TORONTO (Apr. 12) — Amid the usual corporate roguery at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment — with the hockey club disgracing itself, most nights — a fundamental issue has reared its ugly face. Yet again: Goaltending.

Anthony Stolarz is either the unluckiest SOB on the planet… or he’s largely comprised of paper mache. Neither scenario is amenable to the Toronto Maple Leafs as it pertains to a No. 1 goalkeeper. Whether re–tooling, re–building, re–frying or staying the same. Though proven to be among the best stoppers in the National Hockey League a year ago, this season has been a nightmare for Stolarz, who made what appeared to be a routine kick–save on Wednesday night against Washington. Only to scream in pain with an injury that, according to Craig Berube, will compromise much of his off–season. What gives with this poor bastard? The slightest motion seems to throw his entire body out of whack. Even the dirty elbow he took last spring in the playoffs from Sam Bennett was hardly a cannon shot. Until we learned that Anthony is dealing with a chronic nerve issue around his neck.

How, therefore, do the Leafs move forward in goal with Stolarz as part of the equation? Let alone the designated starter? When every time he scratches his shoulder or backside, another muscle is liable to pop? The club either ignored medical advice or crossed its collective finger when Brad Treliving signed Stolarz to a four–year, $15 million contract extension (to kick in next season). At the time, and even amid the neck issue, it appeared to be fair deal for both sides. Stolarz was 21–8–3 in 34 starts last season with a sparkling 2.14 goals–against average and NHL–best .926 save–percentage. There was no telling how he’d bounce back from the neck injury and concussion sustained by the Bennett elbow. And, quite frankly, he never has. Not for any length of time. The statistics, this year, bare little resemblance: 10–10–3 in 26 starts with splits of 3.28 and .893. Numbers insufficient for a back–up netminder, let alone a No. 1 man. Joseph Woll is signed for two more years at $3.67 million a pop. For the Leafs to be spending $7,416,667 against the rising cap on goaltending should not be a concern. Problem is, the guy with the ability to perhaps take the club through four playoff rounds (Stolarz) cannot hold himself together.

And, Woll, though a decent stand–in, isn’t of caliber to lead a Stanley Cup threat.

For the Leafs, it’s kind of a cart and horse issue. Which comes first?

Though the club isn’t likely to contend in the playoffs for a few years, how do you become such a challenger without reliable goaltending? And, where does the urgency lay? This, of course, has been an enduring issue since the Leafs last won the Stanley Cup. As you’ll see in the segment, below, 82 men have tended goal for the Blue and White since that long–fabled night of May 2, 1967 at Maple Leaf Gardens. Only three have provided the club a stretch of comparatively good results, playoffs included — Mike Palmateer, Felix Potvin and Curtis Joseph.

Palmateer was No. 1 man from October 1976 until traded to the Capitals in the summer of 1980. Though it was far easier to make the playoffs in the 21–team NHL (16 clubs qualified), Palmateer emerged victorious in four post–season rounds: best–of–three preliminaries against Pittsburgh (1977), Los Angeles (1978) and Atlanta (1979)… and the quarterfinal Game 7 upset of the New York Islanders in ’78. Potvin was No. 1 goalie for the Leafs from 1992–93 to 1997–98, after which Joseph signed here as a free agent. Felix knocked off the Red Wings and Blues in the spring of 1993; the Blackhawks and Sharks in ’94. The 1995 playoffs began with consecutive victories by Toronto at the United Center in Chicago. But, the Blackhawks won four of the remaining five matches and the series, at home, in Game 7. Potvin never again starred for the Leafs. Joseph, over four seasons, remains the franchise gold standard in the post–’67 era. Like Potvin, he twice backstopped the club (1999, 2002) to the Stanley Cup semifinals and prevailed in six best–of–seven rounds. The past six playoff victories for the Maple Leafs date 26 years, to the spring of 2000. Or, a full generation. Cujo accomplished as much between 1999 and 2002.

The post–lockout era (beginning in 2005–06) has been particularly erratic. While several men (Vesa Toskala, James Reimer, Frederik Andersen) held the fort over a prolonged span, none could come through for the Leafs in the playoffs. Toskala never got a chance; his three teams (2008–09–10) didn’t qualify. Reimer will forever be remembered for the night, in 2013, the Leafs blew that 4–1, third–period lead at Boston and were eliminated in Game 7 overtime. It was the lone playoff round during Optimus Reim’s juncture with the team. When it’s all over for Andersen, his family should request a burial plot next to the TD Garden in Boston. There, ol’ Freddie imploded in Games 7 of the 2018 and 2019 Stanley Cup chase. He had been defeated in overtime of Game 6 by Washington in 2017 and tended goal during that bizarre COVID play–in round in 2020, before an empty house at Scotiabank Arena. Columbus knocked off the Leafs, who couldn’t score in Game 2, or in the decisive fifth match.

So, really, it’s been slim pickings between the pipes since Ed Belfour singlehandedly subdued the Ottawa Senators in the 2004 opening round. Ilya Samsonov was in goal the night the Leafs kayoed the 2023 Lightning on an overtime marker by John Tavares. And, Stolarz prevailed, last spring, in the first round against overmatched Ottawa. That’s it: two playoff conquests in 20 seasons (with no opportunity, of course, in this Stanley Cup spring).

So, how do the Leafs proceed?

Ideally, the club cannot come back with the Stolarz–Woll tandem; it has no durability. For a team to make noise in the playoffs, a particular goalie must often emerge. There needs to be demonstrable trust that a No. 1 stopper can make it through the bulk of the regular season and the lengthy playoff slog. No–such expectation exists for Stolarz or Woll… and blind hope doesn’t lend itself to a Stanley Cup challenge. Neither is there a book yet on Artur Akhtyamov, who signed a cheap ($900,000) three–year contract and made his first start for the Leafs, Thursday, against the Islanders. Nor a large–enough sample size in the NHL for lanky Dennis Hildeby, though he isn’t considered an elite goaltending prospect. This is a major position of instability that the Maple Leafs will need to adroitly tackle before entertaining thoughts of a return to playoff contention. But, neither is it anything new.

ARTUR NO STRANGER: As reported inaccurately by several media outlets, Artur Akhtyamov did not make his “Leafs debut” against the Islanders on Thursday night. It was his first start for the club, but he finished a game for Dennis Hildeby at home to Edmonton on Dec. 13, thus becoming the 82nd person to tend goal for the Leafs since the last Stanley Cup triumph on May 2, 1967. Here’s the entire roll–call. How many names do you remember?

JOHNNY BOWER, BRUCE GAMBLE, AL SMITH, MARV EDWARDS, GERRY McNAMARA, JACQUES PLANTE, BERNIE PARENT, MURRAY McLACHLAN, GORD McRAE, RON LOW, DOUG FAVELL, DUNC WILSON, EDDIE JOHNSTON, PIERRE HAMEL, WAYNE THOMAS,  MIKE PALMATEER, PAUL HARRISON, JIRI CRHA, CURT RIDLEY, VINCENT TREMBLAY, JIM RUTHERFORD, MICHEL (BUNNY) LAROCQUE, BOB PARENT, RICK ST. CROIX, ALLAN BESTER, KEN WREGGET, BRUCE DOWIE, TIM BERNHARDT, DON EDWARDS, JEFF REESE, MARK LaFOREST, PETER ING, DAMIAN RHODES, GRANT FUHR, FELIX POTVIN, RICK WAMSLEY, DARREN PUPPA, DON BEAUPRE, MARCEL COUSINEAU, GLENN HEALY, CURTIS JOSEPH, COREY SCHWAB, TOM BARRASSO, SEBASTIEN CENTOMO, ED BELFOUR, MIKAEL TELLQVIST, TREVOR KIDD, JEAN-SEBASTIAN AUBIN, ANDREW RAYCROFT, SCOTT CLEMMENSEN, VESA TOSKALA, MARTIN GERBER, JUSTIN POGGE, JEAN-SEBASTIEN GIGUERE, JONAS GUSTAVSSON, JOEY MacDONALD, JAMES REIMER, BEN SCRIVENS, JUSSI RYNNAS, JONATHAN BERNIER, DREW MacINTYRE, GARRET SPARKS, FREDERIK ANDERSEN, JHONAS ENROTH, ANTOINE BIBEAU, CURTIS McELHINNEY, CALVIN PICKARD, MICHAEL HUTCHINSON, KASIMIR KASKISUO, JACK CAMPBELL, DAVID RITTICH, PETER MRAZEK, JOSEPH WOLL, ERIK KALLGREN, MATT MURRAY, ILYA SAMSONOV, JETT ALEXANDER, MARTIN JONES, ANTHONY STOLARZ, DENNIS HILDEBY, CAYDEN PRIMEAU, ARTUR AKHTYAMOV.

THE PHILADELPHIA FLU — 1976 EDITION

All of the fanfare and hope from the preliminary round victory over Pittsburgh vanished for the Maple Leafs, at Philadelphia, in the first two games of the 1976 Stanley Cup quarterfinals. Not that anyone acted surprised. The consecutive defeats to begin the series extended Toronto’s winless streak at the Spectrum to 12 games (playoffs included), dating to a 4–0 win on Dec. 19, 1971. The biggest pock mark was a 10–0 pasting by the Flyers on Mar. 4, 1973. It wasn’t often that the Leafs of Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Borje Salming et al were accused of lollygagging — as does the current team, virtually every night. But, there were no redeeming qualities in Games 1 and 2 in Philly… and absolutely no indication that the Leafs would rise up and win all three games at home, forcing the Flyers into a decisive match at the Spectrum. Here are newspaper accounts of the somnolent first two encounters:

 
THE BIG GUNNERS ON THE LEAFS WERE PARTICULARLY SILENT (ABOVE AND BELOW) IN THE OPENING MATCH, 50 YEARS AGO TONIGHT, AT THE SPECTRUM. IF THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR TO CURRENT–DAY LEAFS FANS, IT WASN’T AN ISSUE DURING MUCH OF THE SITTLER–McDONALD–SALMING ERA. RATHER, THE CLUB LACKED SUFFICIENT DEPTH TO POSE A STANLEY CUP THREAT.

 
MY OL’ PAL, JOHN IABONI, COVERED THE LEAFS–FLYERS SERIES FOR THE TORONTO SUN. HIS GAME 1 STORY IS ABOVE, WITH THE GLOBE AND MAIL LEAFS PAGE AND THE SCORING SUMMARY, BELOW.

 

VETERAN COLUMNIST JIM PROUDFOOT OF THE TORONTO STAR (ABOVE) TRAVELED WITH THE MAPLE LEAFS TO PHILADELPHIA. A CLOSER LOOK AT HIS GAME 1 STORY, BELOW.

THIS VIOLENT EPISODE OCCURRED DURING THE MAPLE LEAFS–FLYERS SERIES — IN THE OLD WORLD HOCKEY ASSOCIATION. A QUARTERFINAL PLAYOFF GAME AT THE COLISEE IN QUEBEC BETWEEN THE NORDIQUES AND THE CALGARY COWBOYS (ABOVE AND BELOW). THOUGH A BIT OF AN OUTLIER, IT WAS FAIRLY TYPICAL OF THE MID–70’s ERA IN PROFESSIONAL HOCKEY.

GAME 2 WASN’T MUCH PRETTIER THAN THE OPENER FOR THE MAPLE LEAFS (ABOVE AND BELOW).

JOHN IABONI’S TORONTO SUN GAME STORY (ABOVE); THE GAME SUMMARY, BELOW.

HEADLINES FROM THE GLOBE AND MAIL AFTER GAME 2 OF THE STANLEY CUP QUARTERFINALS.

EMAIL: HOWARDLBERGER@GMAIL.COM