The Toronto Maple Leafs suffered a tough 4–3 overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken. During the game, Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz was hit by Kraken forward Mason Marchment. After the game, Stolarz didn’t hold back when speaking about his teammates.
The Maple Leafs have had a rough start to the season, winning only three of their first six games. With a star-studded roster, both fans and experts expect more from them — and so does goaltender Anthony Stolarz.
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Marchment crashed into Anthony Stolarz
Throughout the game, the Kraken played physically against Stolarz, with Mason Marchment running into him during the second period. After the collision, no Leafs players came to Stolarz’s defense, prompting the goalie to knock off his own mask and go after Marchment himself. And during overtime, William Nylander failed his backchecking big time on Josh Mahura’s game winning goal.
In his postgame interview, Stolarz shared his frustration — not just about the Marchment incident, but with the team’s overall performance, and Nylander in particurlar.
William Nylander got an earful
“It was a good third period, but the first two periods, we kind of let them walk all over us. We just didn’t play our game. They outworked us in front of the net. They blocked shots. I mean, a lot of guys have been here for a while. Overtime, you can’t let someone beat you up the ice there and gets a clear-cut breakaway. You wanna be on the ice in that situation, you gotta work hard. It cost us a point there,” Stolarz told reporters.
Called out his teammates
Regarding the Marchment hit, Stolarz said he wants to see his teammates show the same level of intensity around the opponent’s net.
“I’m not happy. You know, guys are gonna run me, and I’m gonna try to stand up for myself. I heard the ref say we got a power play, and there’s really not much I can do to him on the ground. Maybe we can take a page out of their book and start getting to the net. I mean, for us, we like to go low to high and shoot. But for their goalie, it’s like playing catch in the yard — he’s seeing everything. You know, it’s not fun. I don’t like having 225-pound guys on me. So hopefully we learn a lesson here,” Stolarz said.
Next up, the Leafs will host the New Jersey Devils at Scotiabank Arena.
You can watch Stolarz’s full postgame interview below.
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