Stolarz outplaying Bobrovsky in net isn’t much of a conversation in Leaf-land

A quick glance at a calendar shows we’re now two days into November, and with almost 20 per cent of their season gone, the Toronto Maple Leafs are currently sitting outside of the playoffs with an 8-6-2 record.

But that calendar, the Gregorian one that reminds us we now have less than eight weeks until Christmas, holds barely more than a passing interest to most Leafs fans these days. The calendar they’re really focused on is the internal one that tells head coach Jim Hiller which goaltender is playing which day.

Based on the disparate play of Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz thus far, that calendar also offers a fairly accurate window into the team’s chances of success on any given day.

While Stolarz is sporting a 5-1 record in his six starts, Bobrovsky, a few months into the three-year, US$21-million contract he signed with the team in the summer, is 3-5-2 across 10 starts, having lost his last two. The most recent of those featured his nadir in Toronto – a seemingly routine shot that Seattle’s Brandon Montour squeezed by him with 33 seconds remaining in a 5-4 loss last Wednesday, the ninth time in his 10 starts he has conceded three or more goals.

The 38-year-old, two-time Stanley Cup champion is trailing his crease collaborator in all the important categories. Stolarz has the edge in goals-against average (2.66 vs. 3.29) and save percentage (.910 vs. .885); the league average for those statistical categories is 2.98 and .890, respectively.

Apropos of nothing, Stolarz’s National Hockey League-leading three assists also has him two apples shy of matching Toronto’s franchise record for a netminder, after his wayward effort toward Vancouver’s empty net on Saturday set up the Leafs’ final goal in their 4-2 win.

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Back home after a four-game road swing out west, and heading into a meeting with the Utah Mammoth on Tuesday night, Hiller may or may not be aware of the brewing goalie controversy that has lit up Leaf Nation podcasts and social media the past couple of weeks. Regardless, he’s sticking to his plan, and wasted little time announcing that Bobrovsky would start Tuesday.

“There’s always flexibility, but yeah, we look at the schedule in the summer, start to lay it out,” he said. “Talk to the goalies. Talk to everybody. So it’s been laid out for quite some time.”

The plan isn’t set in stone, however. While Hiller admits that he and his coaching staff are constantly re-evaluating and prepared to deviate where necessary – Stolarz’s surprise start in the Leafs’ 7-2 win in Edmonton 10 days ago was apparently one of those deviations – he is a little surprised in the level of interest in his goaltending calendar.

“I can appreciate the questions, but we haven’t talked about it near as much as you guys,” he said. “You know, I’ve talked about it more today than we’ve talked about it in two weeks with our coaches and management.”

While Stolarz has inadvertently caused much of the kerfuffle with his level of play, combined with Bobrovsky’s slow start, the veteran backup isn’t about to rock the boat. The tandem has successful history – sharing the crease in Florida on the way to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup two years ago – and even though Bobrovsky’s struggles are costing valuable points, Stolarz is nothing but supportive of his partner.

“Like I keep reiterating, he’s one of the more battle-tested guys in this league, and he’s played in three Stanley Cup finals. He’s played in the Olympics,” the 32-year-old said. “I’ve seen him at his best, and he’s one hell of a goalie, and the way he works day in and day out, the proof’s in the pudding, and he’ll get back on track here.”

Both Stolarz and Hiller praised Bobrovsky’s level of preparation outside of games – to wit, despite numerous media requests, Bobrovsky wasn’t made available Monday following practice as he didn’t want to deviate from one of his meticulously preplanned routines.

The Russian netminder has historically been a slow starter, though. His .903 percentage across the 116 games he has played in October is easily the worst mark of his career of any month where he has played multiple games. If that track record is anything to go by, Leaf fans should expect a much better return in November, when his percentage shoots up nine percentage points to .912.

Stolarz, for one, was far from worried Monday, so much so that if Bobrovsky is looking for someone to manage his PR as he gets settled in his new NHL home city, he’d be hard pressed to hire someone better.

As for Stolarz’s own ambitions, the American said that last season – which proved to be an injury-hit campaign as both he and Joseph Woll vied for the No. 1 job – taught him something of a lesson. He ended up making just 25 starts, and still hasn’t made more than the career-high 33 he made in 2024-25, his first season in Toronto, and as of right now, he has no plans on demanding that Hiller rethink his goaltending calendar.

“I’m a pretty easygoing guy,” he said. “My mindset, I think, maybe at the beginning of last year was a little different, and you kind of realize that that didn’t work for me, so I kind of just went back to my old self, and I’ve done that to start this year.”