The bad news regarding Anthony Stolarz continues.
According to TSN’s Chris Johnston, the Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender is being evaluated in hospital after leaving during the second period of their 5-4 win over the Florida Panthers in Game 1.
Just over five minutes into the game, Stolarz took a shot off the head from Sam Reinhart, which knocked off the goaltender’s mask. Early in the second period, during a Florida power play, Sam Bennett’s forearm collided with Stolarz’s head, putting the goaltender to the ice.
The 31-year-old remained in the game until midway through, when it appeared he was throwing up on the bench. Joseph Woll came in for relief and stopped 17 of 20 shots for his first postseason win this year.
“Elbow to the head, clearly. Clear as day,” Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube said post-game.
“I’m not sure why there’s not a call on it, but I get it, they miss calls. But it’s clearly a penalty.”
Berube added that Stolarz was being evaluated. When asked whether the evaluation was inside the rink or the hospital, the head coach said, “Right now he’s just being evaluated.”
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman followed up on Johnston’s report, saying Stolarz was taken to the hospital for further evaluation. Johnston also reported that the goaltender was taken out of Scotiabank Arena on a stretcher.
“Hopefully the league will handle it, take good care of it, and protect our players,” Matthew Knies said following the game, before talking about Bennett’s style of play.
“I know he’s a hard player. I mean, I know you watch hockey too, so you guys see it. Especially at the 4 Nations, you see he’s an intimidating player. He likes to use that, it helps him.”
Woll said following the game that there wasn’t much conversation with Stolarz before he left the game in the middle frame. It was the first time the 26-year-old saw game action since Apr. 17 against the Detroit Red Wings.
“I think it’s kind of a mix of concern for him and you don’t want to see him not feeling well or whatever was going on,” Woll said. “At the same time, I’m getting prepared to play, so kind of a mix of that.”
Stolarz has started every single playoff game for the Maple Leafs, winning four of six games against the Senators with a .901 save percentage. He missed nearly two months from mid-December to mid-February after having knee surgery.
The netminder finished the regular season with a .926 save percentage through 34 games, the best total in the NHL.
“He’s been our rock for the whole year. I can’t say enough about him,” Chris Tanev said on Monday night. “That’s all I’m really going to say about it, and Joe did a great job coming in. That’s not an easy thing to do, so you got to give him a ton of props for doing that.”
The Maple Leafs have an optional practice on Tuesday morning, and we will likely get another update on Stolarz then.
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