The Toronto Maple Leafs season could be doomed if goaltender Anthony Stolarz is out for a long period of time.
There are currently no updates on Anthony Stolarz' injury, but he left Thursday night's game with a lower-body injury that looks concerning. After putting up Vezina Trophy numbers for the last two months, a long-term injury would be devastating to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
It was almost inevitable that a goaltender was going to get injured after things were seemingly going perfect over the past month. The duo of Stolarz and Joseph Woll was looked at as the best in the NHL and Stolarz was playing himself into Vezina Trophy form.
As the league's leader in save percentage, Stolarz last name should have been changed to "Steal-arz" as he's been stealing wins on a nightly basis. Tuesday night's win against the New Jersey Devils only happened because of his incredible play, as the team should have lost 5-1.
However his fine form is the reason the Leafs could be looked at as legitimate Stanley Cup favourites right now. But now that he's injured, it could be Joseph Woll's time to shine, and that's a little scary.
It's not that I don't trust Woll's play, but his health is a huge concern. He finds himself out of the line-up more than times than in the line-up and it shows as he only has 47 NHL games of experience. Despite the lack of starts, his stats are impressive when he does play, bolsting a career .914 SV% and 2.62 GAA (via: hockeydb.com)
Stolarz Injury Could Mean a Big Workload for Woll
Dennis Hildeby has been recalled from the Toronto Marlies and as a result, we should expect to see more from him than we'd want. The Leafs have two back-to-back games over the next eight days, so Hildeby is most likely going to start a minimum of two games.
Statis wise, Dennis Hildeby has actually been the Marlies worst goaltender thus far, but he doesn't have to clear waivers to return to the Marlies, so it makes sense why he was the one who was called up. If this was more long-term and Stolarz was expected to miss the rest of the season, then Matt Murray or Artur Akhtyamov probably would have been called up, as their stats have been fantastic.
With an 8-0-1 record and .929 SV%, Akhtyamov has quickly turned into one of the best goaltenders in the AHL, so he could be due for a promotion next year or the year after, depending on how the rest of the season goes with the Woll/Stolarz tandem.
As much as the Leafs have a good farm system of goaltenders right now, the Stolarz injury is blowing to the team because he's established himself as the no. 1 netminder. This team will only go as far as he takes them, so let's hope he's back soon because as much as I like Woll, he's not a goaltender I can trust for the long-term right now.