Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz is no stranger to honest locker-room conversations.Nick Turchiaro/Reuters
Thirty-six hours after their utterance, the words of Anthony Stolarz were still resonating around the walls of the Toronto Maple Leafs locker room Monday morning.
The goaltender’s outburst following Saturday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken – the team’s third loss to a team that missed the playoffs last season through six games – was certainly pointed.
While he had every right to be frustrated after former Leaf Mason Marchment barrelled into him unchallenged in the second period, bringing up memories of him being knocked out of the playoffs by Florida’s Sam Bennett, he was equally frustrated as William Nylander barely feigned a backcheck, leading to Josh Mahura’s overtime winner.
But mostly, as the 31-year-old netminder explained Monday, he expects more out of this team, particularly after seeing the Leafs push the Stanley Cup champions to Game 7 of their playoff series in May.
“I’m a vocal guy, and I’m gonna continue to be a vocal guy,” Stolarz said. “I mean I guess I’m a competitor, and it’s the reason I’ve gotten to this point in my career. It’s the hardest league to make and for me, it’s just battling, not taking it for granted. And as a competitor, every time you go out there, you want to win.”
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Having spent the 2023-24 season with the Florida Panthers, and winning a Stanley Cup ring as Sergei Bobrovsky’s backup, Stolarz is no stranger to honest locker-room conversations. And as Brad Marchand explained in the recent Amazon Faceoff NHL documentary series, “You don’t ever apologize for anything you say” in the Panthers locker room.
“You see a team like that and you see the leadership and how things went and how they went for them last year as well,” Stolarz said. “Like just being able to witness that is something that I want to bring to this team, just that leadership role.
“And we have it. That’s why I’m so passionate. You look around you, looking in this room, and the veterans we have, the youth, the grit, the grind, everything, like we have those same intangibles.”
As for what happened with Marchment, Stolarz – whose checkered injury history may have factored into the team-friendly four-year, US$15-million contract extension he signed in September – admitted he wanted retribution.
Stolarz makes a save against the New York Rangers in Toronto during a game last week.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
However, although the Leafs were about to go on the power play, he also added that he saw Marchment in a vulnerable position, and chose to take his anger out on the net instead of attacking him with his blocker.
“You can’t really, it’s not the UFC; you’re not going to go and start [to] ground and pound,” he said. “So you can’t really do much there with him. And I know the guys have my back and I have theirs.”
Stolarz’s teammates didn’t take offence – or disagree – with anything the goaltender said. Nylander said that the two had talked it out since Saturday, and they were “all good.”
Captain Auston Matthews added that the team had discussed it as a group, and that it was put to bed as far as he was concerned.
“We’re a veteran group in here. We’re all big boys,” he said. “You don’t need to beat around the bush. I mean, it’s an easy conversation we all had, and you just move on from it, close the door and move on. And like I said, we got to be better, and we will be.”
Stolarz’s words carried an added bonus for head coach Craig Berube, in that they allowed the players to hold each other accountable, which he admitted was “healthy” for the team.
However, one of the issues that Stolarz raised – that if the opposition is going to aggressively attack his net, maybe the Leafs should do the same – is something that Berube wholeheartedly agrees with.
“We could do a better job of being harder around the offensive net, getting there more, fighting for space,” the coach said. “That makes it tough on the goalie and tough on the other team. Net fronts are important, whether you’re defending them or offensively getting there. So yeah, for sure, that’s an opportunity for us. We got to be better in that situation.”
Heading into Tuesday night’s game against the New Jersey Devils, coached by former Maple Leafs bench boss Sheldon Keefe, Berube took the opportunity to tinker with his lines in practice Monday.
So Max Domi was up on the right wing of the top line, with Steven Lorentz centring the fourth line. That shuffle means that rookie Easton Cowan found himself as a spare on the ice, which means he will likely be a healthy scratch come Tuesday night.