'A very special day’: Maple Leafs' Nylander authors fairy-tale comeback in Sweden

STOCKHOLM -- The plan for a surprise pre-game speaker was hatched over dinner Thursday night in Stockholm, as the hockey stories flew between Brendan Shanahan and Mats Sundin over plates of delicious local cuisine and the Toronto Maple Leafs brass listened to their nonstop banter.

To have Sundin, proud captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, address the current Leafs in their Avicii Arena dressing room ahead of Friday's face-off against the Detroit Red Wings would be a small token but a meaningful one. It made too much sense.

“It’s a legend walking through those doors,” Calle Järnkrok says. “Pretty exciting.”

Sundin read out an opening lineup that carefully featured all three healthy Swedes: Järnkrok and Williams Nylander and Lagesson, plus Sundin's family-like friend, Max Domi. The Hall of Famer wished the team well and predicted a fine night for all.

"We play this game just for Sweden guys," said goaltender Ilya Samsonov, after holding the fort in 3-2 comeback victory for the men in blue helmets. "I'm so happy for everybody."

For Maple Leafs Swedish or otherwise, a more fitting script could not have been written.

From the Borje Salming patch on their shoulders to the late Salming's son, Anders, dropping a ceremonial puck at the feet of Nylander, every final storybook detail was considered.

The hero of this hockey tale — surely another one worth recounting by Shanahan and Sundin one day down the road — was, naturally, Nylander.

When he's not playing tour guide for his teammates or recommending elite downtown hamburger joints to Leafs staffers, Nylander is busy being the biggest homegrown star of this Global Series.

So, to the delight of those chanting "Go! Leafs! Go!" in the face of "Let's! Go! Red! Wings!" and the 90-some ticket-holders Nylander had accommodated for the evening, the talented winger rescued his team from a sleepy 0-2 deficit with a dominant three-point night and two big standings points over a divisional rival.

Nylander extended his club-record point streak to 16 games, captured player-of-the-game honours, and jolted to fourth overall in the Art Ross race.

What a treat for Nylander's grandmother, catching her grandson live for the first time as an NHL.

Could Nylander himself have designed a better outcome?

"Maybe putting in the empty-netter would've been better," he smiled from the winners' podium.

"Family being here, Swedish fans, I think this is very special. A lot of fun, for sure."

Toronto's night unfolded much like an amateur's construction of a Billy bookcase: Slow and confusing at first (to the point where one might be tempted to jam the Allen key through the wordless instructions). Gradually getting their bearings and clicking pieces into place. Then finally flying with expertise toward completion.

Järnkrok estimated that it "took 10 minutes to get our boots going," after flying across six time zones and waiting six days between games.

"We saved our energy and our legs," coach Sheldon Keefe said. "We didn't have a whole lot going on in the first two periods in terms of pace and tempo, all that kind of stuff, but found it in the third period, for sure."

Thanks to Nylander, whose line with John Tavares (three points) and Tyler Bertuzzi (two) is hitting its stride and thriving offensively with Auston Matthews' top unit drawing more of the difficult defensive matchups.

"He believes his skill more right now," Samsonov says of Nylander. "Mentally, he's really high."

If there was a mental strength at play here, there was also a geographical one and an emotional one.

Tavares attended the Börje series red-carpet premiere earlier this week and noted that the team spoke internally pre-game about how hockey has bonded Sweden to Toronto, specifically. 

Of Salming and Sundin, the current captain says he could "feel that legacy and that excellency run through the Maple Leafs."

Sundin's pep talk crystalized that lineage. 

"He was fantastic. I think that was pretty cool, especially for the Ontario guys that watched him growing up and idolize Mats, and certainly for all our Swedes," Tavares explained. "For me being captain and him being a former captain, the way he led is extremely impressive and something you don't take lightly and you idolize and try to mimic some of the things that he did really well."

Such as score clutch goals and snatch victory, dramatically, from the maw of defeat.

Which is precisely what Nylander did on this fairy tale night in a globed arena.

"A very special day, for sure," Nylander said, before strolling out in his black pinstriped designer suit to go find Granny Styles.

"Hopefully she's still in the stands waiting for us."

Fox's Fast Five

• Finding his niche to the left of Tavares and Nylander, the slow-starting Bertuzzi has posted back-to-back multi-point games and fired a season-high seven shots against Detroit.

He was driving the paint all night. Perhaps a little motivated by playing the team that traded him?

"That win felt great," Bertuzzi smiled.

• Keefe on Leaf-turned-Wing Justin Holl, with whom he shares a Calder Cup championship:

"It's been nice to watch his journey. He comes in on an AHL contract with the Marlies and was pretty much an ECHL player at that time and trying to solidify himself, and it wasn't a quick jump for him with the Marlies. He had to really work through it, and then the same thing at the NHL level, to establish himself. Justin's a great guy with a great approach to the game. Comes every day happy and ready to work. Great teammate. He's got a lot of great relationships here in Toronto. The way that it's developed for him, you're thrilled for him. That's what you want to be about as an organization — you want to give people opportunities. You want to help them get better. You want to see them succeed."

• Nicklas Lidstrom dropped the ceremonial puck at Thursday's Global Series opener between the Senators and Red Wings. The current Detroit scout was also honoured with the inaugural Borje Salming Courage Award.

“We’re challenging to be a playoff team again,” Lidstrom says of the Wings. “We’re a better team than last year. I think we have more skill on the team, and we’re taking steps to become a better team. Steve (Yzerman) has a lot of patience. He did a tremendous job down in Tampa, and I think you see a lot of similarities of what he’s trying to do here with the Wings.”

• The Maple Leafs now lead the NHL in bench minors having committed six too-many-men penalties. Dare we say: that's too many.

• The mystery of the "2023 David Kämpf Christmas Skate" continues.

"It's a secret, right?" Kämpf smiles, in reference to the custom Kämpf Christmas long-sleeve T-shirt Auston Matthews was rocking Thursday in Stockholm. "It's not my idea. I didn't make those shirts."

Kämpf says "just a couple" shirts were pressed up for the special event. 

"It's not for everyone," he says. "I like Christmas. Spend time with my family, for sure."