Quick Shifts: Are Maple Leafs' goalies hitting a wall?

A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. If two goalies want to fight, who are we to stop them?

1. Apart and together, Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz are venturing into the unknown.

In any season at any level, the most games Woll had played is 37. That was with Boston College in 2018-19. Thursday’s rocky shootout loss in San Jose marked his 38th in this critical campaign for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Stolarz’s previous NHL high was 28 appearances with the Anaheim Ducks in 2021-22. Despite mid-season knee surgery, he’ll set a personal best with his 29th game for the Leafs this weekend, either Saturday in L.A. or Sunday against those Ducks. (Coach Craig Berube isn’t tipping his hand.)

What an opportunity, for both athletes.

What a mystery, for everyone involved and watching.

While stellar early and superb in recent spurts, neither half of the Maple Leafs' unproven tandem has seized the crease outright, nor owns the lengthy playoff résumé that makes them an easy choice to start Game 1.

Both Woll and Stolarz have seen their save percentages dip this month, as divisional-race pressure mounts, their rotation keeps spinning, and Toronto’s defensive lapses persist.

In the aftermath of Thursday’s 6-5 shootout loss to the last-place Sharks, Berube criticized Woll unprompted. Friday in L.A., the coach was more diplomatic discussing the goaltending he’s received since the 4 Nations break.

“It’s a little up and down. They have had real good games, too. It is a little bit like our game — a little too inconsistent at times. But, hey, they have played really well for us this year. They’ve been really solid. They are going to have off nights, like everybody else does,” said Berube, quick to share responsibility with the skaters.

“Defence is a commitment. I don’t care what system you play. Teams win with different types of systems, but it is about the commitment to doing it and doing the little things within the system that really buckle it down defensively.”

Toronto has been more prone to odd-man rushes and lopsided shot totals lately, but it hasn’t been getting the game-saving stops as regularly either.

At the halfway mark, we crowned the Stolarz and Woll tandem as the greatest surprise of the Leafs’ season. Toronto had the best save percentage in the East and the third-best overall.

Today, the Leafs rank 13th in team save percentage. Mid.

That falls on the forwards and blue-line, but also the men in pads — who are now working more often and under more pressure than ever in their pro lives.

“It’s more work to keep your body healthy, and that’s a learning experience as well. You learn what your body needs, and that it’s doing more to stay healthy,” Woll explained Friday in L.A.

“Same time, it is work mentally, too, to stay in the right mindset. It’s like anything else — it’s work.”

Stolarz, 31, says that all goalies want to play as much as possible. He views his new career-high in games played as “a success in itself.” Having a front-row seat for Sergei Bobrovsky’s four rounds, however, he knows there is so much more work ahead.

“The jobs aren’t done,” Stolarz said. “We’re all human, and we can all improve on uncertain areas. So, I think just getting a little extra work with (goalie coach Curtis Sanford) the last couple days here has been huge. And I really liked my last two games (both wins) against the Rangers and Flyers.”

Stolarz describes himself as a “big video guy.” He’ll analyze his saves and misses from multiple angles to learn what he’s doing correctly and not so much. Woll prefers to review his performances — good or bad — with Sanford the same night, then flush it and move on to the next start.

For the most part, this deconstruction and fine-tuning is done separately, between Sanford and one goalie at a time.

“That is part of the rotation that we have used throughout the season, too,” Berube said. “These guys have not had that much work in their career — ever. They are past that point now, but I think we have managed it well with the rotation and using the guys.

“But I feel like they are in a good spot. I don’t feel like they are overused or tired. I am not sensing that from them.”

2. Much was made, understandably, about the comments John Tortorella made in Toronto, after stapling the still-developing Cam York to the bench for 50 minutes and watching his gutted group get trounced 7-2 by the Maple Leafs. Hardly an ideal response after getting thumped 7-4 by the Blackhawks a couple of days earlier.

“This falls on me. I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we’re at right now. But I have to do a better job,” Tortorella said. “So, this falls on me, getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end.”

Less was made of Tortorella’s comments that morning, though.

He remained off the ice and let his assistants run Philadelphia’s full morning skate, which is unusual for any head coach at a mandatory practice. And he spoke freely about the organization’s plan to essentially treat 2024-25 as a lost season.

After selling off multiple useful pieces by the trade deadline, the concept of giving up felt real. And, for a coach who’s seen the view from the mountaintop, it hurt to be strategically tumbling down to base camp.

“This has been talked about for over a year, what this year was going to be. Our players kept us competitive until near the deadline, when everybody started leaving, and we knew we were going to go through some pain. So, you talk about it, you follow through. And I respect that we are following through with it,” Tortorella said just hours before his final game behind the Philadelphia Flyers bench.

“When you’re in it, it sucks. It sucks for me to see the players go through it. Coaches, it’s a grind on us, but I want the players to feel good about themselves as we keep on trying to get to the finish line here.

“When you’re a coach and you’re talking with the management, and it’s a game plan, everything’s good: OK, we’ll follow through it. But when you’re in the middle of it, it's hard.”

Tortorella sounded every bit like a man throwing in the towel. Or, perhaps, like a guy who knew his days were numbered and wanted his perspective public.

Last season, when his will to win, to accelerate Danny Briere’s plan, surprisingly resulted in flirtation with a playoff spot, he tried scratching his captain.

This season, he scratched the Flyers’ future superstar, Matvei Michkov. He pushed Owen Tippett to the fourth line at times. Benched other young guys who are, or were, intended to be part of the solution.

His patience didn’t match that of the executives. They’re not on the front lines, the camera catching every frown after another loss and another resigned stroll off the bench in a half-zip.

Some of Tortorella’s connectors to a young room — respected vets like Erik Johnson and Scott Laughton — got dealt away for fine returns. He missed them, instantly.

There’s a reason the Detroit Red Wings hired a newbie like Jeff Blashill and the Ottawa Senators tapped a D.J. Smith for the strip-down, build-up years. They had the energy and patience; they didn’t know — or expect — the glory.

“I know where we’re at. OK, let’s not dodge that. They know where they’re at,” Tortorella said. “The guys that are going to be the foundation of a team that’s going to win someday here, when we get to that point, I think they’ve done their job. I want them to continue doing their job through this and just trying to get through it, trying to get to the finish line.

“Because there’s nothing coming for us after April 17.”

Sure, Tortorella got fired this week. But not before he resigned.

3. Traded in 2023 and again in 2024, Jakob Chychrun found what feels like his NHL forever home in 2025.

We had the big, goal-scoring, 26-year-old pegged as the most valuable defenceman scheduled to hit the open market.

But when you’re playing the best hockey of your life for the conference’s best team and headed to the post-season for the first time in six years … don’t mess with happy.

That teammates tacked a $100 bill to the back of Chychrun’s sweater and changed his helmet number to 72 — a nod to his eight-year, $72 million extension — shows how much fun the boys are having in D.C. these days. And how much Chychrun is a part of that.

Tracking his second fully healthy season in a row and coming into his own, Chychrun has already crushed career bests in goals (18), points (44), and plus/minus (plus-23).

While a $9 million AAV nearly doubles his paycheques, Chychrun could well have pushed for more money on an open defence market that could now be led by… who? Aaron Ekblad? Neal Pionk?

The pickings get slim fast, particularly if you want a 20-something with offensive upside.

“We’ve really loved everything about being here, from living in Virginia, playing in D.C., driving by the White House every day. Great neighbourhoods. Tons of families, tons of kids,” Chychrun told me earlier this season.

“You know, we had a block party the first week here in a house with, like, 100 kids running around. And it’s just great for my wife (Olivia) and I. We love living here. We love playing here. The guys are phenomenal. One of the best organizations in the league. You see that with ownership. Just top to bottom, we’ve loved this.”

Love trumps money. But both are nice.

4. Quote of the Week.

“Well, how many years has it been? It’s been like two years already, right? So, yeah, two years.” — Alex Ovechkin, on when he started getting sick of reporters asking him about the all-time goals record.

5. While the world still counts down the goals until the Ovechkin highlight of 2024-25, he gave us what might be a better one.

The Capitals began filing off the bench and walking to the dressing room following Thursday’s loss to the Minnesota Wild when their captain urgently instructed every one of his teammates to get back on the ice and shake the hand of Marc-Andre Fleury.

Fleury, whose retirement is imminent, has been the most victimized of all Ovechkin’s victims. The sniper has put 28 pucks past Fleury, more than any other goalie.

The two legends have battled in many an epic Caps-Pens playoff series, and Fleury was on the opposing Golden Knights that marvellous night in Vegas when Ovi led his franchise to its only title.

“We wanted to do that. O had mentioned that this morning — gonna be the last time going against Marc-Andre and paying the respect he deserved,” coach Spencer Carbery said post-game. “He’s had so many battles with the Caps, with O. So, pretty classy to be able to send him off and say how impressive a career he had.”

6. Only the Nashville Predators have scored fewer goals than the Calgary Flames, who wouldn’t be hanging around the wild-card hunt were it not for super rookie Dustin Wolf performing much bigger than his listed six-foot, 166-pound frame.

Teammate Jonathan Huberdeau said — except for five-foot-11, 185-pound Jose Theodore in his rookie year with the Florida Panthers — he’d always played with big netminders.

“You would come in on him, and there was so much net,” Huberdeau smiled. The illusion of the easy target. “He’s just so quick. These goalies, they need to be quick. Dustin is small, but he can read where you’re gonna shoot. Side to side, he’s probably the quickest goalie to play with. Just incredible.”

Traffic makes tracking the shooter’s release point difficult, but Wolf has become adept at finding lanes with his eyes and anticipating, making difficult saves look easy.

Nazem Kadri credits something more intangible than technical for Wolf’s swift success: his competitiveness.

“He understands the time of the game, when to make a big save or when the team needs a boost,” Kadri said. “And he’s ready for that moment.”

Coach Ryan Huska sounds like a proud dad, the way he discusses the 23-year-old’s growth through the organization’s farm system. How being The Man at the AHL level has translated seamlessly to Wolf’s same status in the NHL. 

“Every time there was a game (in the AHL) they needed to win, he would win it. He gave us confidence. We knew that, hey, if we brought him along slowly, he could be the guy here,” Huska said.

“There’s been nights this year where he’s allowed our team to get our feet underneath us when we weren’t playing at our best. And he’s showed his teammates, more so than anything, that I can do this, and I got your back.”

7. Speaking of struggling to find footing, the Huberdeau in Calgary era is finally off and running.

“Listen, there’s a lot that goes into being traded when you're not expecting it to happen. He was in Florida a long period of time, so that first year was a tough one for him. And I feel like the second year, when it didn’t get off to a great start for him, things kind of snowballed,” Huska sympathized.

“He started to question a little bit who he was and where his game was going.”

The coach said his most expensive weapon exhaled over the summer. Flipped his mindset. Relieved the internal pressure to match his crazy 115-point farewell in Florida. And realized that he would need to adjust his run-and-gun East Coast game to a tighter-checking Left Conference.

“He’s almost gone opposite, where he’s turned himself into a very good 200-foot player for us that is now contributing because of that,” Huska said.

Huberdeau is getting more defensive-zone starts and has now assumed a penalty-killing role. And yet he has already scored as many goals this season (27) as he did in his first two Flames seasons combined.

“Playing both sides of the puck, being more reliable defensively, and penalty killing too — it makes you stay in the game. And the ice time has been there. There’s a point that I started playing, like, 20 minutes a night. That makes a big difference,” said Huberdeau, whose TOI has spiked from 17:25 to 19:23.

“We’re not a team that’s gonna be creating 100 points offensively, but we’re playing more of a defensive game, and that’s how we get success. That’s all it is. I'm not thinking about my personal stats. It’s about making the playoffs, and that’s what I'm worried about.”

As with most hockey tales, there’s an element of luck that blends with the hard work, though. Huberdeau’s shooting percentage hit a 10-year low in 2023-24, dropping to 8.4. It has rebounded to a career-high 19.4 this season.

“He’s getting a little more puck luck,” linemate Kadri said. “For a player of his skill level, just seeing a couple bounces drop your way can go a long way.”

A long way to reclaiming confidence and identity.

“It’s always hard to not be able to help the team the past few years,” Huberdeau said. “This year has been better, and I think I feel more myself.”

8. Being privy to many Sheldon Keefe press conferences, watching him after a tough loss is akin to sitting across from an on-tilt card player after a bad beat.

The coach gets emotionally invested in the outcome and loses his poker face. He has been slapped with three $25,000 fines (two in Toronto and now one in Jersey) for berating officials in-game, after all.

So, while it was a tad surprising to call out a specific player (Johnathan Kovacevic) last Saturday, the palpable frustration from Keefe’s podium felt familiar.

“I thought Kovacevic was fine. Everybody wanted to make a big deal over that, and I get it,” Keefe later explained in New Jersey. “It’s a viral world that we live in. But, you know, Kovacevic was caught in the line of fire because of the question.”

And because Keefe is under pressure here.

He was brought in — along with better goaltending and some nice player additions — to get the Devils back on track.

Keefe knows all too well the difficulty of flipping the “A-game” switch for Game 1, and his injury-hampered roster is scuffling. Many picked the Devils to contend for a divisional crown, and now they’re tracking to start the post-season on the road against a more dialled-in Carolina Hurricanes group.

9. Unless they come off a goalie’s blade or a Ridly Greig windup, but empty-net goals are seldom the fodder of highlight reels.

Watch Cole Hutson (yes, that’s Lane’s younger brother, a Capitals prospect) score this dogged short-handed ENG, though.

Yeesh.

10. Sometimes the best move is the one you don’t make.

Doug Armstrong is a firm believer that the players dictate the deadline plans, not management.

The St. Louis GM was open for business — even entertaining calls on respected captain and Berube pen pal Brayden Schenn — until the Blues players told the boss to close shop, by virtue of their on-ice performance.

Winners of eight straight, the hottest team in hockey resides in the Lou. The lockdown Blues have kept their opponents to two goals or fewer in seven of those contests, and Armstrong’s double offer sheet continues to look like a genius stroke.

According to MoneyPuck.com, the Blues’ odds of making the post-season have rocketed to 73.1 per cent, and they’ve started gaining ground on Minnesota for the first wild card.

Imagine: Had the NHL placed its trade deadline earlier, even by a week or so, we could be writing a completely different story.

(P.S. How good has coach Jim Montgomery looked this season after walking the plank off the good ship Boston Bruins just a few months back?)

11. One day, Laughton is joking about rooming next to his former coach Tortorella in a Toronto hotel.

The next, Laughton is waking up to news that Tortorella has followed him out the door in Philly. 

“It was a shock to me. Who knows what would’ve happened in the summer and everything like that? But, yeah, it was a shock to me,” said Laughton, an ardent Torts defender and long-serving member of the Flyers’ leadership group, hours after learning of the firing.

“One thing I know is Brad Shaw, their interim, is an unbelievable guy. Really good hockey mind. So, it gives him a look for 10 games. Hopefully he does something with it and can proceed in the future for that team. But Torts is a good man and did a lot of good things for me in his time there. I wish him nothing but the best.”

What makes Shaw — whose last interim gig lasted 40 games (with the 2005-06 Islanders) — a worthy candidate for the gig?

“Very methodical. He’s very, very smart,” Laughton said. “Explains the game very well. Sees the game very well. He played for a while; he was a good team man when he played, I’m pretty sure. And he’s great with the defenceman. He helped a lot of those young defencemen out — and he helped me a lot on the penalty kill.”

The Flyers’ PK ranked 26th when Shaw took it over. By 2023-24, he’d helped elevate it to fourth.

“He’s a very smart hockey mind,” Laughton said.

12. Let’s give some love to Pat Maroon, shall we?

Rare is it for a professional athlete to go out on his or her own terms. Rarer still when that athlete is a bounce-around, good-vibes, fourth-line role player.

But here is the blue-collar Big Rig — a three-time (consecutive!) Stanley Cup champion and four-time (also consecutive!) finalist — authoring his own final chapter.

The unlikely everyman hockey hero and enduring personality fittingly announced his impending retirement at his Blackhawks’ last visit to his native St. Louis in a touching interview with Darren Pang.

Wrapping a wonderfully satisfying bow on an indelible career.