Goalie Stolarz lives life in limbo on the taxi squad
Anthony Stolarz has been a mystery man this season, and not just because his face has been covered by a goaltender’s mask. He simply hasn’t appeared in a game this season for the Ducks and has played only three times for their AHL team, the San Diego Gulls.
Stolarz is the third man in a two-man rotation with the Ducks.
With the Gulls, he’s part of a four-man rotation.
Coach Dallas Eakins made it clear the other day that Stolarz wasn’t likely to play unless there was an injury to starter John Gibson or backup Ryan Miller. Until Tuesday, Gibson and Miller were healthy and hadn’t missed a game, so Stolarz was out of sight and out of mind.
Well, not out of Eakins’ mind. Gibson (lower body) was scratched for the Ducks’ game Tuesday against the Colorado Avalanche and Stolarz was activated from the taxi squad to be Miller’s backup.
“He’s in a tough spot,” Eakins said of Stolarz, who made one start last season with the Ducks and was 21-12-6 with a 2.66 goalsagainst average and a .922 save percentage in 39 games with the Gulls. “He’s just not going to pull into the rotation unless there’s an injury. “That’s just the way it is.” With the exception of three starts with San Diego this season, Stolarz, 27, had been on the Ducks’ taxi squad. He often practiced before or after the Ducks’ regular skate, joining the other taxi squad players, because Gibson and Miller got most of the time in the net.
Stolarz is 3-0-0 with a 2.93 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage with the Gulls this season, but he’s part of a rotation that includes starter Lukas Dostal and backups Olle Eriksson Ek and Jeff Glass. The franchise is taking a good, long look at Dostal and Eriksson Ek.
So Stolarz has been the odd-man out for not one but two teams in 2020-21.
“That’s the one thing that this roster setup has created,” Eakins said. “If this was a normal season, ‘Stolie’ wouldn’t be here and the taxi squad guys wouldn’t be here. They would be in San Diego getting ready for their games.
“That’s a tough position to be in. He’s come in here and worked his butt off every day. He has to do extra before and after because a lot of times he doesn’t get a lot of the net in practice because ‘Gibby’ and ‘Millsie’ are staying sharp.”
COVID-19 schedule
The taxi squad is just a one-season thing, created specifically for the pandemic-shortened 56-game season in order to prevent teams from going shorthanded because of illness or injury. The two- or threegame series schedule could stick around a while.
The Ducks’ one-game trip Tuesday to play the Avalanche is a rarity this season, but it could become standard in the seasons to come because it saves teams money and cuts down on travel. Denver isn’t far, but a two-game set at Winnipeg could become standard.
Said Eakins when asked if it seemed strange to be playing a team in a one-off: “I’m not sure anything can seem strange anymore. You go in and you play, man. The backto-backs, the one good thing about them is that it makes it easy for the group to prepare because you’re playing the same team twice.
“We do have the luxury because we were just in there to play those guys. Their lineup is basically the same except for (Nathan) MacKinnon coming back in right now (after sitting out because of an injury). They’re fresh in our minds. It shouldn’t be that big of a deal.”