A recent change in how he approaches every game has landed Maple Leafs star William Nylander in the good graces of his new coach, Craig Berube.
Long has William Nylander been looked at as an offense-first player, and to an extent, that still rings true. However, some comments from Leafs head coach Craig Berube following a huge 4-0 drubbing of the Boston Bruins has some fans seeing Nylander in a whole new light.
Nylander scored his team-leading 10th goal of the season last night in the win, but it wasn’t just his offense that stood out to Berube. It was his effort on the defensive side of the puck that seemed to impress his coach, as is evidenced by Berube’s post-game comments.
“Ah, he’s being Willy. Scores goals…. We all know the skill level is off the charts. But he’s playing a good game all around. Like, he’s not just thinking about offence. He’s been very good defensively, and he’s in the right spots and doing the right things.”
Nylander, who was recently lovingly chirped by President Brendan Shanahan over his lofty, new $11.5M cap hit, has really brought it in his first season of his new contract. Much to the delight of the fan base, Nylander is 2nd in points through 14 games, tallying 10 goals and 5 assists for 15 points, just 1 point back of Mitch Marner, the team’s current points leader.
Recently, Nylander had expressed some concerns to Berube over his sudden drop in ice time. Well, judging by Berube’s comments about his star winger on Tuesday, I don’t think the ice time will be much of a problem anymore.
The Leafs have a few days off this week, with their next game not occurring until Friday against Detroit, followed by the second half of a back-to-back scenario on Saturday evening against the Canadiens. Something tells me we’re going to see a whole lot more of William Nylander in those ones, especially if Auston Matthews has not returned to the lineup by then. Matthews is currently dealing with an unspecified upper-body ailment, with his status for this weekend’s games currently unknown.
