Dennis Hildeby is going to make his first start of the season for the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, after making a relief appearance in Saturday’s loss.
“[Anthony Stolarz‘s] been obviously overworked,” said head coach Craig Berube, according to TSN’s Mark Masters. “We all know that, and [we’ll] give him a break tonight.”
Stolarz has started 12 of 15 games for the Maple Leafs this year, and owns a 6-5-1 record with an .889 save percentage and a 3.35 goals-against average.
Both of those numbers are steep drops from a season ago, where Stolarz held a 2.14 GAA and a league-leading .926 save percentage in 34 games. Stolarz, 32, has never started more than half of his team’s games in any of his nine NHL seasons.
Hildeby stepped in during the second period of the Maple Leafs’ 5-3 loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday, after Stolarz was pulled having allowed four goals on 19 shots. The 24-year-old Swede allowed one goal on 20 shots as the Maple Leafs tried to rally from an early hole.
“He was calm,” Berube said of Hildeby. “He was big in net. He did a good job for us. Not much he could do on the final goal but, other than that, he was covering a lot of the net and doing what we needed him to do. I thought just coming in there like that, it’s not easy, but he did a good job.”
Hildeby will make just his eighth NHL appearance in Sunday’s game.
No timeline for a return for Laughton
Berube told reporters on Sunday that he does not know how long forward Scott Laughton will be out after suffering an upper-body injury on Saturday.
He also did not tip his hand on what the lineup will look like against the Hurricanes.
“We’ll make some decisions after warm-up,” the coach said.
Calle Jarnkrok and Sammy Blais are the extra forwards on the roster.
