Leafs' goalie Woll has a rather unique superstition

Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll isn’t exactly fighting off the stereotype that players at his position are a rather unique bunch.

It’s near-universally agreed upon in the hockey world that goalies tend to be the oddballs of any dressing room — after all, not many people like to get hit with rubber pucks flying upwards of 100 miles per hour.

And Woll seems to be showcasing a little bit of his odd side as per a recent anecdote relayed to a local reporter.

According to NHL.com’s Dave McCarthy, Woll was at practice Wednesday when he was spotted rubbing down his pads with a sponge, soap, and bath towel, to get rid of all the black marks caused by pucks he’d stopped this season.

McCarthy asked Woll, “What are you washing all the saves off for?”

Woll then replied, “Only room for so many at a time. It’s like clearing your history.”

Glimpse into Joseph Woll

After practice Wednesday he sat at his locker with a sponge, soap and bath towel meticulously scrubbing his pads.

I said, “what are you washing all the saves off for?”

He said, “Only room for so many at a time. It’s like clearing your history.”

— Dave McCarthy (@DaveAMcCarthy) December 7, 2023

In a follow-up post, McCarthy added, “20 minutes later, the pads were immaculate.”

On one hand, cleaning your pads makes sense — as the old saying goes, look good, feel good, play good. In another sense, they’re just going to get dirty again very fast, with the Leafs averaging 32.6 shots against per night this year.

Clean pads or not, Woll has been the team’s most successful goalie this season, posting a .915 save percentage and an 8-5-0-1 record. A 2016 pick by the Leafs, Woll earned the praise of Toronto general manager Brad Treliving via a TSN Radio interview.

“He has been real good, hasn’t he? You try to be cautious with young goalies in such a difficult position, but I mean, he has played some really good games,” Treliving told TSN. “Obviously, he has the physical tools. He is a big guy. You can get into the technical aspects, but I like it when it hits the goalie. It seems to hit him, which is good.”

Toronto returns to the ice tonight when they face the Ottawa Senators, with puck drop set for 7 pm ET.

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