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May 18, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube during the post-game media conference following the game seven loss in the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Florida Panthers at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

Stolarz’s Honesty Tests Berube’s New Maple Leafs DNA

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By The Old Prof | Last updated Oct 19, 2025 2:35 PM ET

It’s not often a goaltender calls out his own team, especially six games into a new season. But that’s precisely what Anthony Stolarz did after the Toronto Maple Leafs’ overtime loss to the Seattle Kraken. He wasn’t hiding behind clichés. He was frustrated, bruised, and a little fed up.

“Enough is enough,” he said.

Those four words might turn out to be the first real test of head coach Craig Berube’s new culture in Toronto.

Stolarz Is a Goalie Who’s Had Enough

Stolarz didn’t rant, but he sorta pointed some fingers. In the video below, he just described what he’s been living: constant traffic in front of his net, bodies landing on him, and not much pushback from the players in blue and white. It’s an old story in Toronto—the goaltender paying the price while opponents do as they please around the crease.

Last season, Stolarz saw the same thing happen from the other side. When he faced the Florida Panthers, they made a habit of bullying Toronto’s netminders. It worked. They ran through the Maple Leafs in the second round, crashing the blue paint at will. That series exposed something deep in Toronto’s DNA: the unwillingness—or maybe the inability—to make the area around the net a place of consequence.

Now Stolarz is the one on the receiving end. You can hear in his voice that he remembers what it looked like from the other bench.

Time to Embrace the Berube Standard

When the Maple Leafs hired Craig Berube, they were hiring an identity as much as a coach. His reputation has always been clear: play hard, protect your teammates, make every inch of ice miserable for the opposition. This is why his players call him “Chief.” He demands accountability through action, not slogans.

That’s why Stolarz’s comments sting a little bit more. Six games in, he’s already asking for the kind of edge Berube promised to bring. The coach won’t mind honesty—he’s built his career on it—but this is a public moment that asks: Has the message really landed yet?

What we hear from Stolarz is that it hasn’t!

Stolarz Is Not the First Goalie to Feel Exposed in Toronto

You don’t have to go back far to find echoes of this frustration. Jack Campbell wore the same look more than once – and from no less than the now-Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk (then with the Calgary Flames). Ilya Samsonov, during his grapples with the playoffs, couldn’t hold his crease without getting run over. At the same time, opponents treated the Maple Leafs’ crease like an open invitation.

Jack Campbell, Toronto Maple Leafs (Photo by Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images)

It’s a pattern the Maple Leafs can’t seem to shake. The names change, the goals against look the same. The goaltender battles for sightlines while everyone else drifts to the perimeter.

Berube was supposed to be the reset button—the antidote to that softness. Stolarz’s outburst might be the jolt that makes his message real.

Stolarz Has Reached His Tipping Point; Now What?

Sometimes a team’s turning point doesn’t come from a big win. It comes from a moment of embarrassment or a teammate’s honesty. That’s what this could be. Say what you want about the Maple Leafs’ lack of success in the postseason, they were in it last playoffs until Stolarz got run and suffered a concussion. He’s got to be remembering that. Now it’s time for his teammates to respond.

May 18, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz (41) shakes hands with former Florida Panthers teammates after losing the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

If the Maple Leafs take it the right way, Stolarz’s words could pull them together. They can’t afford another season where their goaltender gets battered and no one responds. A single cross-check, a cleared crease, a little anger in front of their own net—those are the plays that show belief.

And if they ignore it? Then all the talk about a new culture was just that – talk.

What’s Next for the Maple Leafs?

The next week will reveal more about this team than any October box score ever could. Does Berube send a message in practice? Does someone step in the next time an opponent parks at the edge of the crease? Does Auston Matthews pull the group together behind closed doors? Maybe someone — anyone — admits the standard slipped and promises they’ll play with a bit more edge, even a touch of vigilante spirit.

Stolarz didn’t just vent after a loss; he held up a mirror. What the Maple Leafs see in it will decide how this season unfolds.