Stolarz unloads on Maple Leafs teammates following OT loss to Seattle

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Anthony Stolarz didn't throw any bombs late Saturday night.

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The Maple Leafs goalie didn't need to.

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His anger couldn't have been more evident following the Leafs' 4-3 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken at Scotiabank Arena.

Too often, this Leafs team has not held themselves to high standards, especially in a public forum. So thanks to Stolarz for bringing this up.

We don't remember a time when a Leafs goalie was as upset as Stolarz while watching a regular season game. But after a match in which he was managed by Kraken forward Mason Marchment and none of his teammates did anything, Stolarz unloaded.

It wasn't just the incident that occurred late in the second period that led to Marchment being penalized for goalkeeper interference. Stolarz has his sights set on a number of areas.

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“Maybe we can take a page out of their book and start going online,” Stolarz said. “We like to go low and high and shoot, but for their goalkeeper it’s like catching the ball in the yard.

“We don't make it difficult. We made it difficult in the third and look what happened. We came out, tied the game, got a point, almost scored with five seconds left, but it was too little, too late.

“Even though we're six games into the season, that's enough. It's time for us to start picking up some momentum here.”

Stolarz became so angry after being hit by Marchment that he threw the net off the docks and tried to get to the former Leaf. 6-foot-5, 227-pound defenseman Brandon Carlo stood over Marchment but didn't do much to immediately protect his goalie.

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“Guys are going to come after me and I’m going to try to stand up for myself,” Stolarz said. “I heard the referee say we have a power play and there's not much I can do about him on the ground. Kudos to the guys who were there and handled him.”

“Like I said, I think we need to start approaching the cage a little harder, making it harder for their goalies. It's no fun. I don't like having 225-pound guys land on me. Hopefully we'll learn a lesson here.”

To say it wasn't a good night for Carlo would be an understatement. Just before the Marchment game, Carlo shoved Kraken forward Jayden Schwartz into Stolarz, helping Vince Dunn score Seattle's third goal. Leafs coach Craig Berube didn't complain about goaltender interference, knowing he had no chance of getting the goal back.

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On not retaliating against Marchment, Carlo said: “Because I saw the referee call the penalty, you don't want to do too much to retaliate. Once you see Stolier slowly getting up and getting angry as well… You want to try to give him a shot, but in general you also want to go to the power play. It's a weird area, but I think the power play is a useful thing in this situation.”

Considering how opponents have taken liberties with Stolarz in the past, we couldn't agree more. If Carlo had pounced on Marchment, we can't believe any of his teammates would have had a problem with it, no matter the score.

How happy is Berube that the Leafs stood up for their goaltenders?

“I’ve said this before,” Berube said. “Not good enough. This game there, that happens sometimes, but overall that's what I said. We're not clearing the crease enough. We're not doing a good enough job there.”

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“We have to protect the goalie. We have to be tougher in front of our goal. I'm not saying go and rip guys' heads off. But enough is enough.”

“We did a good job of clearing the gates last year, so I don't know what the key is. The main thing is the desire to do it more than anything else.”

How many times will Berube have to talk to the team about this before things are good enough? This really shouldn't be a problem for him, should it?

If they don't get it now and haven't, what will it take for Berube's message to reach us?

There were some choice words for William Nylander after Josh Makhura, who had not scored a goal in Seattle's first four games, flew past him for the game-winner. Morgan Rielly and Auston Matthews were also on the ice. Nylander and Matthews were on the ice for more than a minute.

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“We didn’t do what we should have done from the beginning,” Berube said. “We're too spread out. We're playing one-on-one. It's a tough game for Willie, but he needs that guy if he wants to get that strong. The guy skates next to him, but that's not what we need to do in overtime in that situation.”

Said Stolarz, without naming names: “In overtime, you can't let somebody beat you on the ice and get a clear lead. There's a minute left and you want to be on the ice in that situation, you have to work hard, you have to work back, and it cost us a point.”

The Leafs, despite their 3-2-1 formation, were inconsistent at best. In addition to dealing with the grid front issues, Berube isn't happy with his top two lines. Don't be surprised if new perspectives on training emerge on the Monday after the Sunday off. It's early, of course, but it may be overdue.

Stolarz broke his stick late in the game. We don't blame him.

“It’s just in general,” Stolarz said of his disappointment. “How many points do we leave? Having been here last year and seeing what kind of team we have and seeing how far we were able to go and the potential… the potential is there.”

“We have the skill, we have the grit, we have the tenacity. It's just a shame that we just can't put it all together right now.”

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