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Is Anthony Stolarz playing his way back into the Flyers’ goalie plans? | Sam Donnellon

Right now at least, Anthony Stolarz has a big advantage in the battle for the Flyers' second goalie second spot. And he is quite aware of why.

Flyers goaltender Anthony Stolarz stops the puck with teammate defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere against the Los Angeles Kings left wing Austin Wagner during the first-period on Thursday, February 7, 2019 in Philadelphia.
Flyers goaltender Anthony Stolarz stops the puck with teammate defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere against the Los Angeles Kings left wing Austin Wagner during the first-period on Thursday, February 7, 2019 in Philadelphia.Read moreYONG KIM / Staff Photographer

There were 15 seconds left in overtime in the Flyers’ 3-2 shootout loss Thursday, when Anthony Stolarz guaranteed his spot on SportsCenter.

To that point, he had merely been spectacular, stopping a bunch of Los Angeles Kings breakaways and 17 first-period shots while the rest of his Flyers team was caught in traffic. To that point, he had stopped 37 shots and stolen only a point -- not the narrative about Carter Hart’s superpowers.

But then a puck slid through a stack of players from left to right, slid right onto the stick of Kings forward Adrian Kempe 12 feet out, with nothing but open net to shoot at.

Three nights before, faced with a similar dilemma going the other way, rookie goaltending-sensation Carter Hart dove, hands and stick extended, and the puck deflected, somehow, off his right arm.

Anything you can do, I can do …

Except Stolarz had lost his stick.

“Just trying to get across,” he said after he punt-blocked Kempe’s shot with the full extent of his 6-6 wing span. "Just trying to throw anything I can out there to get a piece of the puck. Sometimes, it doesn’t always look the prettiest, but, at the end of the day, if you’re making saves. You look at Martin Brodeur. The guy played 18 years, and he was a difference-maker despite not being your typical butterfly goalie. Not saying I want to play like him. But, at the end of the day, my job is to stop the puck.

“Whether I stop it with my arm, my pad, my glove, my face — it doesn’t matter.”

The Flyers have a bunch of expiring contracts they know what to do with. Jori Lehtera and Dale Weise are already down in Lehigh Valley. The inertia that has long defined the contract discussions with Wayne Simmonds and his agent strongly suggests that he will not be a part of the next edition of this team.

Brian Elliott and Michael Neuvirth are almost certain not to be back.

There is intrigue, though, when it comes to another goalie with an expiring deal: 25-year-old Stolarz. A restricted free agent after this season, Stolarz has been injured so often and so extensively over the last two years that any discussion of his mettle in the nets invariably leads to one about his mettle away from it. Two consecutive meniscus tears to the same knee cascaded him from prospect to forgotten man. He began this season as a third wheel in Lehigh Valley, buried so deep on the depth chart that only a pile of injuries offered him any chance of reclamation.

Well, we all know that happened. And we all know what happened when Stolarz got his chance in mid-December. The Flyers played him in three games over four nights and broke him again, this time to one of those intrigue-laden lower-body injuries.

“Obviously, that injury setback stinks,” he said. “But I worked my ass off to get back to this opportunity. There’s a spot right now. I just want to focus on myself and continue to keep putting forth a good effort and let the team try to win some games.”

He has done that. He stole a game in New York last week, shutting out the team he grew up watching. He tried to steal Thursday’s too, swatting, flopping, and hacking away at pucks and Kings as they circled his net like bees.

Yes, it’s a small sample size. It’s all he has right now. The Flyers have played themselves into a sort of hockey limbo, clouding what the directive for their new general manager Chuck Fletcher should be as we approach the Feb. 28 trade deadline. The departure of Lehtera and Weise have opened up things for young players. Elliott is close to returning, potentially landing Stolarz in limbo, too.

If he has an ace, it’s in how he has played in these two games. The Flyers can ill afford to allow Elliott, two months away from 34, to play himself into shape the way he tried to at the end of last year. Stolarz, right now at least, has a big advantage to hold that second spot. And he is quite aware of why.

"I’ve been forced into some situations where guys have been hurt in the past," he said. "I’ve kind of gotten used to coming in cold. It’s part of the job if you want to be a goalie, whether it’s a starter or a backup. To come in and kind of shut the door and give the team a chance to stay in the game and get a point or two."

A chance to stay in town, too? Somebody’s got to back up Hart next year. Stolarz is making it hard to believe he’s not that option.

“Next year, to stay here would be amazing,” he said. “This is the only team I’ve played for. I love it here. Love the guys, love the proximity to my home … . If I just continue to focus on what I need to do to get better and prove to Chuck that I’m a gamer and I’m ready to go, that’s the only thing I can focus on. And if not, if they decide to go another way, there’s 30 other teams out there … .”