Maple Leafs officially confirm bad news for Anthony Stolarz.

The Maple Leafs will be without the services of goaltender Anthony Stolarz for at least a few more days the team has officially confirmed on Sunday.

According to an official announcement from the Maple Leafs, Stolarz will be out of action for at least a few more days after the team made the decision to place the netminder on injured reserve on Sunday. Stolarz could be back relatively soon however with the injured reserve designation being retroactive to December 12th.

The situation may be more serious than initially believed however as the comments made by Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube in response to today's announcement indicate that Stolarz may be out a little bit longer. Berube suggested that the team will have to re-evaluate the situation with their goaltender in a few days, which suggest to me that there may now be more uncertainty around a timeline for his return.

"We'll get an update on it in a couple days," said Berube. "I'm not really going to comment on that right now."

Stolarz has inarguably been one of the team's best players this season after being signed as a free agent over the summer, with Stolarz already making 17 appearances this season, on pace to eclipse his career high of 28 in a single season. Stolarz has played very well for the Leafs over that stretch, recording a 2.15 goals against average and a .927 save percentage and has arguably been one of the better goaltenders in the National Hockey League this season, albeit over a relatively small sample size of games.

This is obviously bad news for the Maple Leafs, but you will have to stay tuned for any further updates later in the week to see if things change.