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Nylander had awful backcheck on backbreaking goal against Toronto Maple Leafs

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
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Apr 30 2025, 2:32 am
Nylander had awful backcheck on backbreaking goal against Toronto Maple Leafs
Sportsnet

In his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs, William Nylander has had many opinions shared about him, but he’s hardly been described as “universally beloved.”

The 28-year-old winger has been a pretty polarizing figure for much of his tenure in Toronto, perhaps most exemplified during his months-long contract dispute way back in 2018 that saw him miss the season’s first 28 games, while putting up just 27 points in 54 games that season.

In the years since, he’s developed into one of the league’s most dynamic players, putting up 40 goals in consecutive seasons leading into this one before hitting a career-high 45 games this year. In five playoff games, he’s put up six points by way of one goal and five assists.

But the Nylander critics had plenty of ammo on Tuesday night, with the Leafs falling 4-0 to the Ottawa Senators to extend their first-round series to a sixth game.

And while nobody on the Leafs scored, a poor defensive effort by Nylander on a shorthanded goal by Ottawa’s Dylan Cozens to push the score from 1-0 to 2-0 in the third period was perhaps the roughest look on the evening.

With the Leafs on the power play, a poor turnover by Auston Matthews led to Nylander and Mitch Marner being the only two players back to defend a rush between Cozens and Adam Gaudette.

While Nylander started relatively on even footing to Cozens, he was several feet behind him and clearly gliding by the time the puck got onto the eventual goalscorer’s stick.

Whether Nylander was gassed from being out on the power play or simply resigned to play defence, it’s a tough look on a night when the Leafs clearly weren’t at their best.

Matthews himself took the blame for the goal, saying he missed Gaudette before handing him the puck.

“Tried to find Mitchy up top. I thought we kinda drew them in. I didn’t see the guy there. He obviously picked it off. That’s on me. I gotta make a better play,” Matthews told reporters, per Sportsnet’s Luke Fox.

If the Leafs end up winning the series in six or seven, the tough backcheck by Nylander probably won’t have much staying power in a media market always looking to focus on the next thing.

But if Toronto somehow finds a way to fumble the series and have an epic collapse — perhaps even worse than their infamous 4-1 blown lead in Game 7 of their first round series against Boston in 2013, or their 3-1 series lead blown against Montreal in 2021 — you can bet Nylander will find himself near the top of Toronto’s scapegoat list.

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