from Luke Fox of Sport\snet,
Could the answer to Kyle Dubas’s most pressing problem have been sitting quietly underneath him the whole time?
If Erik Källgren — learn the name, don’t forget the umlaut, and the K is schilent — is auditioning to be the solution, temporary or otherwise, to the Toronto Maple Leafs circus of follies in the blue paint, well, the kid is off to a fine start.
Källgren followed up last Thursday’s point-saving appearance in emergency relief with something seldom seen in these parts since the calendar flipped to 2022: a quiet, quality performance by the starting goaltender in blue.
The 25-year-old import from the Swedish league would not have been recalled from the AHL Marlies had No. 1 Jack Campbell not gone down with a rib injury last week. Nor would he have been starting this week had No. 2 Petr Mrazek made good on either of his golden opportunities to take the net and run.
In backstopping the Maple Leafs to a 4-0 shutout victory at Scotiabank Arena, Källgren did something neither of Toronto’s NHL-level goalies had been able to do for the past six games: keep the opponent’s goals under four — the franchise’s most consistently porous stretch in more than 16 years.
Game highlights are below.
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