Dynamic duo offering hope
Matthews, Nylander rekindle old magic during rocky week Leafs winger William Nylander has picked up five assists in his last four games.
Auston Matthews and William Nylander.
They had played together from the first game of the Matthews era until the start of this season.
While Nylander waited out a contract impasse with the Maple Leafs until Dec. 1, Matthews went through right wingers the way the Philadelphia Flyers go through goalies: Tyler Ennis, Kasperi Kapanen, Connor Brown, Trevor Moore. All fine young men with special talents that got them to the NHL, but none of them clicked like Nylander did with Matthews — Kapanen came closest.
When Nylander returned, though, he proved unable to play with Matthews. Coach Mike Babcock suggested it was for a variety of reasons. So it was off to the third line, and fewer minutes, until Nylander found his game.
The magic was lacking on Saturday night — team-wide — as the Leafs fell 6-2 to the Senators in Ottawa, but Nylander and Matthews had been operating at the top of their game together of late.
Saturday’s loss might have been symbolized by a pass from Matthews that bounced over Nylander’s stick in the slot, a missed scoring chance that turned into Ottawa’s sixth goal when the play immediately went the other way. Matthews led the Leafs with nine shots, though, and he and Nylander picked up assists on John Tavares’ milestone 40th goal.
It might be of little solace after losing to the NHL’s worst team — and losing ground in the battle for home ice in the opening round of the playoffs, after the Bruins won — but Matthews has four goals and two assist in his last four games, while Nylander has five assists since he was reunited with the centre.
“I think we’ve kind of rekindled that chemistry we had the first two years playing together,” Matthews said recently.
There’s no question Nylander likes playing with him.
“It’s lots of fun,” said Nylander.
“He creates space for me and he can score like nobody else in the league.”
If they continue to produce as the top tandem, the Leafs’ chances of chasing down the Bruins for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs look a lot brighter.
“Great teams need their best players to score,” said Leafs goalie Frederik Andersen. “The best offensive players put the puck in the net, and they’ve been great at it.”
The reunion was prompted by the loss of Kapanen to a concussion, but in reality it was time to make the move anyway. Kapanen was slumping with one goal in 12 games before the injury, and Matthews went six games without a goal before finding the net against the Tampa Bay Lightning last Monday.
“When we talk about chemistry, the biggest part about chemistry is, Willy is competing and working and skating and getting pucks,” said Babcock. “He made an unbelievable play on that one goal (by Matthews against Philadelphia on Friday): on one leg, winning a battle, making a play. That’s what’s happened. When we put him there before — whether it was his conditioning, whether it was his timing … It’s a hard league and he wasn’t ready, and now it looks like he’s ready.”
Their recent success has also come with Andreas Johnsson on the left wing instead of Zach Hyman.
“Johnny has been a real nice addition,” said Matthews. “He works so hard getting under guys and getting in front of the net. For a small guy, he’s not afraid to go into the corner and come out with the puck. Our line, we’ve come up with some nice plays.”
Hyman, meanwhile, is having a career year with John Tavares and Mitch Marner on what has been considered the Leafs’ top l i ne. If the JohnssonMatthews-Nylander unit continues to connect, opponents will have a hard time deciding which line to target with its top defenders.
The third line of Patrick Marleau, Nazem Kadri and Brown has lost a bit of its offensive flair without Nylander, but remains the Leafs’ most trustworthy defensively.
Like Nylander, Matthews had the distraction of a high-profile contract negotiation to deal with earlier this season. The allstar centre also missed14 games with a shoulder injury.
“I just think, injured guy comes back, takes some time, gets skating,” Babcock said of Matthews.
“I don’t know if it had to do with negotiations or any of those things. I don’t know. We’re all human beings.”