Toronto Maple Leafs Down Jets at the William Nylander Show

The Toronto Maple Leafs ended their season high three game losing streak with a solid victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night.

It was the third straight game in which the Toronto Maple Leafs played excellently, but only the first of such games that they actually ended up victorious.

The Jets scored late on a nothing play and forced overtime, which means they’ve taken three of four possible points while getting absolutely dusted over the last six periods.

Connor Hellebuyck once again showed how goalies can play well beyond the capabilities of their team’s defense (the Jets don’t have any), but the Leafs overcame the should-be defending Hart Trophy winner, mostly due to one of the best games William Nylander has ever played.

The William Nylander Show

“He could have scored five goals last night,” is something that you hear and aren’t supposed to take literally.  We hear things like this all the time, and outside of pedantic internet thought police types, we all know that exaggerations exist to make enthusiastic points.  Depending on how much time you spend online it may be surprising to learn that in real life people do this all the time in real life without being lectured on the finer points of reality. (stats from naturalstattrick.com).

But last night, in regards to William Nylander, I think we might be underselling it.

Seemingly channeling the powers of a young Mario Lemieux, William Nylander scored a pretty nice goal, with only Mr. Hellebuyck prevented him from challenging Darryl Sittler’s NHL record for points in a game.

Nylander posted a 62% Corsi on the night (very good) but where he really shined was that the Leafs had 11 scoring chances with him on the ice while allowing just five.   Dangerous chances with Nylander on the ice were 7-1 Leafs.

Nylander now has six goals and eight points in his last nine games. He leads the Leafs in shot-attempt percentage, expected goals percentage, and would most likely be close to a point per game if John Tavares could score a 5v5 goal once in a while.

Tavares is shooting just 5% and has just three 5v5 goals, less than Spezza, Vesey, Hyman, Mikheyev and Kerfoot.  A few more assists and Nylander is among the league’s scoring leaders.

As it stands, his 22 points are tied for the 16th highest total in the league.  He is tied for the seventh highest total goals with 11.

This is a player who doesn’t usually play on his team’s top power-play unit, or the first line, and whose most common linemate is mired in a season long slump (powered by a low and unlucky shooting percentage).   Not bad.

Since the start of last season, only ten players in the NHL have scored more total goals than Nylander has.  Nylander is not only one of the best players on the Toronto Maple Leafs (probably their 3rd best player) but he’s one of the best players in the NHL.

One final thing: I can’t very well finish this review of the game without acknowledging that ridiculous goal by Auston Matthews.  Speechless.