1 week Ago
Sergei Bobrovsky got the hook 24 minutes and 53 seconds into Game 4 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final after the Edmonton Oilers put a puck past him for the fifth time. In went his backup, Anthony Stolarz, for the final 34:50. He surrendered three goals on 19 shots.
It was the first and only NHL playoff game that Stolarz has played in. Advertisement What remains to be seen is whether a lack of any starting experience in the playoffs will matter in his expected Game 1 start for the Toronto Maple Leafs. In other words, can Stolarz maintain what he’s been doing in the regular season? It’s not hard to find examples of goalies who excelled in their first NHL postseason.
The best recent example may be Adin Hill, who replaced Laurent Brossoit early in the second round of the 2023 playoffs and led the Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup. Craig Berube won his Cup in 2019 with Jordan Binnington in goal, also untested previously in the playoffs (and a rookie that season). Connor Hellebuyck’s playoff resume has come into question in recent years, but he did his part in his first postseason for the Winnipeg Jets, leading them all the way to the Western Conference finals.
There were experience questions surrounding Jack Campbell before he played his first NHL playoff game for the Leafs back in 2021. Campbell wasn’t perfect in that first-round series against the Montreal Canadiens, but he still put up a .934 save percentage in seven games.
Stolarz isn’t like most first-time playoff starters. He’s 31, for one thing, and has been around the league for nearly a decade. The stakes and pressure may not faze him like they would a more inexperienced goalie.
More in doubt is whether the playoff workload will prove to be too much for him. Stolarz never started more games in an NHL season than this one (32), but he still was mostly sharing the net with Joseph Woll, insulating him in a way. His starts by month go as follows: 7, 6, 4, 0, 4, 7, 4.
(He was injured in mid-December and remained out until early February.) The playoff schedule is so much more demanding. How will Stolarz handle playing pressure-packed games every other night (or two) for weeks at a time, potentially? Will his performance suffer or remain stable? Will his body hold up? Advertisement Stolarz has made only five starts all season with just one day of rest.
He won three of them (including a 29-save shutout against Boston), lost one and got hurt in the other. Eighteen of his 32 starts came on at least three days of rest. He won’t have that kind of time to recover in the playoffs.
The Leafs have insurance in Woll. But while Woll has put together a solid regular season and shined briefly in past postseasons, a real gap ultimately grew between him and Stolarz. Stolarz’ .
923 save percentage ranks second in the league this season among goalies who played in at least 30 games, trailing only Hellebuyck. Woll, at .909, is tied for 11th.
Stolarz has proven something in the regular season. He can prove a lot more in the playoffs. Playoff starter temperature check, final edition Head coach Craig Berube probably won’t confirm the obvious until he absolutely has to, but there’s no longer any doubt who will start Game 1.
Woll, however, has turned a corner after a low point in San Jose late last month. He gave his team a chance, amid a sluggish first period, to skate past the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday night. Points 1.
The Leafs are 11-3-1 in their last 15 games and rounding into top form at the right time. The weekend was impressive: a stingy Saturday win, with only five defencemen, over Montreal followed by a solid(ish) victory on short rest in Carolina. 2.
Stolarz’s last seven starts: 7-0-0, .941 save percentage, two shutouts. 3.
An interesting late-season wrinkle: Berube is still sorting out who will play next to John Tavares and William Nylander on the second line. Max Domi was the third different left winger to line up there in the last four games, joining Bobby McMann and Calle Järnkrok. It was a good night for Domi, who had primary assists on goals by Nylander and Tavares.
It's Knuckle-Puck Time!! pic.twitter.com/hxZnPrvivW — Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) April 13, 2025 Domi actually started the season alongside Tavares and Nylander, but lasted only two games before Berube changed course.
4. The trickle-down effect of Domi moving up comes in the middle of the third line, with Pontus Holmerg once again reclaiming the role. That unit, with Nick Robertson and McMann on the flanks, dominated in Carolina: unblocked shot attempts were 11-2 in their eight minutes, including a rare goal from Holmberg.
Advertisement Berube also leaned hard on the fourth line of Järnkrok, Scott Laughton and Steven Lorentz, and seemed to like what he got. Lines 2-4 feel very unsettled with less than a week to go until the playoffs. 5.
One big change under Berube from his predecessor, Sheldon Keefe: very little flip-flopping of Mitch Marner and Nylander onto Auston Matthews’ right wing. Matthews has logged 743 minutes with Marner this season at five-on-five and just 140 minutes with Nylander. Last season, under Keefe, Nylander logged 270 minutes with Matthews versus 720 for Marner.
The season before that, they were practically even: 539 minutes with Matthews for Marner, 505 for Nylander. Berube has clung to the Matthews-Marner combo throughout, almost always with Matthew Knies on left wing. The line has been good, if not quite as dominant as last season: 2023-24: 67 percent goals-for rate, 58 percent expected goals-for rate 2024-25: 60 percent goals-for rate, 55 percent expected goals-for rate Keefe was more keen to switch things up during stale periods, if only to explore combinations he might need in the playoffs.
Berube hasn’t done that. Matthews and Nylander (and Marner and Tavares) have played together for so long that re-establishing chemistry may not be a problem if the Leafs’ coach has to rejig things in that direction. 6.
Matthews hasn’t scored as much as usual this regular season (31 goals). But he has set up a lot of goals — the most assists per 60 minutes in his minutes (1.98) of any season in his career, in fact.
7. Morgan Rielly has blocked 38 shots since March 8, the same number (in two more games) as Chris Tanev. 8.
All signs point to Jake McCabe being available for Game 1. Will Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who sat out both games on the weekend with an undisclosed injury, join him? Things I Think I Think The Leafs earned home-ice advantage in the first round. They need to make it count.
A sneaky part of past playoff failures is the inability to do just that: win at home. In the last three postseasons, the Leafs played 13 games in Toronto. They lost nine of them, including several of the critical variety: More success, oddly enough, came on the road: seven wins in 12 games in those three playoffs.
And indeed, the Leafs have the second-best road record in the league this regular season (24-13-3), and 12th-best mark at home (26-13-1). Home ice isn’t a huge advantage, but it’s an advantage, nevertheless. A supportive home crowd and last change can — and should — make a difference.
(Top photo of Anthony Stolarz: Mike Carlson / Getty Images).
