Craig Berube Confirms Important Detail About Leafs' Goaltending Plans Ahead of the Playoffs

Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube has confirmed one important detail about his goaltending as we approach the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

For the first time in a very long time, the Toronto Maple Leafs have two very capable netminders who can act as legitimate starters on a nightly basis.

There was plenty of concern during the off-season about whether or not Joseph Woll could stay healthy and if Anthony Stolarz could handle a larger workload considering his lack of game experience.

As we enter the month of March, those concerns can be washed away completely with both Stolarz and Woll having played fantastic stretches of hockey. It's also been so good that it has forced Craig Berube into running a 1A/1B tandem where they've alternated starts on a near a nightly basis.

While Berube believes that's best for the final stretch run of the regular season, especially with Stolarz having just come back from a lengthy absence due to a knee injury, he admits that, come playoff time, he's going to have to choose one netminder.

"I think going into the playoffs, it's normally one guy that's going to take control of it."

Woll sports a 20-11-0 record with a 2.63 GAA and a .910 SV%, while Stolarz is 13-5-2 with a 2.22 GAA and a .927 SV%. Choosing between these two is going to be a harder task than it sounds, but the final stretch run should provide an opportunity for both to try and stake their claim.

It is very rare for any team in the playoffs to alternate starts, and the Leafs apparently won't be any different from the norm. The Boston Bruins attempted that last year when Jeremy Swayman started Game 1 against Toronto and Linus Ullmark started Game 2, before Boston reverted back to Swayman in Game 3 and beyond.\

Goaltending is not a position you want to play head games with even if you have two solid options at your disposal. It's going to be tough, because while Stolarz has the better peripheral numbers, he has also played in 10 fewer games than Woll, who had a solid run with Stolarz sidelined.

It's a good problem to have considering the issues the Leafs have had between the pipes in recent memory. If injuries persist or they need to jump-start their playoff series, they could always look to make a switch and be entirely comfortable with whoever is in goal.

When Woll took over for Ilya Samsonov last year against Boston, there was a sense of calm in net before the former got injured and placed the latter in an unenviable position to reclaim his crease in a do-or-die Game 7. That's something the Leafs will probably want to avoid this year.