Toronto Maple Leafs: It’s About Time We Lay Off William Nylander

It might be time for Toronto Maple Leafs fans to dispel some of the prevailing narratives and finally lay off of William Nylander.

Toronto Maple Leafs fans should know what they’re getting by now: a top player with elite skill who will occasionally have make a glaring error.

However, when he has a game like the one he just did, it’s very hard to look at the odd missed assignment with a lot for disdain.

Nylander is infuriating to Toronto Maple Leafs fans at times, but equally, as in Game 5, he can infuriate the opposition.

William Nylander Delivers The Goods for Toronto Maple Leafs

He absolutely did that with his role in the game-tying second Toronto Maple Leafs goal. It was all on Nylander and the also oft-maligned Leafs captain John Tavares.

While plenty of people would’ve been calling on him to shoot or maybe absorb a hit, be weaved through the Tampa Bay team almost effortlessly before heading around the back of the net before dishing the puck to Tavares.

Of course it was Morgan Rielly that finished the move by netting the goal, but if Nylander doesn’t trust his skating and puck handling there, nothing happens.

It felt justly deserved when a minute later, William Nylander scored a beauty of a goal that marked the first time that the lead had changed in the entire series. Think about that for a minute – in 280 or so minutes of hockey, the lead hadn’t changed. Yet it finally did and it was William Nylander that put the picture-perfect shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Such are the narratives though that you’d believe William Nylander was beyond a liability for the Toronto Maple Leafs and deserved to be traded with immediate effect. Instead, he proved here in Game 5 that when he shows up, he really shows up.

Perhaps also it should be noted that for a player that is perceived not to show a ton of effort; he netted twice in the Game 4 loss after the result was all but confirmed. Those goals were clearly a boost to his confidence.

In actual fact, his propensity to not show up is vastly exaggerated by the media and a certain section of Toronto Maple Leafs fans.

He’s on 5 points in the past 2 games and when you add in last year’s playoffs, he’s running at more than a point-per-game in his last 12 post-season games.

Maybe it’s time we got off his back a little, gave him a little breathing room and hope that his rich vein of form continues into Game 6.

For every flaw in his game; for his perceived lack of effort with pushing that little extra on an icing call or putting his body on the line by willingly stepping into the path of a shot, right now he’s getting it done when it counts.