The Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs played out what was a relatively meaningless game for both teams on Saturday night, with the playoff fates of both teams already decided long before the game took place.
In spite of the fact that it was not an important game, it turned into something of an embarrassing one for the Canadiens who were blown out by the Maple Leafs by a final score of 7-1. In fact the Maple Leafs were so far ahead during the game that, in the final minute of play they decided to give emergency backup goalie Jett Alexander a chance to get a taste of the National Hockey League.
It was most definitely a feel good moment for the 23 year old amateur goalie from the University of Toronto, but it would seem that the decision to use Alexander did not sit well with everyone.
Following the game, NHL veteran Chris Wideman would publicly call out the Maple Leafs for using Alexander during the game, even going so far as to suggest that Karma would be coming Toronto’s way in short order.
“They’ll get what they deserve in a few weeks,” said a frustrated Wideman.
Wideman’s comments came off as nothing more than sour grapes after a bad loss and they stand in stark contrast to the comments we heard from the Maple Leafs on the topic. Maple Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov, who had to give up his net in the final minute in order for Alexander to have his moment in the first place, was just beaming at the thought of giving a young man such a special moment.
“I’m so happy for him. Great to see this moment,” said Samsonov following the game,. “First NHL game, doesn’t matter it one minute, but big for him. He come to the rink to probably sit on the bench, but he has the time for play. Thank you team, we got a chance for another dream in the world”
Samsonov’s imperfect English makes the quote all that much more endearing and you can tell that the Russian goaltender was genuinely thrilled for his temporary teammate.
