a glove save on a streaking-in Pavol Demitra. While Joseph faced only six shots the rest of the night, many of them were great scoring opportunities that he robbed from the Canucks.

After the game, Don Cherry came on for his 10-minute recap of the games that had already finished that night. The first thing that he had to get off his chest was the latest play from the Leafs' No. 1 goaltender, Vesa Toskala.

He believes that Toskala is starting to lose games for the Leafs instead of stealing them. The last point he made about the Leaf game was that Cujo should be the starting goalie in town, and if Wilson eventually makes the switch he guarantees they will start to win!

That may be a comment many Leaf fans would think is crazy. Why would you bench your "best player" for Joseph who is starting to lose his game at the age of 40?

But the fact is we're not going to win games if Toskala continues to play like he has lately. Joseph hasn't put out the strongest performances when given the chance, but also doesn't have the luxury of staying in game mode by playing every second or third night.

It may be too early to give up on Toskala, but if he does not improve and bench boss Ron Wilson turns to Cujo, I believe that we will see more wins coming out of Leafs Nation.

With Cujo playing on a daily basis I think we will see the Joseph we all knew and loved when he was in his prime with the Leafs. I still do not believe he has lost his game just yet. After last night's game, he proved to fans that he can still make key saves.