Digging into William Nylander's early standout playoff performance
How Will channeled his inner Bill in games one and two vs. Montreal
With John Tavares out of the lineup and Nick Foligno filling in for him at centre, the Leafs second line is going to have to lean heavily on William Nylander to drive play.
The Hyman-Matthews-Marner line dominated at 5v5 over the first two games in Toronto, owning 80% of the expected goals while they’re up 1-0 on the scoreboard in around 30 minutes of ice time. In order for the Leafs to be able to continue icing that line, however, the Leafs are going to need Nylander permanently in Bill Mode™. Foligno is a good defensive player, but he’s not much of an offensive driver at this point and he definitely needs a lot of help in transition.
That leaves that line looking significantly less threatening, but Nylander has been really noticeable in his efforts to impact the game in pretty much every shift early on in the series. Nylander also has a goal in each game to go with one assist in game two. Game one’s goal came at 5v5, while game two’s goal came on the powerplay and the assist came on the empty netter after he stole it from Brendan Gallagher off of a DZ draw.
In the 20 minutes they’ve played together in the series, they’re operating at 53% expected goals while being outscored 2-1. They’ve obviously been much less dangerous than the top line, but still above water in terms of controlling chances and Nylander has had a lot to do with that. After re-watching Nylander’s shifts and tracking his actions, I’m willing to say I’ve never seen him this engaged all over the ice.
In hindsight, the first sign that we were in for Bill Mode™ was when he laid a hit on Canadiens’ D Brett Kulak on the forecheck. It’s not the biggest hit or, frankly, the cleanest, but it’s not something we’re used to seeing from Nylander to the point where I thought he must have lost an edge during live viewing.
Nylander finished that shift by providing the zone exit, getting the puck back on the forecheck and ultimately going to the net and burying the rebound like the gritty playoff performer he is.
Nylander has stood out in a very positive way ever since, aside from an unfortunate puck over glass penalty after a good backcheck in game one and you could definitely place part of the blame for Montreal’s one goal in game two on him.
The goal against in game one by Josh Anderson is clearly on Joe Thornton for the giveaway in the middle immediately after entering the zone and the Leafs’ D got caught in an ill-timed change. Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s goal from game two, however, was the result of Nylander not taking his man at the point and then letting Joel Armia get the rebound chance. Justin Holl also gets caught just kind’ve standing there as Kotkaniemi jams the rebound in, so it’s not all on Nylander, but not the best look for him.
The rest has been really positive for Nylander and, by extension, the Leafs after two games. Nylander is by far the best skater on his line and that’s been quite obvious as he’s been first to pucks all over the ice over and over again. He’s really stood out on the forecheck and he’ll likely have to continue that, as they’ll have to be much more reliant on dump ins and recoveries with Foligno at centre.
The steal from Jeff Petry on the forecheck is the perfect example of Nylander’s speed as he just skates right around an elite NHL defender and takes the puck with him without even touching him. Forechecking is most often talked about as something you can only be good at if you’re very physical, especially this time of year, and I think it often misses the point. Ultimately the goal of the forecheck is to get the puck back. Wearing down the opposition is a big part of that, but if you’re just getting there a second too late and hitting the opposition after the puck’s gone, you’re not really effective. The best way to wear opponents down on the forecheck is by winning the puck back and making them play defence for a bit. In this sense, I think Nylander is an underrated forechecker in general, but he’s looked even more effective early in this series.
While the Leafs were outshot with that line on the ice in Game 2, they managed to win the expected goals battle by limiting scoring chances against. A lot of that, to my eye, was due to Nylander’s defensive play as he was very active in the defensive zone. Part of that is score effects as the team took the lead in the second period and teams generally revert to more passive play, focusing on protecting the home plate area instead of pushing play. Teams become more risk averse when playing with the lead whether they mean to or not and regardless of what the coach is preaching. In this game Nylander always seemed to be the guy scooping up pucks in the defensive zone and getting the play headed the other direction, simultaneously nullifying second chance opportunities.
Nylander’s speed has been noticeable on the backcheck pretty consistently as well, as he even got back break up a grade A chance for Nick Suzuki after he had one himself and Foligno’s rebound was deflected over the gaping net.
There was also this nice play to snuff out a prime chance right in front for Tomas Tatar which also worked as an exit pass to Galchenyuk, though I didn’t record it as an exit.
Nylander’s transition play has predictably also been vital to his unit’s ability to play on offence. He’s always heavily involved in that aspect and he’s also the team’s best every year in terms of his ability to enter the offensive zone with control.
In recent years, Matthews has really blossomed in this department as well. The difference right now is that Hyman and Marner are also capable and require attention. That means the aggressive Canadiens’ neutral zone defence can’t be nearly aggressive, whereas with Nylander you can really focus on shutting him down early in open ice due to his linemates not really being a threat in that area. That’s resulted in more dump ins than usual for Nylander, but he still makes it work due to his aforementioned forechecking as well as Foligno being one of the strongest forecheckers on the team. That being said, if Nylander is able to find any space at all in open ice, he’s still going to take it.
That button hook play off the entry is a staple of his game, Bill Mode™ or not. On this play it opens up a silly amount of space in the offensive zone and Jake Muzzin is able to one-time the puck and then easily recover it.
The Leafs are still favourites sans Tavares as far as I’m concerned, but Nylander is going to have to make Bill Mode™ permanent for the playoffs if the lines are going to survive the way they’re currently constructed.
Notable clips from game 1:
William Nylander Game 1 v Montreal Canadiens
Notable clips from game 2: