The Toronto Maple Leafs have been one of the best teams in the NHL this season. Their goaltending has been a big part of Toronto’s success after a quarter through the season. Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll have been holding down the fort in the crease for the Maple Leafs. Furthermore, they’ve been two of the best goalies in the NHL.
Leafs Goaltending Shutting Down the Opposition
Christmas came early for the Maple Leafs in the emergence of Stolarz and Woll‘s performances. The two netminders are in the top five in the NHL for save percentage and goals-against average among goalies who played at least eight regular season games. Many teams would wish to have goaltending like that. The stats say the Maple Leafs own the best tandem in the entire league.
Woll has put up a .923 save percentage and a 2.13 goals-against average this season. In eight games played, the 26-year-old owns a 6-2-0 record and has stopped 203 pucks while facing 220 shots on goal. His last game came against the Tampa Bay Lightning where Woll’s performance helped Toronto to a 5-3 victory. He stopped 38 of 41 shots on net and played an overall solid game between the pipes. Woll finished the game with a .927 save percentage but those numbers easily could’ve been higher if the Leafs were able to hold off Tampa Bay’s late push.
As for Stolarz, he has been equally impressive in the stats department and just watching him dominate games from the crease. He just edges Woll in save percentage with .924% and to add to that he has a 2.23 GAA. Stolarz has played 14 games this season and acted as the starter in the first bit of the season. Stolarz had to make up for Woll’s absence as he missed about two weeks of action due to “tightness” in his lower body. However, the early workload didn’t faze Stolarz as he provided some great performances. Toronto’s season started with a loss to the Montreal Canadiens. But, Stolarz gave his team every chance to come out with a victory, only allowing one goal in the contest. He finished the game with a .963 save percentage and never looked back since.
Both goaltenders have never been pulled in a game that they started either.
Something to Get Used to
Toronto hasn’t had the luxury of reliable goaltending in quite some time, last season was one of their worst. The starting goalie, Ilya Samsonov was far below the league average when it came to save percentage. His .890 percent on the season was 13 percent lower than the league average, which was .903 percent. It’s safe to say this season has been a breath of fresh for the Leafs and their fans.
There was a lot of uncertainty about the Leafs’ goaltending going into this season. Woll has had health issues in the past, and Stolarz’s excellence was a small sample size from his days with the Florida Panthers. This is Woll’s fourth season with the Maple Leafs. However, he’s played less than 50 games for the club. This is because Woll has dealt with some injuries that sidelined him for long periods of time.
At the end of last season, he suffered an injury that might’ve cost Sheldon Keefe his job. Samsonov was between the pipes during the playoffs last season. However, he lost the net for Game 5 to Woll as the team was down 3-1 in the series to the Boston Bruins. Woll stole two wins and forced a Game 7. Unfortunately, he went down with an injury that he suffered in the final moments of Game 6. Ultimately, Toronto lost in Game 7 because of a mistake by Samsonov, who is partly to blame.
So far this season, Toronto’s goaltending has been far from what they had last year.
Main Photo Credit: Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
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