William Nylander's muted reaction said more than the goal itself
Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
William Nylander's lack of excitement after breaking his goalscoring slump is drawing discussion from analysts.
Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander broke an 11 game goalless streak on Tuesday after scoring two goals against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the team that began his slump dating back to November 29th.
But while Nylander got back on the goal sheet, and doing so with a big four point night, Nylander didn't seem very ecstatic on the ice following his big night.
Nylander was fairly muted in response to scoring, high-fiving his teammates but not overly emotional in response to the much awaited goal, and some analysts are taking note.
William Nylander's lack of emotion to breaking goalscoring slump discussed
William Nylander's lack of interest in celebrating breaking his goal slump is one that one analyst views as less of a positive for Nylander having to break.
As former NHLer Mike Johnson outlines, the view in his opinion is less that Nylander would be happy to break from his goalscoring drought, but annoyed that he got into such a hole in the first place.
There's no doubt he scored a goal last night of beauty, right?
The breakaway, bumps a slump, stone faced, and..not smiling, not celebrating with the group, just sort of skates to the bench.
My take on it from a player who fashioned himself as like one quarter of the offensive player going Nylander was, he is embarrassed that he has been so unproductive in the month of December.
And so, when he scores, he can go one to two ways he can celebrate wildly, monkey off the back, «look at me now», or he can be like, I can't believe it took that long, I'm embarrassed, let's just get back to work.
And I take that as a guy. Like, if I would have gone seven games without a goal, me not Willie, me, and I scored the eighth game, I would not be celebrating wildly, o'd be like, let's get back to work.
I'm glad that's over, but I'm a little embarrassed that it went on as long as it did, that's how I interpreted it. - Mike Johnson
The breakaway, bumps a slump, stone faced, and..not smiling, not celebrating with the group, just sort of skates to the bench.
My take on it from a player who fashioned himself as like one quarter of the offensive player going Nylander was, he is embarrassed that he has been so unproductive in the month of December.
And so, when he scores, he can go one to two ways he can celebrate wildly, monkey off the back, «look at me now», or he can be like, I can't believe it took that long, I'm embarrassed, let's just get back to work.
And I take that as a guy. Like, if I would have gone seven games without a goal, me not Willie, me, and I scored the eighth game, I would not be celebrating wildly, o'd be like, let's get back to work.
I'm glad that's over, but I'm a little embarrassed that it went on as long as it did, that's how I interpreted it. - Mike Johnson
Nylander's goalscoring bounceback a reminder it can't happen again
While William Nylander broke free of a month long dry-up goal wise, him scoring isn't a celebratory one, it's a reminder of the fact he can't let it happen.
The Leafs need scoring beyond Auston Matthews, who himself has not been at his best with just 14 goals in 31 games this season, putting more pressure on players like Nylander to step up.
Getting offense from the Leafs stars are crucial to their success, especially for a team like Toronto with a strong group of star forwards that can contribute offensively, and paid well to do so.
For William Nylander, after a month of struggling to find the back of the net, his two goals against Pittsburgh were also a wake-up call that he needs to have more consistency finding the back of the net.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 25 | 1532 ANSWERS William Nylander's muted reaction said more than the goal itself Was William Nylander's four point night a one-off or him returning to superstar form? | ||
| One-off performance | 717 | 46.8 % |
| Return to form | 815 | 53.2 % |
| List of polls | ||