"Last season, the wheels completely came off and it's clear they are a rebuilding team. Aside from not wanting to suffer the indignity of losing to the lesser Bruins and maybe some faint interest in seeing Brandon Carlo face his former club, the real game of note this weekend comes against the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, who will be only the third team the Toronto Maple Leafs have faced that were in the playoffs last season."
"Stolarz' eight starts in October tied his busiest month as a Leaf, and in fact ties the busiest month of his career. Like last March when Stolarz played eight games, this October failed to produce a winning record or achieve a .900 save percentage. After the past couple of seasons of Stolarz being the goals saved above expected darling of the league, his current season sees him sitting at -2.6 goals saved above expected."
The Boston Bruins no longer present the same challenge, with last season's collapse marking them as a rebuilding team. The Carolina Hurricanes provide a more meaningful measure of the Toronto Maple Leafs' level, as only a few opponents so far were playoff teams last season. Toronto's 8-5-1 record increasingly reflects an easier schedule through the first 14 games, but upcoming matches against playoff-caliber opponents will test true form. Anthony Stolarz's slow start does not appear solely attributable to starter workload, as struggles began by his second and third games. Stolarz tied his career-high with eight October starts but failed to produce a winning record or a .900 save percentage and sits at -2.6 goals saved above expected.
Read at TheLeafsNation
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