William Nylander was called out directly by Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube following Monday’s 6-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, with a direct impetus to respond. Nylander generated three shots through his first three games, and the optics of a few lackadaisical possessions through the opening week didn’t sit well with Berube, and large factions of the fan base.
“Willy needs more shots,” Berube said following Monday’s game. “He doesn’t have enough shots. He came into Detroit, he didn’t have any, had one or two tonight, we need to get it to him more. He needs to shoot more, he needs to attack more, he’s got to get on the inside more, things like that. So, yes, we do need more out of him.”
And with the benefit of playing on a back-to-back in front a home crowd against the Nashville Predators, Nylander delivered an empathic response in a 7-4 victory. Toronto’s star winger generated five shots in all situations, three shots at 5-on-5, generated 0.9 individual expected goals, with a team-high seven scoring chances and two takeaways via Natural Stat Trick. Nylander finished with an empty-net goal, two primary assists, and a renewed ability to take over the game, when needed.
It was an excellent performance and an easy way to temper the volume of reactive takes that emanate from this hockey-crazed market.
“Willy drove the line like with Johnny and (Matias) Maccelli, liked all three of them,” Berube said following Tuesday’s victory. “But Willy did what he does. He had the puck, he was doing things, he was making good decisions, driving it deep, doing what he does in the offensive zone. But I thought they were responsible defensively. I was happy with the line. I thought they were very impactful.”
OLIVER EKMAN-LARSSON!!!
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Berube admitted Tuesday morning that he always has good conversations with Nylander, stating that the star winger often holds a perspective that is common among elite offensive players. Nylander isn’t a galvanizing speaker by nature, but he does lead by example. The pressure was dialled up to DEFCON 1 last season, with key free agents playing on expiring contracts and every time the team faced a major lull during the regular season, Nylander responded to the task. Last year, in a January slump, Nylander responded that good teams find their way out, which could be a mantra applied to the new-look Maple Leafs this year.
JT GETS IT BACK!!!!!
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Maccelli, Tavares and Nylander finished with a 80.5 percent share of the expected goals in 9:46 together, which was in large part due to the 29-year-old’s dynamism with the puck. Nylander worked extremely well in tandem with defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who was among the several Leafs’ defencemen making a concerted effort to jump up into the rush. Ekman-Larsson may have been Toronto’s best player in Tuesday’s win, but you could make a strong argument that either Nylander, Tavares, Auston Matthews or Matthew Knies were in a close second.
“It’s coming along. It’s always slow at the beginning of the season so just getting that back,” Nylander self-assessed post-game.
It’s the latter part of Nylander’s quote which ought to be telling: it’s always slow at the beginning of the season. Nylander is expected to generate offence at an elite rate, and when he doesn’t generate shots or submits empty possessions, it drives the fan base to the brink of madness.
Take a deep breath: Nylander has two goals and seven points in four games, and if you want to manipulate early samples for pace, well, he’s on pace for a 143-point season. There may be a tendency to discount Nylander’s offence as the result of some empty-net, but you make your own luck in the NHL, and for one night, he may eliminated any notion of getting off to a slow start. It was an excellent response game from Nylander, as the Maple Leafs look to steady themselves over the course of this week’s home stand.