If you’re going to chase down a Stanley Cup while investing heavily in four forwards, you need those players to retain the ability to find another level when the team most needs it.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are basically banking on the kind of performance they’ve received from William Nylander to start this first-round series with Montreal, getting goals from him in each of the three games while seeing linemates John Tavares and Nick Foligno suffer injuries that have required him to skate with teammates further down the depth chart.
On Monday, that meant starting with Alexander Kerfoot, who was strong, and Alex Galchenyuk, who took a double-minor for high-sticking on his first shift and failed to recover any form or his coach’s trust from there.
While that obviously impacted Nylander’s ability to settle into a rhythm, it didn’t prevent him from contributing a big goal to a tight 2-1 victory over the Canadiens. And it says something about the way he’s made his presence felt in this series that Sheldon Keefe had him tabbed for a 5-on-6 shift in the final minute after Carey Price had been pulled for an extra skater.
“To me he’s competing a lot harder, he’s really engaged and with that offence comes,” Keefe said of Nylander, his team’s early playoff leader with four points. “You look at losing Tavares and then you lose Foligno, two guys that Will started out with on a line and he’s just continued on and produced and played hard and given us real good shifts.”
Toronto grabbed a 2-1 series lead on a night where Price played well enough to steal his team a victory and Jack Campbell withstood a frantic third period barrage to keep it from happening.
It was a swing game — the first in this best-of-seven where Dominique Ducharme controlled the last line change — and goals were hard to come by.
In fact, there could have been the smallest seed of doubt planted on the Toronto bench when Price made an early desperation save that hinted at his top form. He dove across the crease and angled the paddle of his stick just right to keep Jason Spezza from potting a sure goal.
“When you’re playing against a goalie who’s … in the zone it can be discouraging at times,” said Morgan Rielly.
That’s what made Nylander’s seeing-eye strike so important. He swung across the right circle after Kerfoot won a faceoff and beat Price low at 7:18 of the second period to stake Toronto to its first 1-0 lead of the series.
They might otherwise have let a solid first half of the game go to waste.
Foligno was a surprise scratch for Game 3 after being declared in by Keefe earlier in the day and taking the warmup. He’s been dealing with a lower-body issue that kept him out of two games late in the regular season and was concerned about being able to make it through the entire 60 minutes, so the decision was made to give him another night off.
The Galchenyuk-Kerfoot-Nylander line was formed in the 20 minutes before the national anthem while Riley Nash took a spot in Toronto’s bottom-six.
No matter the circumstances in front of him, Nylander has entered these playoffs trying to stay mentally in the battle. He’s actually been a reasonably productive post-season player throughout his NHL career despite going quiet in a couple key moments — failing to register a shot in either Game 7 loss against Boston, for example.
“Just skating is important,” he said of what he’s learned. “Moving your legs out there and getting on the forecheck regardless. I mean you might not touch the puck one shift, but you’ve just gotta keep going at it shift after shift.”
You need to grind out goals any way you can, too.
Auston Matthews has arguably been the most impactful Leafs player of the series with an eye-popping 30 shot attempts already, but his line with Mitch Marner and Zach Hyman can’t be counted on for all of the offence. (They did, however, produce Rielly’s game-winner with Marner finding the defenceman shortly after Nick Suzuki tied it 1-1 for Montreal on Monday).
The key to a long playoff run is found in spreading the wealth.
It tends to hinge on patching offensive holes long enough to overcome injuries or bouts of poor shooting luck. It’s about having a core player like Tavares go down with his concussion and knee issue and then promptly seeing Nylander become the first Leaf to open a playoff series with goals in three straight games since Alex Mogilny in 2003 against Philadelphia.
He’s already established his own career best for one post-season. And he’s engaged in puck battles, generated 10 shots on goal and exuded an undeniable level of self-assuredness.
“You learn over the years and every time you lose it digs even harder,” said Nylander. “You want to battle and battle and get better every year.”
The battle renews again Tuesday with Game 4.
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