James Guillory-Imagn ImagesAnthony Stolarz is not anyone’s idea of a prototypical “No. 1 goalie.” But for the second straight year, he has arguably been one of the best at his position.
And yet, he probably won’t even receive a single Vezina Trophy vote.
That’s fine.
The 31-year-old journeyman is used to being overlooked and under-appreciated. Until recently, he’s never been a starter. Two years ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs goalie was barely even a backup.
This is Stolarz’s fifth NHL team in eight seasons. Last year, he led the NHL with a .925 save percentage and then helped Florida win its first Stanley Cup. As with most pending UFAs coming off a championship, Stolarz then hit the open market looking for a big payday. But despite his stats and his championship pedigree, Stolarz more or less settled for a two-year deal with Toronto for $5-million, where he was supposed to share the net with Joseph Woll.
Woll is being paid more — and has played more than Stolarz — but he hasn't necessarily been better.
Few have this year.
This season, Stolarz went 21-8-3 with a 2.14 GAA and a .926 save percentage. Only Connor Hellebuyck and Darcy Kuemper have allowed fewer goals per game.
Coming into the season, this was supposed to be Woll’s breakout year — not Stolarz’s . A month ago, most had assumed Woll would be in net for Game 1 of the playoffs. But that’s no longer the case. Stolarz’s play in the final weeks of the season has been impossible to ignore.
In his past eight starts, Stolarz is 8-0 with three shutouts and a .950 save percentage. Woll, meanwhile, has lost three of his past five starts, allowing 14 goals in that span.
As a backup option, Woll is better than most teams have. But this is now Stolarz's net. And this is now where Toronto has the edge in the playoffs.
In a division that includes Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy, Florida's Sergei Bobrovsky and Ottawa's Linus Ullmark — whom Toronto will face in the first round — that's really saying something.
"It'll be fun for sure. I think they're a hungry team. They haven't made the playoffs in a couple years here," Stolarz said. "We feel good about our game and it's going to be a blood bath; it's going to be a little bit of a war, so we'll be ready."
So what if Stolarz's career playoff experience is limited to just under 35 minutes?
The last — and only — time that Stolarz appeared in a playoff game was in last year’s Stanley Cup final, when the then-Panthers goalie came in for some mop-up duty in a 8-1 blowout loss in Game 4.
Now, Toronto's playoff hopes rest with him. And it's about time.
“(He) has a good chance to be that goalie for that organization that they’ve needed," Panthers winger Sam Reinhart said of Stolarz. "It’s something that’s deserved through a lot of hard work.”
