Every so often during his National Hockey League career, William Nylander has needed a push to get his mind back in the game.
The star Maple Leafs winger would rather have gone without one during Toronto’s 2-1 preseason win against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday at Scotiabank Arena.
No hard feelings, to be sure, from Nylander toward teammate Nick Robertson, whose intentions were good when he tried to give Nylander a helpful push with his stick on the backcheck.
Nylander fell forward, striking his head and neck on the leg of Canadiens forward Christian Dvorak at the Leafs blue line.
“I wasn’t ready for it, because it didn’t feel like it was needed at that point,” Nylander said of Robertson’s push. “But it’s OK.
“He did (the push) properly. I think also the ice has been really soft, so that also contributed to me digging forward into the ice a little bit and it led to the toe pick.
“(Robertson) called me after the game, I said it was all good. You scored, so it’s all good. It was just a little accidental, or whatever. Nothing more than that.”
As Leafs coach Craig Berube indicated after the game — Nylander was kept out for precautionary reasons following the incident in the first period — the 28-year-old was feeling no lingering effects and was on the ice for practice on Friday at the Ford Performance Centre.
“It was a weird play,” Mitch Marner said. “I didn’t really see it at full speed (when it) happened. I just thought he fell and maybe pulled something on the push.
“It’s a scary situation when you get the neck cranked like that into a shin pad. It was great seeing him at the rink, great seeing him in good spirits.”
Most of the Leafs’ veterans are unlikely to play against the Canadiens in Montreal on Saturday in the club’s fourth of six preseason games, Nylander included.
CAPTAIN COMES BACK
Auston Matthews also was a full participant in practice after getting past a minor issue in his upper body.
“Feeling much better,” the Leafs captain said. “Just maintenance stuff. Nothing crazy, needed a couple days to let it settle down and feeling good now.”
Was his ailment a result of what has been an intense, driven camp?
“Maybe,” Matthews said. “Camp every year can be a bit of a shock to the system, no matter how much you skate or train in the summer. When you get into a competitive environment like this, practices have been long and hard, and it has been good, but sometimes stuff like that happens.”
KILLING TIME
The entire practice — a brisk 35 minutes — involving the main group was spent on special teams drills. It’s crucial as associate coach Lane Lambert gets the group in tune with how he wants to the penalty killers to go about their business.
“Pressure, a lot of pressure from the forwards,” Berube said of the approach. “The D have to be staying home, doing a good job around our net, have good sticks. But it’s more about the pressure, not letting teams have too much time with the puck. It’s a work in progress. We have to keep banging away at it.”
Berube used just about every forward on the kill during the drills.
“We’re all new here,” Berube said, referring to the majority of his coaching staff. “We want to see what guys can do in those situations, and how they react to certain things, stick details, and their minds, how they think.”
The Leafs were 23rd on the kill in the NHL last season. They have little choice but to be better in 2024-25, and Marner, one of the mainstays, likes Lambert’s approach.
“We have a lot of guys on our team that can move their feet very well and can read plays very well,” Marner said. “It’s trying to make people uncomfortable on the power play. I think guys will pick it up fairly quickly. (Lambert) has been great. He has been easy to talk to and learn from.”
INJURIES APLENTY
John Tavares was among a handful of players not on the ice on Friday.
He’s listed as day-to-day with a lower-body issue, something that was obvious on Thursday against the Canadiens when he had just two shifts in the third period.
“My leg was getting pretty stiff from a hit I took in the first,” Tavares said after the game. “It wasn’t so bad afterward, but throughout the second and especially in the third, it got really stiff. I didn’t have much. I told Craig I was just keeping them (shifts) short but he determined to give me the rest of the night off.”
With Tavares absent, Bobby McMann and Easton Cowan took turns in his spot on the top power-play unit.
Forwards Calle Jarnkrok (lower body), Alex Steeves (lower body) and Connor Dewar (shoulder), and defenceman Jani Hakanpaa (knee) also did not participate in practice.
Defenceman Dakota Mermis, looking to solidify a depth position on the blue line, is listed as week-to-week after undergoing jaw surgery on Thursday. Mermis was injured in practice earlier that day.
And defenceman Noah Chadwick, a sixth-round pick by Toronto in 2023, earlier in the week was returned to the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the Western Hockey League.
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