TORONTO (Sep. 28) — Apart from the usual and tiresome narrative involving success in the regular season and collapse in the playoffs, there is virtually no way to forecast how the Toronto Maple Leafs will fare this season.

Not with the enduring mystery of the game’s most–important position, a revolving door for the hockey club in the salary cap era. When Hall–of–Famer Ed Belfour played 121 games for the Leafs in 2002–03 and 2003–04, no fan of the Blue and White could have imagined two decades of instability between the pipes. For much of the previous 10 years, the Leafs had been rather solid in goal with Felix Potvin, Curtis Joseph and Belfour. The latter, behind a weakened club, was not as effective in his final Leafs season, 2005–06. Since Belfour, however, a total of 33 men have guarded the net for a team that has only once advanced beyond the opening round of Stanley Cup toil.

Here is the perpetual roll call, beginning in 2006–07:

MIKAEL TELLQVIST, TREVOR KIDD, J.S. AUBIN, ANDREW RAYCROFT, SCOTT CLEMMENSEN, VESA TOSKALA, MARTIN GERBER, JUSTIN POGGE, J.S. 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,  CAL PICKARD, MICHAEL HUTCHINSON, KASIMIR KASKISUO, JACK CAMPBELL, DAVID RITTICH, PETER MRAZEK, JOSEPH WOLL, ERIK KALLGREN, MATT MURRAY, ILYA SAMSONOV, JETT ALEXANDER, MARTIN JONES.

Whenever Anthony Stolarz debuts, he’ll become the 80th person to play goal for the Leafs since May 2, 1967, when the club last won the Stanley Cup. Coupled with the lack of a Norris Trophy threat on the blue line (since Borje Salming, 45 years ago), this has been the most–grievous deficit for the franchise. Johnny Bower and Terry Sawchuk were the last Leaf goalies to win the National Hockey League title. Bower, today, would be 99 years old; Sawchuk, 94. There have been moments in the cap era. James Reimer, Frederik Andersen and Jack Campbell provided the Leafs with stretches of solid performance. None, however, could prevail once the Stanley Cup hunt began. Will that change, this season, under Stolarz and incumbent Joseph Woll? It’s a question no observer can accurately predict, given the dearth of evidence. China Doll Woll has never stood healthy over an extended frame.

ANTHONY STOLARZ IS A DEAD–RINGER FOR EX–LEAF ALYN McCAULEY. BUT, CAN HE PLAY GOAL?  

Stolarz comes to the Leafs as pretty much a journeyman, having made 108 appearances since 2016–17 with Philadelphia, Edmonton, Anaheim and Florida. His best season, not surprisingly, occurred a year ago, when Stolarz stood in for Sergei Bobrovsky on 27 occasions with the Stanley Cup–champion Florida Panthers. A goals–against average of 2.03 and a sparkling .925 save percentage were the best numbers of his career. The Panthers have $14.5 million committed to Bobrovsky and back–up Spencer Knight. As such, Stolarz left as a free agent and signed (on July 1) with the Leafs for $5 million over two years. Is he more than just a nomadic No. 2? More importantly, can Stolarz effectively assume the No. 1 role if Woll’s injury pattern persists? Again, we might as well pick a date in November and predict the Toronto weather. Or, try hitting the center of a dartboard in a blackened room.

I’m not suggesting it won’t happen for the Maple Leafs. Who knows? Maybe Woll/Stolarz becomes the best Toronto tandem since Bower and Sawchuk nearly six decades ago. Problem is, we cannot foresee the outcome. There is no evidence that either goalie can carry a team through six months and the bulk of 82 games. That wasn’t the case — so long ago — with Belfour, Joseph and (for awhile) Potvin. Nor do such current teams as the Panthers (Bobrovsky), Tampa Bay (Andrei Vasilevskiy), Boston (Jeremy Swayman) and Ottawa (Linus Ullmark) possess the same mystery between the pipes. And, that’s just in the Atlantic Division, where the Leafs reside.

Goaltending has been in constant flux for a very basic reason: The Maple Leafs have made a succession of bad calls. From Vesa Toskala… to an aging Jean–Sébastien Giguère… to Jonas Gustavsson… Jonathan Bernier… Andersen… Campbell… Peter Mrazek… Ilya Samsonov… no Toronto goalie, in the salary cap era, has been able to sustain performance. Flashes, we’ve seen. Decent spans as well — particularly from Reimer and Campbell.

But, nothing that endures.

Every year, it seems, the Maple Leafs have at least one new goalie… often vying for the starter’s role. The club simply cannot develop a No. 1 stopper; Woll, if he somehow stays healthy, could interrupt that pattern but we haven’t seen him enough to conclude he can play 55 to 60 games at an advanced level. Stolarz is even more of a riddle, despite appearing in 62 more matches than Woll. There isn’t a Leafs observer on the planet that can possibly forecast the coming season as it pertains to goaltending. If there’s a good omen for Woll it’s that he was born July 12, 1998, only 72 hours before Leafs president Ken Dryden signed Cujo as a free agent from Edmonton.

What ensued were the four best goaltending years for the Maple Leafs in the post–1967 era.

A hybrid of the two stoppers would be known as Joseph Joseph.

Maybe the name and calendar coincidences will work in China Doll’s favor.

LOOK OUT, RYAN: The collapse of the Toronto Argonauts under coach Ryan Dinwiddie grew closer early today in Vancouver when the Hamilton Tiger–Cats rallied from 16–0 and 23–8 deficits to stun the B.C. Lions, 32–29. It was at 1:45 a.m. Eastern that Ante Milanovic–Litre scored on a one–yard run in overtime to provide the Ticats their fourth consecutive win. A 10–point lead in the standings for Toronto over Hamilton has shrunk to two points. And, the Tiger–Cats merely need to draw even with the Argos to plunge last year’s 16–2 team into last place in the Canadian Football League East. That’s because Hamilton defeated Toronto in all three head–to–head encounters this season. Veteran quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell cemented his late–season status as the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player with another vintage performance. He needed help, in the end, from the myopic Command Centre, which again determined the result of a game by overturning a correct non–call on the field. TSN’s No. 1 analyst, Glen Suitor, was appropriately beside himself when video review determined pass interference against B.C. in the end zone. Thereby spotting the ball at the Lions one–yard line and setting up Litre’s short gallop. Under no reasonable circumstance should the non–call on the field have been overturned. But, the Command Centre has evolved into a monster this season, refusing to follow even the most–basic criterion: to reverse a decision on the field, a replay must be conclusive; without grey area. Which the call in Vancouver certainly was not. But, this absurd system will continue to plague the CFL until commissioner Randy Ambrosie and the governors wake up.

They’ve been largely comatose throughout the 2024 campaign.

 
Speaking of which, the Argos now have a must–win game tonight at BMO Field against (gulp!) the Montreal Alouettes (with star defensive back Marc–Antoine Dequoy returning from injury). A loss to the defending Grey Cup champions would allow the Tiger–Cats, next Friday, to thrust Toronto into the East Division basement. While the Argonauts are in a bye week, Hamilton will play host to the otherworldly Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who dropped 55 points on the Edmonton Elks Friday night. The Argos have been going in reverse for much of the schedule.

Though Dinwiddie’s offense is boring and predictable, I’ll give him this much: twice during the season, the Boatmen have prevailed in games that I anticipated a rout: 37–18 at Montreal (July 11) and 33–17 at B.C. (Sep. 13). Toronto will need to pull a similar upset tonight at the CNE. Which cannot happen if the defense gets strafed for the second consecutive week. All we know is that Dinwiddie’s first offensive call will be an off–tackle run with Ka’Deem Carey. Evidently, there is no other way to start a game (or most series) for the fading Argonauts leader.

ADDED TO MY COLLECTION…

This could be trouble: I’ve discovered eBay. Perhaps later than others, but I’m making up for lost time. Purchased, recently, were issues of The Hockey News from 1967–68, above (the first year of expansion) and 1970–71, below, when the Boston Bruins annihilated the NHL record book only to be dispatched from the opening round of the playoffs by rookie goalie Ken Dryden and the eventual Stanley Cup–champion Montreal Canadiens.

 

This issue of The Hockey News came out on my ninth birthday (Feb. 3, 1968) as the six NHL expansion teams were late into their first season. Below, are selected game summaries from Jan. 24–28, 1968. Including the first–ever visit to Maple Leaf Gardens by the Philadelphia Flyers (Jan. 24); Norm Ullman, Paul Henderson and Floyd Smith still playing for Detroit (against the Flyers), just more than a month before being traded to the Maple Leafs for Frank Mahovlich. And, one of the big upsets of the first expansion year: the Pittsburgh Penguins marching into Boston Garden and blanking the Bruins in a remarkable performance by goaltender Les Binkley: 

 
 
 

The Mar. 26, 1971 issue of The Hockey News featuring the record–smashing Boston Bruins of Orr and Esposito.

Boston held six of the top–nine positions in NHL scoring, including the top four. The Bruins embarked on a west–coast road trip in mid–March and destroyed all three opponents: California, Los Angeles and Vancouver (below).

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