Sergei Bobrovsky's .907 save percentage puts Jim Hiller's goalie decision in focus

Sergei Bobrovsky has been tagged with all three Maple Leafs losses, and Toronto's crease debate is heating up ahead of Tuesday night in Utah.

Six games into the season, the split is blunt. Bobrovsky is 1-2-1 over five appearances, while Anthony Stolarz has yet to lose a decision.

Stolarz owns two wins, one of them in overtime, behind a .904 save percentage. Not dominant. Just undefeated.

Here's the twist nobody wants to hear. The 38-year-old's .907 save percentage is actually higher.

The underlying picture is kinder to Bobrovsky than his record. He's faced a heavy diet of quality chances and has looked sharper as games get later, making the big stop when the third period tightens.

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And that's where Jim Hiller earns his money. A coach in his first season behind this bench doesn't get the luxury of patience in this market.

Anthony Stolarz has earned the net in Utah

Here's the call. Stolarz starts Tuesday, because a goalie who hasn't lost shouldn't be watching from the bench to protect a contract.

That contract is the elephant in the locker room. Bobrovsky carries a $7,000,000 cap hit, nearly double the $3,750,000 his partner earns.

Grading a goalie on five appearances is like reviewing a restaurant on the bread basket. Still, nobody in Toronto signed up to pay steak prices for bread.

The defense hasn't made life easy. Toronto has allowed 18 goals in six games, and Darren Raddysh sits at minus-4 on the blue line.

Up front, the Leafs can score. William Nylander has 11 points and Auston Matthews has 10, so the goaltending only needs to be decent.

There's a lineup wrinkle, too. John Tavares is listed day-to-day for personal reasons, with Tuesday the earliest he's expected back.

Decent was enough in Colorado on Saturday night. Bobrovsky picked up his first win of the season in a 6-3 road victory.

Utah won't hand out gifts. The Mammoth are 4-2-0 with a +7 goal differential, and this is Toronto's first look at them this season.

Then the Leafs come home for Buffalo, the Islanders and San Jose. Whoever gets Tuesday's start could ride that entire homestand.

Toronto sits 13th overall and fourth in its division at 3-2-1. Comfortable for now, until one wrong guess in the crease turns it into a talk-radio crisis by Halloween.

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