The Toronto Maple Leafs’ nightmare season hit a new low as three key players suffered injuries during Wednesday night’s 4-0 loss to the Washington Capitals. And now according to head coach Craig Berube, all three are done for the year with four games remaining in the campaign.
NHL insider Chris Johnston broke the news on Friday confirming the worst fears for the struggling franchise.
“Brandon Carlo, Dakota Joshua and Anthony Stolarz are all done for the season, per #leafs coach Craig Berube,” Johnston reported on X.
The carnage began early when goaltender Anthony Stolarz collapsed to the ice after stretching out his left leg to make a pad save on a shot from Cole Hutson just two minutes and 34 seconds into the first period. The 32-year-old was attended to by a trainer and had to be helped off the ice by teammates before heading down the tunnel to the locker room.
Later in the game, defenseman Brandon Carlo exited with a lower-body injury after playing 12:07, while forward Dakota Joshua departed with an upper-body issue after just 8:30 of ice time. Neither returned to the contest.
Joseph Woll admitted it was ‘scary’ watching Anthony Stolarz collapse
Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll, who replaced Anthony Stolarz on the ice after he went down, witnessed the scary moment firsthand and shared his observation of his teammate’s injury after the game.
Stolarz had stretched to make a save on a shot from distance, immediately collapsing to the ice and pulling off his mask before one of the referees blew the play dead.
“It was kind of scary to see him go down like that,” said Woll. “He’s a pretty tough dude so he goes down, it’s tough to see.”
He shared that he had checked in on Stolarz after the game.
“Seems like he’s doing alright,” Woll noted. “I don’t know the extent of the injury. It’s not for me to say. But it looked like he was doing a bit better, just disappointed.”
Wednesday’s injury was the latest in a series of setbacks for the veteran goaltender. In March, Stolarz missed an expected start after taking a puck to the throat during warmups before a game against the Ottawa Senators. Teammate William Nylander’s shot had caught him in the neck and Stolarz was taken to a hospital for precautionary imaging before being released.
Stolarz had missed 33 games earlier in the season with a nerve-related injury but appeared to be back in a groove lately. He has a record of 10-10-3 in 26 games with a goals against average of 3.28 and a save percentage of .893 for the Maple Leafs this season.
Edited by Anjum Rajonno