Anthony Stolarz stole one on Friday night.
The Broadway robbery came in the form of 33 saves by the goaltender in a 3-2 win over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
Considering the Leafs tied their season-low with 17 shots on goal, the performance of Stolarz was paramount.
Our takeaways from the Leafs victory, one that put them back in first place in the Atlantic Division, one point ahead of the Florida Panthers:
ALL ABOUT ANTHONY
Since coming back from a knee issue that kept him out of the lineup for almost two months, Stolarz is 4-0-0 with a .925 save percentage.
In short, he hasn’t missed a beat.
Overall, Stolarz is back on top of the National Hockey League with a .927 save percentage. And with 21 starts, he is four shy of setting a career high.
“I don’t know if I had expectations (when the Leafs signed Stolarz in free agency),” head coach Craig Berube told the media in New York after the win. “He is put into a role here now where he is one of our starters and playing in a lot of games. He did a good job in Florida when he played and won a lot of games there … our goalies have both played extremely well.”
The start in New York was Joseph Woll’s turn, but he was dealing with an ailment and Stolarz was told on Thursday that he was going to be in net.
Berube wants one of his goalies to be ready to be the starter in the Stanley Cup playoffs. If the post-season were getting under way on Saturday, it would be Stolarz. Either way, with the post-season weeks away in April, the Leafs have no concerns about their netminding.
Against the Rangers, the Leafs were outshot 27-13 at five-on-five and gave up 17 high-danger chances in all situations.
“One game at a time,” Stolarz said of the idea that he could emerge as the starter in the post-season. “Nothing is set in stone. You look at how tight the East is, every point matters, I don’t think we want to look too far ahead. I know I won’t.”
Part of the on-ice charm of Stolarz, if you will, is his vocal manner with his teammates.
“He definitely gives it to us when we’re not working hard, and rightfully so,” forward Matthew Knies said. “There were times in this game where we weren’t moving our feet, we weren’t helping him out, so we need that feedback. It fires me up, makes me motivated to block shots, help him out as much as possible.”
BERUBE BERATING
Berube usually isn’t critical after wins, but the coach was rather candid when he was asked about making a change to his top power-play unit.
Rather than keep grinding at it with five forwards on the first unit, Berube during the game put defenceman Morgan Rielly back on it and dropped Knies.
Why the change?
“Nothing happening, there wasn’t anything going on with that unit,” Berube said. “The other unit has done a good job for us. Just wanted to make a switch, put Mitch (Marner) down low around the net and make some plays below the goal line, but we really didn’t get set up too much.
“We have to work harder on our power play. In my opinion, we’re not competing hard enough, we’re not digging in. When you’re on the power play, it’s not just all about making plays. You have to do other things to make it successful and right now, we have to dig in a lot more.”
The message couldn’t be more clear for Marner, captain Auston Matthews, John Tavares and William Nylander. Berube is right. Relying simply on talent won’t lead to success.
The Leafs did get a power-play goal, as Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored in the opening two minutes. Some good work from the second unit by Nick Robertson and Max Domi resulted in the goal. The second unit was on the ice, however, for a shorthanded goal by the Rangers’ Will Cuylle in the third period that tied the game 2-2.
Overall, the Leafs are 13th on the power play. They’re better than that.
The penalty-kill got by without defenceman Chris Tanev, who is nursing an upper-body injury, as it successfully snuffed out three Rangers power plays.
NEARLY A TRIO
Marner and Nylander each took an impressive step in the Leafs’ record book on Friday.
An elusive goal, though, kept Matthews from staking a similar claim.
Marner’s assist on the winning goal by Knies brought him to 713 career points, tying him with George Armstrong for fifth on the franchise list.
Nylander’s goal was the 251st of his career, putting him into a tie for 10th on the franchise list with Bob Pulford.
When told about his milestone after the game, Nylander, who usually lets everything slide, was chuffed.
“That’s pretty wild to think like that,” Nylander said. “A lot of unbelievable players have played here, so it’s crazy to be 10th on that list, for sure.”
Next in Nylander’s sights is Wendel Clark, who is ninth with 260 goals.
Then there was Matthews. He assisted on Knies’ goal as well to run his point streak to eight games.
But Matthews has just one goal in his past 10 games, and remained tied with Darryl Sittler for second on the franchise list with 389. Matthews’ next power-play goal will be the 100th of his career. Only Mats Sundin (124) and Sittler (120) have more.
Each of Marner, Matthews and Nylander one day will be judged fully on what they have done (and will do) in the playoffs for the Leafs. There’s no arguing, though, with what these three special players have accomplished in the regular season in Toronto.
X: @koshtorontosun