Nylander to the rescue, twice
Leafs forward scores in final 90 seconds of third, and again in overtime
A lot of words get thrown around when it comes to William Nylander.
Zach Hyman added a new one: Misunderstood.
“People get on him a lot,” Hyman said. “He’s an incredible player. People don’t realize how much he cares and how much he wants to win. He gets misunderstood a lot of the time. And I think the guys in the locker room know how much he cares.”
Nylander, who draws criticism for how much money he earns, for not being physical enough and for his hair length. believe it or not, ended up the hero on Wednesday night in the Maple Leafs’ 2-1 win overtime win over Calgary.
When Calgary went up 1-0 with less than four minutes to go, Nylander scored the goal that tied the game with 1:28 remaining and the Leafs’ net empty, digging at the puck in the crease in front of Calgary goalie David Rittich. Then he won it in overtime, finishing off a 2-on-1 with Auston Matthews.
But when it comes to Nylan- der, someone will pick apart his game.
“It’s kind of always been around me,” he said. “I’m kind of used to it. But I know I’ve under underperformed and I know I can do better. I’ve got levels to get to where I want to be.”
It was Nylander’s second and third goals in four games as the winger shows signs of emerging from his early-season struggles.
“He’s had real good legs the last few games,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “He’s been skating well with the puck. Like I said the other night, it feels like he was waiting to be ready to break out. So that’s good.
“But why is he misunderstood? I think Willie has to own some of that. He’s got to find more consistency in his game.”
» Matthews hurting: Matthews had a rough night, physically speaking. He blocked a shot off the inside of his left foot, falling to the ice in some pain, in the first period. And he had right his wrist taped up after a hard fall into the boards in the second period. He also uncharacteristically took a roughing penalty in the third period, an offsetting minor with Andrew
Leafs 2 Flames 1 (OT) NEXT: SATURDAY @ EDMONTON
Mangiapane.
Keefe said after the game that Matthews has been battling a wrist injury all season.
“It’s something that can be treated,” said Keefe. “He’s been dealing with it for a long time now, throughout the season, and he hasn’t slowed down. Obviously today it was a factor, but we do have a couple days here before we play again.”
Keen observers might have noted John Tavares started the overtime with Mitch Marner. That was because Matthews’ wrist was sore, and Keefe didn’t want him taking the faceoff.
“It really was just as simple as Auston wasn’t comfortable taking the faceoff, just the way that his wrist was feeling. The faceoff to me is really important, at 3-on-3. And so we sent Tavares for that, and then intended to send Matthews on the fly. It just so happened we had a defensive-zone faceoff, but it was on the right side and Nylander took it and won it.”
» Hutchinson wins: While the Maple Leafs peppered Rittich with shots — especially in the second and third periods when Toronto was clearly the better team — the Flames netminder lived up to his “Big Save Dave” nickname for most of the game. He had stopped 70 straight shots against Toronto over the two games before Nylander scored.
Michael Hutchinson got his second start in a row thanks to injuries to both Frederik Andersen and Jack Campbell, and he has played well enough. He has shown none of the shakiness that accompanied his time in Toronto last year. The Leafs have four wins from backups this season. Hutchinson has two, Campbell two.
“I thought Hutch was really solid,” Keefe said. “He gave our group lots of confidence to keep playing. He gave us a chance to win.”
» Special trouble: While the Leafs were the better team overall, especially in evenstrength situations, the Leafs could have had better control of their fate with better special teams.
But they went 0-for-4 on the power play, looking out of sync no matter what combinations Keefe put together. That followed an 0-for-7 outing Monday.