As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20 and questioning a roster move after a player is injured in any game is easy to do. On Thursday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Craig Berube made the call to give Anthony Stolarz the start against his former club — the Anaheim Ducks — following an incredible performance in his previous game against the New Jersey Devils that ultimately won the Maple Leafs the game.
After just eight shots and one goal against, Stolarz exited Thursday’s game in Toronto with what the team is calling a lower-body injury and while it was his second start in 48 hours, it was seemingly earned after a 39-save performance against the Devils.
But that’s not how everyone sees it — at least after the decision was made and the injury was suffered.
Analysts Question Stolarz’s Start Due to Past
Speculation surfaced on a recent episode of the Real Kyper & Bourne show that the lower-body injury that Stolarz was dealing with was a knee injury — something he has dealt with in the past during his career.
That speculation, along with the injury itself, had Nick Kypreos, Justin Bourne and Sam McKee discussing whether or not starting Stolarz in back-to-back games was the right call by Berube and his staff.
While Kypreos and Bourne stated that they both thought the Maple Leafs should’ve gone with Joseph Woll, McKee doubled down saying that Stolarz had earned the start based solely off the fact that he dominated the Devils in his previous outing. Bourne had previously stated that they should alternate goalies regardless of how they play, while Kypreos alluded to Stolarz’s past injuries saying that there was no reason that Stolarz should’ve started, adding that there was a higher chance that Stolarz would get injured from being overworked than there was with Woll — a statistic that is unquantifiable in this particular situation.
Stolarz Earned the Start Against Anaheim
Forget that it was a chance to go up against his former club, but Stolarz has been the backbone of the Maple Leafs early on this season and following the game against the Devils, it seemed like a no-doubter that Berube would go back to the NHL’s leader in save percentage. After all, it gave the team the best chance to win, at least in his eyes.
This season, he’s 9-5-2 in 17 games played. He has a 2.15 goals against average (GAA) and .927 save percentage (SV%). Twice this season he’s made 38-plus saves in a game and he’s among the top in both goaltending categories.
As such, it’s a standard move by Berube as coach to reward Stolarz with another game in the crease. Even if he has started 17 of the team’s 29 games this season. No one could’ve predicted the injury that would’ve resulted in his 17th start of the season. As Bourne states in the clip, Woll could’ve started and he could’ve got injured just as easily as Stolarz. It was a correlational injury rather than one of causation.
To suggest that it was anything other than correlational is simply impossible to define — something that McKee and Bourne are trying to do with Kypreos. Simply put, Stolarz got the start because of the play that he’s provided this season for the Maple Leafs.
Stolarz’s Past, Current Injury Shouldn’t Dictate His Season
Even when he returns from this day-to-day lower-body injury, Stolarz should remain a top option for the Maple Leafs. Sure, his highest number of games played in a season is 28 which happened with the Ducks in 2021-22, but the Maple Leafs and Stolarz are going to have to figure out how to make it work moving forward — especially if they go on an extended run.
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Given the suggested knee injury history that Kypreos brought up on the show, the Maple Leafs might take a little more precaution moving forward, but so long as he’s up to the task it shouldn’t affect how they utilize the goaltender for the remainder of the season.
At the moment, both Woll and Stolarz have offered the Maple Leafs top-tier goaltending. And while Bourne’s suggestion of altering game-by-game is great in the regular season, the Boston Bruins showed that it’s not an ideal plan heading into playoffs.
So, at some point, one of them might need to take the reins in the Maple Leafs’ crease and you can bet that Berube won’t let Stolarz’s past injuries — or this one — affect his decision making.
