Jack "Soupy" Campbell

The leafs have gone through a lot of goal tenders in the past years, they had of course they're previous main goal tender Freddy Andersen, then they had a large amount of backup goalies including Micheal Hutchinson, Garret Sparks, Joseph Woll, David Rittich and of course their present starter goalie Jack Campbell. Campbell started playing in a more starter role in the 2020-2021 season when Andersen was out a lot with an injury or just overall in a slump. People including me were weary of having someone in goal other than Freddy because for a point in time Freddy had been one of the best goal tenders in the league, however, Campbell pleasantly surprised a lot of leaf fans finishing the season with an incredible record of 17 wins 3 losses and 2 OT losses in a total of 22 games. He set an NHL record winning 11 consecutive games at the beginning of the season which gave the leafs a lot of confidence in the season and their goaltender. 

Overcoming obstacles

Jack Campbell is definitely a player who knows how it feels to have the odds stacked against him, he was drafted in 2010 to Dallas in the first round (11th pick) he only ended up playing for them in the 2013-2014 season and he only played one game that season, unfortunately for him it was a blowout and he allowed 6 goals, definitely not a good way to start off his career and after that he was sent back to the AHL and I can imagine that had a bad affect on his confidence which is one of the most important things for goalies, he was finally given another shot at the NHL in 2016-2017 season playing for the LA kings as a backup goalie, he only saw the ice one time, but for the next few seasons he played more and more until he was eventually traded to the leafs in the 2019-2020 season, I can say personally that first season it felt like playing Jack Campbell was a worst case scenario option and I dreaded watching games where he started. The next season when Freddy struggled with injury it almost seemed like it was going to be a blowout season for the leafs with the only options being the backup goalie, luckily Jack Campbell came out and pleasantly surprised all of us and really stepped up for the leafs taking them to the playoffs last year even though it didn't pan out the way we had all hoped.

         Jack Campbell's Historic Run With Maple Leafs Reaches New Heights

Playoffs

Last seasons playoffs will definitely never leave the nightmares of most leaf fans, I can say for sure it won't leave mine. However what won't leave my mind even more is watching Jack Campbell being interviewed after game 7 crying and blaming the loss on himself. Anyone that watched that game can say for certain that that loss was in no way Campbells fault, the whole team wasn't on their game and that's why they lost. Campbell has the potential to be an amazing playoff goalie and if they have any shot to making it to the cup it is at least partially because of him, I can't wait for playoffs this year to see what Campbell has in store for us. 

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