Nylander, breakaway … ‘unreal’
Milestone marker sparks Leafs’ win for third in Atlantic
COLUMBUS, OHIO— The focus, for most of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 100th season, has been on the rookies — notably Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews.
Almost lost has been an incredible season by another rookie: William Nylander.
Nylander scored his 20th goal of the season and assisted on another by Matthews as the Maple Leafs beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-2 Wednesday night and moved past the idle Boston Bruins into third place in the Atlantic Division.
“The guy is blessed out there,” Matthews said of Nylander. “He’s taking three-minute shifts because we ice the puck, and he buries one. He’s been playing unreal for us . . . when he’s like that, he’s a tough guy to stop.”
Tyler Bozak fed Nylander the breakaway pass, and his wicked wrist shot at 13:23 of the second period scored the eventual winner.
“There was a guy backchecking on me and I was tired, so I just wanted to get it to the net,” Nylander said of the play.
Nylander tied a Leafs rookie record by recording at least one point for the ninth straight game. Gus Bodnar set the mark in 1943-44, matched by Bob Nevin in 1960-61 and Dan Daoust in 1982-83.
“Oh yeah? Wow, I did not know that,” Nylander said of the streak — three goals and nine assists in all. “I’ve been lucky sometimes.”
Nylander, once the focus of fans’ hopes, says he has no problem with Matthews and Marner getting the bulk of the attention among the club’s rookies.
“They’re great players. They deserve it,” Nylander said. “For me, it’s just playing. . . . I want to play good every game.”
That has been an issue, and coach Mike Babcock is still trying to steer Nylander in the right direction.
“He’s getting better, but he’s a young player and we want him to get a lot better,” Babcock said. “We want to get him way more competitive without the puck, and to do more without the puck so he can get the puck more. But he can flat-out shoot it.”
For Matthews, goal No. 33 puts him one behind Wendel Clark’s franchise rookie mark. Matthews and Nylander are the first Leafs rookies duo to score 20 since Clark and Steve Thomas in 1985-86.
“It’s a pretty big honour to be in the same sentence as Wendel,” said Matthews. “He’s a Leafs legend.”
Nazem Kadri chipped in with his 30th goal, the first time he’s hit that mark.
“It feels good,” said Kadri. “I definitely don’t want to stop there.”
There was one moment that had the Leafs laughing — it was more of a nervous laugh, because they’d gotten away with one. Roman Polak was ejected in the third period after a five-minute major penalty for boarding. The Leafs, though, didn’t put anyone in the penalty box.
Teams are allowed to keep their bench full for long penalty kills and insert a player during a stoppage, but the five minutes flew by without a whistle. The Leafs’ penalty killers were dominant, but when time expired there was no one in the box to come out. The play continued for almost two more minutes, with the Leafs still needlessly down a man. The Leafs were only up by a goal at the time.
“We laughed on the bench, but it was all my fault,” said Babcock. “In hindsight, if that had cost you it’d be terrible. It will never happen in my lifetime again. I will never wait to put a guy in.”