The Toronto Maple Leafs' goaltending in October raised questions about why they claimed Cayden Primeau instead of calling up Dennis Hildeby and whether Anthony Stolarz is more than a tandem starter.
While the Toronto Blue Jays made their magical run to Game 7 of the World Series, their NHL counterparts, the Toronto Maple Leafs, had a forgettable and mediocre October.
The Leafs went 6-5-1 in an early home-heavy schedule, but prior to their 5-2 victory in Philadelphia on Saturday, they had gone winless on the road.
Early in the season, there have been a number of areas of concern, including injuries to William Nylander and Chris Tanev, the Leafs struggling on the man advantage without Mitch Marner and a slower-than-expected start by Auston Matthews.
But the main contributors to Toronto’s early sluggishness have been defensive issues and below-average play between the pipes.
The Leafs, which ranked fourth overall in the NHL last season, finished eighth in average goals against at 2.79 and eighth overall in goal differential (plus-37), relying on the solid tandem of Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll. But with Woll being unavailable since the start of training camp due to a personal leave of absence, coach Craig Berube leaned heavily on Stolarz in October, starting the big netminder in eight of 11 games.
Despite posting a 1.84 goals-against average and .920 save percentage in the pre-season, the Leafs opted not to use 24-year-old Dennis Hildeby to back up Stolarz, instead claiming former Montreal backup Cayden Primeau off of waivers.
The thought was that the Leafs' backup would only be used in their three back-to-backs in October, while Hildeby would play full-time in the AHL, but that turned out to be a flawed plan on the part of Berube and GM Brad Treliving.
Primeau won his first two starts (7-4 over Nashville and 4-3 over Buffalo), but struggled in a 6-3 loss to Columbus on Wednesday, giving up six goals on 24 shots. In three games, Primeau has a 4.30 GAA and .838 SP.
Hildeby has less experience than Primeau, but based on his performance in training camp and two solid years with the Toronto Marlies, it is hard to fathom that the big Swede could not have been used in more than three starts and performed better.
Following Stolarz’s heavy usage early last season (he played in 17 of 29 games through early December), a knee injury kept him out for two months. This season, the 31-year-old proved to be not capable of handling a No. 1 starter workload with pedestrian numbers in nine starts (4-4-1, 3.13 GAA, .893 SP). Hildeby was even recalled after a 5-3 loss in Buffalo on Oct. 24 to serve as Primeau’s backup after Stolarz was seen post-game with bags of ice on both knees.
Stolarz may have to bear the brunt of the workload for a few more weeks, as Woll returned to the club last week and will likely return to the Leafs after a conditioning stint in the AHL, but Toronto’s slow start should prove that two goalies will be needed for them to finish in the top three in the Atlantic Division.
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