Evaluating William Nylander's Two Goals in Game 6
A stunning result occurred last night at Scotiabank Arena, where the Toronto Maple Leafs were able to force a Game 7 after being down 3-1 in the series to the Boston Bruins. Without Auston Matthews available once again, after being without him in Game 5, this gave more of the other superstars on the Leafs to try and get more ice time in his absence, whether that be at 5v5 or even strength situations in general.
With John Tavares being a past playoff contributor with the Islanders and now in Toronto, that gives Toronto a bit of fortune at the 1st line center role temporarily. But it has been William Nylander that has perhaps been the most noticeable of the scoring trio without Matthews, as Nylander's shot generation and ability to generate off the rush have been way better since returning from injury.
It's only been 3 games for him in the 2024 playoffs thus far, so the sample size is very small. But Nylander's shot at nearly 17%, he is generating a lot of shot volume per his Corsi and Fenwick numbers, and his on ice play relative to his off-ice play has stood out thus far as well.
The numbers have been supporting what he's been doing in terms of his playoff performance thus far. After coming back from the mystery injury, he looks comfortable with his skating and he looks comfortable with the increased ice time he was regularly getting in the regular season. For a special player like Nylander, adaptability was obviously seamless.
Last night, Nylander scoring twice, singlehandedly outscoring the entire Boston Bruins team in a 2-1 Leafs win that forced a Game 7. In a game where the Leafs needed Nylander being down Matthews, Nylander took on the star role and the pressure with so much poise.
Off a set play from the Leafs off the draw, Nylander sprints towards the dot off the won draw to retrieve this puck. Matthew Knies also heads toward the dot, eliminating Boston's strong side winger through a subtle screen so Nylander can have an individual shot lane open. Nylander tries to pry the puck away to get a quick shot off, but he doesn't retrieve the 50/50 puck in time. Nylander then gets full possession of the puck here, and moves the puck high to the near side defenseman, where a D-to-D pass occurs. Liljegren has this puck now, where he sees Nylander cutting across the top to get coverage to collapse on him.
Coverage collapses on the near side boards, where Nylander uses a cutback to maneuver back high, and then tries to use a more deceptive second cutback to try and eliminate the space this opposing forward has closed in on him. He is able to get slightly away from Beecher using body position and puck protection, where Nylander is able to maneuver into space along the half wall. From there, Nylander just tries to get a puck on net and throws a puck there, where it ends up sneaking past Swayman for his first goal of the game.
What was really noticeable here was that last cutback he executed under pressure. Nylander didn't have a lot of space to work with nor an open seam that helped him escape, but he singlehandedly problem-solved pressure using body leverage and gaining the inside on John Beecher. By Nylander initiating that contact, that bump from his body gives him that extra separation heading down the half wall.
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This was the dagger goal that would allow the Leafs to establish a Game 7 in Boston, as this was a really nice sequence leading up to the goal here. Nylander has a habit of lurking away from the play, particularly for deception, as he can sometimes do this to make defensive coverage not focus on him in the situation.
What is great about this play is how Nylander is able to station himself to block the shot while the Boston defender is walking the line here. Lohrei didn't use much deception or manipulative footwork on Nylander, as Nylander was basically just able to stand in front of this shot and block it. From there, the puck falls to Morgan Rielly on the strong side half wall, where Rielly is able to chip this puck up to Nylander near the blue line. Nylander eventually clears this puck, and with Lohrei collapsing on this play along the boards, and Matthew Knies slashing through center, this creates open ice. Charlie McAvoy tries to pinch down low on the strong side thinking he can end this sequence with a body check, but Nylander is lurking to the center of the ice with nobody else around him.
Nylander gets a breakaway off a gorgeous spin pass from Knies, and from there, it's all Nylander. Nylander uses a little kickback on his back foot to freeze Swayman, and then went forehand-backhand, opening Swayman's five hole and scoring there. That created a 2-0 lead, where Boston would eventually score with 0.1 seconds left in the game for a 2-1 win.
It will be interesting to see how the Leafs adapt come Game 7. Will Auston Matthews be back? Will Joseph Woll continue his playoff performance? Will Nylander continue to break the ice the way he did coming back from a mysterious injury? Time will tell, but doing all of this without Matthews being 3-1 down originally is amazing.
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