Is Joseph Woll playing tonight against St. Louis Blues? Maple Leafs make key goalie decision

The Toronto Maple Leafs officially activated star goalie Joseph Woll from the Injured Reserve on Thursday. They have gotten good play in his absence from both Anthony Stolarz and Dennis Hildeby, who was optioned to the AHL to make room for Woll.

With a game tonight, the Leafs had to decide if Woll was ready to step back into the net. According to head coach Craig Berube, he is. The Leafs aren't going to get cute with things despite Stolarz's performance. Woll was their number one before going down, and he will remain as such now that he's back.

Woll has dealt with injuries throughout his NHL career. It was one of the only question marks he had, and it showed up this season. He didn't start the campaign healthy and has not played yet. He was also seen sparingly during the preseason.

Now, he's officially back and will be starting tonight vs. the St. Louis Blues. The Maple Leafs got off to a 4-3-0 start in his absence. The Leafs have overall been healthy this season. Woll's injury was the only notable one aside from an illness that briefly hit both John Tavares and William Nylander.

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Joseph Woll finally over "frustrating" injury

Joseph Woll has been hard at work to recover from a groin injury that robbed him of the first seven games of the NHL season. A little under a week ago, he revealed that there was some negative emotion after suffering yet another ailment.

Joseph Woll is back in the net tonight (Imagn)

Via the Hockey News, he said this is something that happens "anytime" a player gets injured:

"Whether a big injury, small injury, I think there is that kind of initial emotion. A little bit of frustration, a little bit of disappointment, and all those things."

All he could do during the downtime was focus and control what was in front of him:

"I think you let that come for a bit and then you focus on what you can control and what you can do, so since then, I've just been focused on doing everything I can possibly do to get back to 100 percent as soon as I can and help this team," Woll said.

He was able to do that and will be back in the net tonight. With how well Anthony Stolarz played in his absence, it wouldn't be a surprise to see the Leafs operate with both goalies having high usage.