Nylander-Matthews appreciation
These two are appreciated on a nightly basis, but their elite skill was on display against the Sharks. After some time away from each other, Babcock has reunited Nylander and Matthews. Even though they spent some time apart, their chemistry did not suffer as they have not missed a beat.
Their elite skill would be on display versus the Western Conference Champions. For the first goal of the game, they kept the puck away from the Sharks until Matthews saw and opportunity and fired it to the net which resulted in a Hyman deflection.
Isolated look at the Hyman goal: Auston Matthews and William Nylander trading the puck like Jay Z and Kanye trading verses pic.twitter.com/Z3mlafj2f1
— Jeff Veillette (@JeffVeillette) December 14, 2016
Nylander has suffered the wrath of Babcock due to his defensive play. Nevertheless, he made an excellent defensive play as he fought for and stripped the puck away from Justin Braun. The 20-year-old might not be a Selke type forward, but he definitely understands that his defensive game did need to improve in order to avoid the fourth line.
As for Matthews, he got into the action by scoring his 13th goal of the season by going five-hole from a tough angle to beat Martin Jones. For those keeping track, that puts Matthews on a 38 goal pace, not bad for a 19-year-old.