NHL fans sound player-safety alarm after Toronto goalie leaves arena on stretcher

Many NHL fans are not happy about the league’s player-safety protocols following a scary scene during Monday’s second-round playoff game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers.

Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz vomited on the bench after taking a shot to the mask and a hit to the head, forcing him to leave Game 1, which Toronto won 5-4 at home.

A shot in the first period knocked Stolarz’s mask off his face. He stayed in the game after shaking his head.

In the second period, Florida forward Sam Bennett hit Stolarz in the head with an elbow. The netminder still remained in the game. 

Minutes later, TV cameras spotted Stolarz throwing up in a bucket near Toronto’s bench during a timeout,

Stolarz was subsequently removed from the game and left the stadium on a stretcher as medical personnel took him to a hospital. 

Though fans on social media were quick to call Bennett and the Panthers dirty for the hit on Stolarz, referees didn’t assess a penalty.

“This is embarrassing stuff for the NHL, who refuses to take their players’ safety seriously,” one Maple Leafs fan wrote after the game.

“Elbow to the head, clearly,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “Clear as day. I’m not sure why there wasn’t a call on it, but it was clearly a penalty.”

“Hopefully the league will take a look [at the hit] and handle it and protect our players,” Leafs forward Matthew Knies said.

The NHL announced Tuesday that Bennett and the Panthers wouldn’t face any supplemental punishment.

That infuriated some hockey fans.

“Take comfort in knowing you’ll never fail as badly or as often as the NHL Department of Player Safety,” said JD Bunkis, a Toronto-based podcast, radio and TV host.

“Eventually we are going to hit the point where someone dies directly due to a hit that the NHL has previously left unpunished,” Bleacher Report’s Hannah Stuart wrote on X.

Game 2 between the Maple Leafs and Panthers is scheduled for Wednesday night in Toronto.