Anthony Stolarz, the starting goalie for the Toronto Maple Leafs, was taken off the ice on a stretcher and transported to the hospital after exiting Game 1 of the second-round series against the Florida Panthers. Fans were furious with Sam Bennett, who just minutes earlier had delivered an elbow to the goalie’s head—but now, a PhD is putting forward a stunning new theory that could clear the Panthers’ tough guy of all blame.
Scary scenes unfolded during Game 1 between Toronto and Florida on Monday. At 10:14 of the second period, Toronto’s starter Anthony Stolarz was replaced by Joseph Woll, and by the start of the third, he was still being evaluated.
Stolarz left the ice minutes after Panthers forward Sam Bennett made contact with his head while skating through the crease. According to TSN’s Chris Johnston, Stolarz was stretchered out of Scotiabank Arena and taken to the hospital. While still on the bench, he was seen vomiting—a concerning sign of head trauma.
After the game, which Toronto won 5–4, many pointed fingers at Bennett, blaming him for the apparent head injury.
“Elbow to the head, clearly. Clear as day,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said postgame. “I get it, they miss calls, but it’s clearly a penalty.”
New theory on Anthony Stolarz’s injury
But now, a new theory may shift the narrative. Chris Nowinski, PhD and co-founder of the non-profit Concussion Legacy Foundation, has weighed in with a different explanation. On social media, he shared a clip from an earlier moment in the game: in the first period, Sam Reinhart took a shot that hit Stolarz square in the mask, knocking it off his head.
According to Nowinski, that may have been the moment Stolarz suffered a concussion—not during Bennett’s hit.
“Update: Anthony Stolarz likely suffered a first concussion 5 minutes into the game when he took a puck to the face that knocked his mask off,” Nowinski wrote. “25 seconds after the hit he did a SHAAKE (Spontaneous Headshake After a Kinematic Event), which predicts concussion 72% of the time.”
Although no official reason has been given for Stolarz’s departure, Nowinski’s analysis suggests the elbow may not have been the cause after all. Craig Berube offered no further update postgame, only saying the goalie was still being evaluated.
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