Maple Leafs show faith in rookie Joseph Woll, who proves them right in another win over Sharks

SAN JOSE – There is no alarm bell that sounds when you’ve over-worked your No. 1 goaltender. There’s no easy calculation to arrive at the optimal number of starts for a big-league puck-stopper.

But after Jack Campbell played mostly brilliantly in 17 of Toronto’s first 21 games, the Maple Leafs decided he needed a night off in Friday’s game against the Sharks. It was the first time the club enlisted the services of a backup in a non-back-to-back situation since No. 2 goaltender Petr Mrazek went down with a groin injury a few weeks back. And given Friday’s result – a 4-1 romp in which rookie Joseph Woll registered his third win in three tries in the Maple Leafs net – you’d have to assume it won’t be the last.

“It’s a challenge (deciding on when Campbell needs rest),” Sheldon Keefe, the Maple Leafs head coach, was saying this week. “I don’t know that there’s any real threshold there that you say is too much or the right amount. It’s just knowing that you do have to give him time. That’s just the fair thing to do and the smart thing to do, knowing how long the season is.”

Morgan Rielly, the longest-serving Maple Leaf, offered insight into how the team came to the decision: “That’s not me making the call. That’s not (Campbell) making the call. We have people who are in charge of that type of stuff.”

If Friday’s choice of starter was an acknowledgement of the humanity of Campbell, it was also a show of faith in the ability of Woll, who stopped 34 of 35 shots. If not for an exposed five-hole on a first-period shot from Nick Bonino that tied the game 1-1, the rookie would have had his second shutout in as many starts.

“It’s fun. Obviously we’re very happy for him,” Rielly said of Woll before the game. “He’s a guy who’s worked hard. He’s earned everything he’s got … Those points (in games started by a backup) are huge for us … He’s done a good job. He’s been very important.”

You can make the case nobody’s been as important to the team’s success than Campbell, whose .943 save percentage and 1.68 goals-against average are tops among NHL starters. But with the Maple Leafs reeling off their 13th win in 15 games, there’s a collective confidence that can seemingly overcome any individual absence.

“He probably wants to play every night, just like anybody. When you’re playing well, you want to keep going,” Rielly said of the man they call Soup. “But I think over the course of a long season, you want your guy to be healthy … We want him to keep doing that, keep being available to our team.”

Big night for some big guns: Both John Tavares and William Nylander led the team with a goal and an assist apiece, while Auston Matthews scored his ninth of the season.

Simmonds sticks with it: In the midst of a 17-game goal-less drought, Wayne Simmonds was asked if he considered changing, say, his stick in an effort to change his luck. To which he responded in the firm negative. “I kind of feel that’s kind of desperation when you start to change things up and it can kind of mess with your mind a little bit,” he said. “If it doesn’t work, you’re kind of left in no man’s land.” The solution, Simmonds said, was to “bear down” on chances. And sure enough the drought broke Friday, when Simmonds tipped home a David Kämpf shot for what turned out to be the winning goal.

Kase misses game: Given that Ondrej Kase missed all but three games last season as a member of the Boston Bruins, the latest setback in a career strewn with concussions, it had been encouraging for the Maple Leafs to see him play the first 21 games of this season. Alas, Kase missed Friday’s game due to an undisclosed injury. Keefe said it was encouraging that Kase attended the team’s morning meeting and squeezed in a workout, but made reference to Kase’s injury history in explaining his absence. “Obviously with him, with what he’s been through, there’s going to be a lot more caution,” Keefe said.

Reimer time: Friday’s opposing goaltender was a familiar face to Maple Leaf fans, and at least a few Maple Leafs. James Reimer, traded by Toronto to the Sharks in 2016, had been putting up career-best numbers in the early going of this season before he was chased after Friday night’s fourth goal in favour of Adin Hill. Rielly said before the game that he remembers Reimer for his perma-smile. Said Rielly: “I used to think his cheeks would get sore by the end of the day just from having a smile on his face for so long.”