William Nylander’s signature performance helps Leafs push Bruins to a Game 7

Credit: May 2, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander (88) and goalie Joseph Woll (60) celebrate after a win over the Boston Bruins in game six of the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Maple Leafs of the 2023-24 regular season were not a one-superstar team. It took until Game 6 of their series against the Boston Bruins to remind us of that.

There’s no touching Auston Matthews in modern Leafs lore. He broke and re-broke the franchise goal-scoring record in 2021-22 and this past season. He’s the 69-goal scorer, the Hart Trophy winner, the man well on his way to rewriting the 106-year-old franchise’s record book. So his absence from the past two games, whether it was because of an illness or undisclosed injury, was a potential death knell for a team facing elimination in consecutive games.

But William Nylander has a beefy new contract extension in place, paying him $11.5 million annually for the next eight seasons, for a reason. His 98 points were a career high and placed him 10th in league scoring. He came into the series with 25 points in his previous 25 playoff games. But a migraine problem robbed him of Games 1 to 3 and left him easing into the series by Game 4.

In Game 6, however, it was No. 88’s moment. He scored both the Leafs’ goals, the second on a scintillating finish that may live on years from now in his career highlight reel. With the Leafs batting to hold a 1-0 lead and just more than two minutes remaining in the third period, Nylander, streaking down the middle of the ice, received a spin-o-rama feed from left winger Matthew Knies, who absorbed a hit from defenseman Charlie McAvoy to make the play. Nylander, with the entire Bruins zone to himself and a chorus of screams from the Scotiabank Arena faithful enveloping him, exhibited surgeon’s hands, faking out Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman before depositing a backhander through his five-hole and sealing the win.

Nylander was MIA to start the series but, when his team needed him more than ever, delivered a true signature performance, even adding an uncharacteristic big hit on Bruins blueliner Parker Wotherspoon in the third period. One advantage the Leafs carried over the Bruins entering the series was a greater number of high-impact scorers, with or without Matthews, and Nylander flexed that muscle in Game 6.

“Remarkable,” Knies said. “[He] battled all night, threw a big hit, scored two goals, can’t ask for much more from him.”

At the same time: to call the Leafs’ 2-1 Game 6 victory, which snapped a six-game playoff home losing streak, all about Nylander wouldn’t be fair to his teammates. Forcing a Game 7 was a true group effort.

Whatever flaccid, frightened Leaf team showed up for Games 3 and 4…it was a different entity taking the ice in Game 6 Thursday. The Leafs seemed to take their urgency and fearlessness from Game 5 in Boston and transplant it into Scotiabank Arena for the first time all series. During a dominant first period in which the home crowd was rowdy and lifting the Leafs up, they outshot the Bruins 12-1. As coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game, the building was so loud that he lost his voice even just trying to call out line changes. Buoyed by that hometown support, the Leafs beat the Bruins to pucks on the forecheck and backcheck. Knies, Game 5’s overtime hero, showcased a newfound confidence, shedding checkers like a bull. The Leafs didn’t exit the period with anything to show for their effort on the scoreboard, but it was a moral victory that they dictated the play so decisively.

The Bruins counterpunched in the second period, seemingly gaining momentum after the unbelievably bad Toronto power play, now 1 for 20 in the series, managed just two shots while David Pastrnak sat for a double minor. They had more zone time and genuinely tested Leafs goaltender Joseph Woll with shots through traffic. They forced him into some wild, scrambling saves during their late third-period push. But just as he had in Game 5, Woll held strong when the pressure was greatest, showing the poise and rebound control you want in a playoff goaltender. He also kept the game scoreless long enough to let the Leafs break through for their first goal, which came in the second period when Nylander floated a wrister from the top of the circle and it careened off McAvoy past Swayman.

“He hasn’t made any mistakes,” Keefe said of Woll. “So because of that, we’ve stayed in games. There’s nothing that’s gone in that shouldn’t have. So it’s given the group confidence. You need that right now. Again, tonight, it’s such a tight game, it was such a tight game in Game 5, you’re facing elimination, you make sudden mistakes and it’s curtains. So it’s given the group confidence, it’s been tremendous to see…the guys are also competing for him, giving him every opportunity to find his way in this series, and he’s rewarding them. When there are breakdowns, he’s been great.”

Over their past six periods and change, including the overtime of Game 5, the Leafs have allowed two Bruins goals, the second a meaningless tally with less than a second remaining in Game 6. The Bruins outchanced the Leafs 26-12 at 5-on-5 across the second and third period Thursday night, but the Leafs bent without breaking. They won defensive zone battles along the boards when they absolutely had to – without getting into disciplinary trouble. They’ve taken two penalties in the past two games combined.

As left winger Tyler Bertuzzi added Thursday night: the Leafs are “smothering” the Bruns and can tell they are frustrated. There will always be pressure on the Leafs to conquer their demons, especially against a Bruins team that won Game 7s against them in 2013, 2018 and 2019. But after Boston blew a 3-1 series lead to the Florida Panthers last year, make no mistake: there’s pressure on them, too.

Whatever happens, if there’s one Leaf Saturday’s Game 7 isn’t likely to faze, it’s Nylander.

“Yeah, it’s special, I don’t know if we’ve won one yet,” he said with a wry smile. “So we’re up to the test.”

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William Nylander’s signature performance helps Leafs push Bruins to a Game 7

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