Silence on injury lets rumours run wild

Saw a guy wearing a William Nylander jersey the other night at the TD Center in Boston. Unfortunately, it wasn’t William Nylander.

And so the saga of whither-Willy has dragged on.

Coach Sheldon Keefe was typically terse on the subject Tuesday morning before the Maple Leafs flew home.

“Obviously no update today, because not much happening for us here today except for getting ready to travel. But he’s a possibility for us tomorrow, I guess, is all we would say.”

The Leafs have been saying bugger-all about the 27-year-old allstar forward, neither if he was hurt nor ill. This don’t-tell don’t-ask posture has apparently been set by Toronto GM Brad Treliving.

Such is the aversion to revealing anything about Nylander’s circumstances that we don’t even get the cursory “upper body” or “lower body” flick-off. Which, if memory serves, was introduced into the vernacular by the late Pat Quinn. Even in expansive mood, the glowering Irishman would deflect a basic query — say, “Can he go?” — with a one-word rejoinder from the pulldown menu: “Probable.” “Questionable.” “Doubtful.”

In Boston, reporters were left quizzing autograph-seekers outside the team hotel. “Did anybody see William Nylander get on the team bus?”

Various teammates probed about Nylander by media desperate to confirm that he’d even made the trip to Beantown, disclosed nothing. Except Jake McCabe got tripped up in a scrum Sunday. “He seemed to be in good spirits today.” Immediately you could see the uhoh in his eyes.

In fact, that was the day when one Toronto scrivener, shrewdly passing on the player availability at the team’s hotel, checked out the Bruins practice at a suburban arena instead, where a handful of Leaf scratches were skating, Nylander among them. Chris Johnston, of The Athletic, reported that Nylander “looked to be laboring” and “wasn’t moving with his normal fluidity.”

There was a further sighting of Nylander at the morning skate Monday. He didn’t participate in rushing drills and didn’t take the pre-game skate either.

TSN’s Darren Dreger had earlier posted on X that Nylander could be dealing with a “tweak” but it was not something he’d been playing through in the final games of the regular season.

What, did he fall out of bed? Trip taking his dog walkies?

The consensus was that Nylander had somehow hurt his back. But so badly that the iron man on the roster — Nylander the only Leaf who played in all 82 games this year, hadn’t missed a game since Nov. 26, 2016 — couldn’t dress for the playoffs? The guy who was 10th in the NHL this year in points, with a career high of 98 and would surely have been a potent lineup asset versus the Bruins? The fellow who’s posted 17 goals in 50 post-season games, second only to Auston Matthews among current Leafs?

Naturally social media has been abuzz speculating about what ails Nylander and why he wasn’t in the lineup for the first two games of the opening round series with the Boston Bruins. Conspiracy theorists have reached deep into their bag of skulduggery, landing on the (stupid) theory that Keefe had sat out the Swede as punishment for lacklustre play down the stretch. Admittedly the coach had lit that kindling after the final regular game at Scotiabank Arena when he observed of Nylander — just one goal in his last 11 games: “I think in the last week Willy has shown he’s done with regular season hockey and ready to move along. I’m not concerned about Willy.”

To conniving minds that suggested Nylander had checked out. Also stupid.

The NHL is the only sports league that can get away with this gag order nonsense, cleaving to the creed that disclosing any information about an injury creates a competitive disadvantage. NFL policy stipulates any player injury must be divulged; that the information “must be credible, accurate, timely and specific.” No doubt that policy is driven by gambling, in a sport where betting revenue topped $11 billion last year.

The NBA and Major League Baseball likewise disclose injury details, right down to a displaced knuckle or a pitcher’s torn fingernail.

But the NHL? See no injury, hear no injury, speak no injury. And definitely not in the playoffs.

As a footnote to the clandestine games that hockey players play in the post-season, take a look at the video of the penalty assessed to Tyler Bertuzzi late in the third period of Game 2 for purportedly slashing Brad Marchand.

The alleged hack — nothing of the sort actually — was against Marchand’s right leg. But when he fell (dived) to the ice with theatrical emoting, Marchand grabbed his left leg.

Was a time when Pat Burns would staple any diving player to the bench.

Sifting through the scant info offered, a punter might want to lay down money that Willy will come over the board. But don’t hold me to it.