The Toronto Maple Leafs have played some of their best hockey of the season over the past few weeks. Outside of a stinker to the Ottawa Senators and a beatdown from the Florida Panthers, the team has won five of their last six games and nine of their last 11. There are a number of contributing factors to the strong play, but it mostly comes down to a total buy-in from the team in the wake of a nasty visit from the injury bug. Among the players having the most success is the goaltending tandem of Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll, who are both having excellent seasons and sitting in the top ten for goals-against average (GAA) and save percentage (SV%).
The season got off to an intriguing but cautious start in net, with Stolarz playing lights out to start the season in the wake of Joseph Woll’s preseason injury. Fast forward two months and both goaltenders are having career years and seem to be feeding off each other’s momentum. Arguably more important than their individual play is their friendship off the ice, which in turn has helped them push each other to be better on the ice and formed a partnership-style tandem similar to what the Boston Bruins had in Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.
Head coach Craig Berube was extremely complimentary of Stolarz’s start on Monday against the Chicago Blackhawks, a game that the Maple Leafs won pretty handily despite not playing one of their better games. He specifically talked about how important the goaltenders’ relationship off the ice is to the product on the ice.
“They have a great relationship. I think they are really tight, and it goes a long way,” Berube told reporters. “For everyone in the room and the whole team, the camaraderie is important, and they have it.”
Stolarz stopped 27 of 28 shots to get the win and earn himself the team’s WWE Belt for player of the game. He was given a pair of glasses with a camera built in as he was announced as the first star and gave us a fun point of view look at what it feels like to be named first star.
POV: You’re the first star ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/4VvbogT3Sg
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) December 3, 2024
Stolarz is 8-4-2 with a 2.23 GAA and a .924 SV% while Woll is 6-2-0 with a 2.13 GAA and a .923 SV%, giving the Maple Leafs far and away their best goaltending tandem in the Auston Matthews era thus far. Whether or not they’ll be able to collectively maintain this strong play all season and into the playoffs is still up in the air, but so far, their strong play and positive energy have given the team and the fans much to be optimistic about.
