Anthony Stolarz Sounds Off on the Maple Leafs After Frustrating Loss: 'Enough's Enough'
Photo credit: Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz was infuriated after being run over by Mason Marchment, and coupled with another tough loss shows he's fed up.
Much like the MLB Playoffs, the Seattle Kraken came into Toronto and silenced the passionate and dedicated crowd, coming away with a 4-3 OT victory after Toronto managed to claw their way back.
Two goals from John Tavares and another solid performance from Anthony Stolarz; who was making his fifth start in the first six games of the season.
It wasn't his best game, though there were several instances where either his defense let him down or ended up getting real up close and personal with the Kraken, and they were trying to run him all night.
Stolarz Opens Up on His Frustration After the Game
So after the game, after the dust had settled: Did Stolarz calm down any?
Quite the contrary, and put his team on blast after he's had enough of team's taking advantage of him and implored his backend to do more for him or he'll do it himself:
I mean, I'm not happy I'm going to try and stand up for myself.
Maybe we can take a page out of their book and start getting to the net. I mean, for us, we like to go low to high and shoot, but for their goalie, it's like playing catch in the yard. You're seeing everything, and we're not making it difficult.
Enough's enough, and we've kind of got to start picking it up here.
Maybe we can take a page out of their book and start getting to the net. I mean, for us, we like to go low to high and shoot, but for their goalie, it's like playing catch in the yard. You're seeing everything, and we're not making it difficult.
Enough's enough, and we've kind of got to start picking it up here.
Over the past two days the normally quiet and jovial Stolarz has had a fire lit under him. First, he lost his mask again the Rangers and the referees dillydallied before blowing the play dead, then he gets charged by Marchment.
It doesn't help that Brandon Carlo took a good 10 seconds to do anything, and only after Stolarz laid in a few blocker shots to the head and chest of Marchment who was bundled up in the net.
Stolarz noticed this and shoved the net off its moorings about two feet in order to dish out more punishment, and a huge fracas ensued.
If you recall, he was knocked out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs after an elbow injury to the head from Sam Bennett, and it shifted the entire series. Stolarz is trying to protect his head, and if people are charging him then he has no choice.
A Wake-Up Call for the Maple Leafs?
But this is more of a call to action for the rest of his team, and frankly needs to be better. There are too many mental errors and lackadaisical efforts that are causing opponents to get more chances.
They need to stop taking bad penalties, they need to make sure they actually clear the puck and not just half-ass things; several times they were caught on a long change against Seattle and it exhausted them.
Scoring isn't necessarily an issue, but it's the typically staunch defense that is giving the goalie headaches.
Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo have struggling mightily together to start. Combined they have an 8.6 GA/60; that's not conducive to helping their goalie at all, and something seems amiss.
Simon Benoit has been better, and he's known for having some shaky defense.
Toronto traded Fraser Minten, who is thriving in Boston, for Carlo at the deadline and a guy who is normally one of the more elite shutdown guys, has seemed to have lost his defensive awareness.
Not to mention literally shoving the Kraken players into Stolarz at times:
So enough is enough for Anthony Stolarz and it should be the same for the rest of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
There's no excuses for them to be letting down their goaltender so much, and it's going to cause a lot of problems going forward if they don't pick things up soon.
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OCTOBRE 19 | 1338 ANSWERS Anthony Stolarz Sounds Off on the Maple Leafs After Frustrating Loss: 'Enough's Enough' Do you think Toronto needs to protect Anthony Stolarz more, or are they doing a good job? | ||
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