NHL
BOSTON — Shades on, hoodie up, William Nylander walked into Warrior Ice Enviornment in Boston alongside his teammates on Friday afternoon.
He didn’t be part of them on the ice for observe. And the Leafs aren’t saying a lot about his standing, solely that Nylander is a “chance” to play in Sport 1 on Saturday.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe additionally stated Bobby McMann, who hasn’t practiced or performed since he was injured on April 13, is a chance to play so take that for what it’s price.
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Keefe declined to say a lot in any respect on Nylander’s standing in any other case, apart from to counsel that the staff wasn’t ready to disclose a lot of something within the playoffs about accidents or lineups underneath the path of GM Brad Treliving.
“(Brad) has made it very clear to me: There’s not gonna be any every day damage updates or something like that,” Keefe stated.
The Leafs clearly don’t need the Bruins to know if Nylander will play, although his absence on the final observe earlier than Sport 1 suggests he’s a query mark.
For what motive precisely is unsure.
The truth that Nylander was within the constructing in any respect suggests he wasn’t coping with an sickness. In any other case, why not preserve him again on the resort to relaxation? An damage of some sort appears likelier, maybe one thing that popped up in one of many last two video games of the common season. (I spoke to Nylander on Monday and he was high quality and in good spirits.)
Nylander was on the ice for the waning minutes of regulation in sport No. 82 on Wednesday, a part of the hassle to assist Auston Matthews chase down his seventieth aim of the season, an effort that finally got here up brief.
Keefe declined to offer any clarification on Nylander’s standing. (Was it disciplinary?)
The Leafs have needed to play with out Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and Morgan Rielly at occasions lately, however they’ve all the time had Nylander. He performed in all 82 video games this season, all 82 final season, and 81-of-82 the season earlier than that.
He hasn’t missed any actual time in any respect with accidents.
Nylander was sidelined 5 video games through the 2020-21 season when he was in COVID-19 protocol. He performed in 68-of-70 the earlier season (lacking two for sickness), all 82 as a sophomore, and 81 as a rookie. He missed the primary half of the 2018-19 season to a contract dispute.
Will he play in Sport 1? Will he play on this collection? It’s exhausting to imagine something with so little info. Crucially, how do the Leafs regulate with out their second-best participant from the common season, somebody who slumped down the stretch however nonetheless put up a career-best 98 factors?
The Leafs’ greatest benefit over the Bruins is within the high-end talent division. Not having Nylander round lessens that benefit and places much more strain on Matthews and Marner to provide. Their postseason performances so far have been underwhelming. Nylander has arguably outplayed them each presently of the yr, in addition to John Tavares. Not having him obtainable can be an enormous blow to the Leafs and their probabilities.
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Nylander is the staff’s most harmful shooter after Matthews, certainly one of their prime puck carriers, and their finest dual-threat choice offensively, somebody who can cross the puck and shoot it and put every kind of strain on foes along with his pace and talent.
Keefe urged the Leafs hadn’t made any lineup selections (maintaining according to the “say nothing” coverage), however they practiced Friday the way in which they’d undoubtedly play with out Nylander. That’s with Calle Järnkrok sliding into Nylander’s spot on a line with Pontus Holmberg and Nick Robertson in addition to into his function (although not his precise place) on the Leafs’ No. 1 power-play unit. (Marner occupied Nylander’s spot on the best flank of PP1 at observe. Järnkrok moved into Marner’s spot down by the online. Tavares occupied the bumper place.)
Sport 1 will likely be Järnkrok’s first since March 14. He must be within the lineup no matter Nylander’s standing. Nick Robertson’s inclusion, alternatively, would appear to be depending on Nylander’s availability. If Nylander performs, Robertson, in all chance, doesn’t.
Robertson scored six targets in his last 15 video games of the common season. However minus Nylander on that third line, the notion of a ramification assault (three stars, three strains) goes out the window. The Leafs would basically have two prime strains and two fourth strains, roughly.
They might be (virtually) solely depending on the Matthews’ and Tavares’ models to provide offence. These two teams have sufficient weaponry to make it work.
Max Domi discovered Marner-like chemistry with Matthews when Keefe plugged him in there in March. That line, with Bertuzzi on left wing, was borderline unstoppable for the Leafs, although the problem for them will get a lot more durable from right here: The Bruins are teaming up Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm, their two finest defenders (and two of the higher defenders within the league), for presumed Matthews’ line obligation. (McAvoy performed primarily with the not-quite-as-stout Matt Grzelcyk through the common season.)
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The gambit is sensible: Boston had no reply for Matthews through the common season, on defence or up entrance with the Charlie Coyle line.
Within the practically 34 minutes that Matthews was on the ice towards Coyle, pictures have been 26-7 for the Leafs. Pictures have been 19-3 for the Leafs in Matthews’ 23-plus minutes reverse McAvoy.
And whereas the Marner-Tavares combo has been hit and miss for the reason that final time these two groups met within the playoffs (Marner, Tavares, and Zach Hyman fashioned the staff’s most harmful line again in 2019), there have been some indicators of chemistry brewing once more late within the season.
But, issues will likely be much more difficult for that group as properly beginning in Sport 1 because the Tavares line figures to primarily match up towards David Pastrnak’s unit, which additionally contains the exhausting and heavy combo of Pavel Zacha and Danton Heinen.
Pastrnak’s 58 five-on-five factors ranked sixth within the NHL.
The Leafs will want their No. 2 line to each cease, or merely decelerate, Pastrnak and create offence to complement what the Matthews’ line brings.
With or with out Nylander, the Tavares group was going to get the Pastrnak task – although the Leafs had been rolling out a star-stuffed Nylander-Tavares-Marner combo lately that was wreaking havoc. That threesome has the potential to tilt that matchup – if Nylander is accessible.
It’s the underside two models that really feel like extra of the priority, the third unit particularly, what with two kids taking part in on it in Robertson and Holmberg. Keefe will really feel slightly extra comfortable with Järnkrok round, however he’s nonetheless sure to very watch out with that unit, particularly in Boston the place Bruins coach Jim Montgomery is sure to hunt for a mismatch. A mismatch, that’s, just like the Pastrnak line going face to face with Robertson, Holmberg, and Järnkrok.
Shifts like that may be unhealthy information for the Leafs, and simply the specter of these shifts, interval, may restrict that unit’s ice time, particularly if Nylander isn’t round.
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Robertson does carry perhaps the one actual menace of offence from a backside six that doesn’t embrace Nylander. He already has an NHL playoff aim underneath his belt.
If Nylander does play, and Robertson doesn’t, Keefe can encompass Holmberg with two vets (and fellow Swedes) in Nylander and Järnkrok. That’s a way more helpful trio and one which has the potential to create some mismatch benefits for the Leafs, particularly Nylander dealing with the Bruins’ backside two strains and third defensive pair sometimes.
If Nylander doesn’t play, Keefe may be inclined to make use of David Kämpf-led fourth line much more than he may usually. It’s conceivable that Järnkrok even joins Kämpf and Connor Dewar for third intervals (instead of Ryan Reaves) if issues are tight.
That’s a mix the Leafs coach may stuff within the defensive zone and play towards anybody.
It stays to be seen if Kämpf, Dewar, and Reaves could be a power for good on this collection, a line that’s not essentially scoring however driving play. They did that a lot down the stretch collectively, to the tune of 66 p.c anticipated targets in a smallish pattern dimension.
The thriller round Nylander overshadowed what the Leafs are doing on defence: Sitting TJ Brodie in Sport 1.
The choice appears like much less of a shock after Brodie was scratched earlier within the week in an necessary playoff-tone-setting type of sport towards the Panthers.
Keefe’s Leafs are opting to get two proper pictures within the lineup, in Ilya Lyubushkin and Timothy Liljegren. They’re choosing as a lot dimension as doable, with Lyubushkin and Joel Edmundson, their two deadline additions on defence, each in for Sport 1. They usually’re choosing what’s labored finest in current weeks so far as pairs are involved.
Brodie wasn’t becoming in properly with anybody, not higher than Simon Benoit was with Jake McCabe, for instance.
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Brodie’s second-half struggles, coupled with the addition of Edmundson and the emergence of Benoit, finally knocked him out for the opener. He took half in post-practice work with the opposite projected scratches on Friday, an odd scene for somebody so necessary to this staff not so way back.
The prospect of Benoit taking part in forward of Brodie in Sport 1 would have been unthinkable for the Leafs in the beginning of the season.
After all, that is solely the way in which the Leafs will begin.
The Bruins’ punishing forecheck may make this specific development untenable, with slow-ish, below-average puck movers in Benoit, Edmundson, and Lyubushkin. It stays to be seen if Liljegren is best ready to deal with the physicality and stress of playoff hockey this time round.
Brodie figures to get an opportunity in some unspecified time in the future on this collection.
As for Nylander, we’ll see.
(Prime photograph: Kevin Sousa / NHLI through Getty Photographs)
–Stats and analysis courtesy of Pure Stat Trick, Hockey Reference, and Evolving Hockey
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Jonas Siegel is a workers author on the Maple Leafs for The Athletic. Jonas joined The Athletic in 2017 from the Canadian Press, the place he served because the nationwide hockey author. Beforehand, he spent practically a decade protecting the Leafs with AM 640, TSN Radio and TSN.ca. Observe Jonas on Twitter @jonassiegel
