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Comments Made by Maple Leafs Goalie Anthony Stolarz This Weekend May Become a Bigger Issue in Toronto
Photo credit: Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
Following a loss to the Kraken on Saturday, Anthony Stolarz publicly blasted his Maple Leafs teammates, and now those comments may be causing issues in Toronto.
It's been a tough start to the season for the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are a mediocre 3-2-1 through 6 games, and tensions are already beginning to boil over following a controversial situation that arose on Saturday.
Comments From Stolarz Could Become an Issue
During the Leafs' loss to the Kraken over the weekend, goaltender Anthony Stolarz was run into hard by Mason Marchment, which resulted in a frustrated Stolarz taking a few swings at the Kraken forward, and then subsequently putting his teammates on blast after the game.
While the comments initially seemed like they were going to be quick to pass, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman stated, during the Monday, October 20th edition of his 32 Thoughts podcast, that they may have caused some issues in the Leafs' dressing room and/or with the coaching staff.
"When is the last time you heard a Toronto player talk like that?.. I am really trying to remember the last time a Maple Leaf really went to that level on his teammates."
Friedman identified his comments about William Nylander essentially quitting on a back-check and giving up the breakaway that ended the game as potentially problematic, but suggested that it would be between he and Nylander to sort that out.
"He called out Nylander, right? He called out Nylander without [saying his name], but everyone knew who he was talking about. So, ultimately, Nylander will decide how much he's annoyed about that. That's between the two of them."
Another set of comments, though, may have irked the entire team and possibly even the coaching staff, as Friedman outlined during the podcast.
"The one about the throwing the puck back and forth... I would be very curious to hear about how that one gets handled, because I could see a lot of the players potentially being upset about that. I could see the coaches being upset about that."
Friedman believes that the Leafs can either just let this one go, or could reprimand Stolarz for speaking his mind and not keeping matters behind closed doors, the way most players do.
"I think the Leafs have two choices here: They could say, 'look, he's right. We weren't defending him, and he's earned the right to blow off steam...' or, they can fire back against him, which is kind of not their way to [do it], but I bet, internally, that line about throwing the pucks back and forth, that one could raise some ire. I could see, depending on whether it's coaches or players saying, 'you know what? You stop the puck. We'll handle the way we play in front of you.'"
The Leafs Will Likely Try to Keep This Quiet
It's tough to know for sure how the Leafs will handle this situation, but one wouldn't be off base to suggest that they'll likely try to minimize any public speculation and handle this one in-house, and away from cameras and microphones.
The tough part here is that Stolarz was right on the money, and was not at all talking out of the side of his mouth. The Leafs didn't protect him, and they haven't put enough pressure on the opposing goaltenders.
It will be interesting to see what comes out of all of this. If the Leafs listen to their goaltender, who is essentially telling them how to be successful by informing them just how annoying it is for him to deal with that sort of treatment, perhaps it could yield some better results at the other end of the ice if the Leafs begin to adopt some of those tactics.
| POLL | ||
OCTOBRE 20 | 670 ANSWERS Comments Made by Maple Leafs Goalie Anthony Stolarz This Weekend May Become a Bigger Issue in Toronto Do you think Anthony Stolarz was off-base to go at his teammates like that in his post-game interview on Saturday? | ||
| Yes, keep it in the room | 136 | 20.3 % |
| No, he's absolutely right | 475 | 70.9 % |
| Don't care, just win | 59 | 8.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
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