Dennis Hildeby Praised by Stolarz, Who Admits to Putting Him in an Awful Position

Just when things were starting to look up for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team dropped a stinker against the Boston Bruins, and goaltender Anthony Stolarz, in his post game comments, laid much of the blame squarely at his own feet.

Despite scoring the opening goal of the contest, the Maple Leafs ended up losing 5-3 to Boston, with Stolarz letting in four goals on 19 shots before getting the hook. Dennis Hildeby was excellent, stopping all but one of the 20 shots he faced in relief of Stolarz, but the damage had already been done.

Following the game, Stolarz praised Hildeby for his performance, adding he never should have left his backup goalie in such a terrible position.

Stolarz was especially hard on himself for letting in two goals on the first two shots of the game --something we're not used to seeing from the usually steady netminder.

It's hard to disagree with Stolarz's assessment of his start, but the rest of the team itself needs to start carrying some of the load as well. Toronto has had its history with Boston, but the two teams are at very different points when it comes to the strength of their rosters right now. Long story short, the Maple Leafs didn't play well enough as a team, and didn't support their goaltender when he needed it.

Hopefully, having Joseph Woll back in the mix will help boost the Maple Leafs goaltending fortunes. That was the one area where there seemed to be little concern heading into the 2025-26 season, but now appears to be the biggest issue as we approach the quarter mark of the season.