William Nylander doesn’t want to break up the band.
After another gut-wrenching loss to the Boston Bruins in a winner-take-all Game 7 on Saturday, the Toronto Maple Leafs superstar made it crystal clear that he didn’t pin this defeat on the team’s core.
“I don’t think there’s an issue with the core,” Nylander said following the loss. “I think we were (expletive) right there all series, battled hard and got it to Game 7 and OT. That’s a [expletive] feeling.”
Nylander missed the first three games of the series with what he confirmed as a migraine issue that affected his vision. But he led an unproductive Maple Leafs team in scoring with three goals (all in the last two games), including their lone goal in the tight elimination game.
Toronto just couldn’t find its rhythm offensively in the first round, as the second-most productive regular-season team managed only 10 goals in the series.
That’s been the pattern for the Leafs once the post-season lights turn on, as they’ve been unable to escape Game 7s in recent years, winning none of their last seven winner-take-all games.
Much of the criticism has fallen on the team’s top forwards — Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Nylander and John Tavares.
Despite the continued missteps in the playoffs, Nylander saw a team and a core that still has a lot to give considering their resilience after rallying from a 3-1 deficit to the Bruins.
“The fact that battled back from 3-1 down,” he said when asked about what he likes about the Leafs’ core. “Brought it to Game 7 OT. We had a great group of guys so it really sucks.”
Head coach Sheldon Keefe echoed the sentiment, believing in the ability of the core to break through eventually in spite of their struggles.
“We’ve been trying to break through for a long time now. So any answers are going to fall on deaf ears. All I’ll say is the group pulled together,” Keefe said, “This group was different this year. The core isn’t different but the guys around it were different and the feeling around the team was different and played different.
“I thought we showed signs in this series of a team that could win.”
