The Maple Leafs held a practice at Ford Performance Centre on Wednesday.
The Leafs are sliding down the standings and William Nylander is taking heat for his performance. The star winger insists he’s unfazed by all the chatter in Toronto.
“I’ve been here for 10 years,” he said. “I mean, people have been saying I’m going to get traded for the majority of it, so it is what it is.”
Nylander has generated just one power-play goal during Toronto’s four-game losing streak and was asked how he’s handling the slump.
“Slump? I mean, I scored against Montreal [on Saturday],” he said with a smile. “So, it’s not that slumpy. Yeah, I want to score, I want to produce, but having a tough time finding those chances. I mean, it’s tough when I don’t have the puck on my stick to do anything offensively, so that’s where you got to start.”
Nylander is spending too much time in his own end where the puck is going in a lot. He is minus-seven during the team’s four-game skid and has now been on the ice for more even-strength goals against (25) than any other NHL forward this season.
“I got to try to get the puck more on my stick,” Nylander said. “I mean, I’m skating around there with no puck on my stick, so that makes it hard to generate. But, I mean, you know, trying to work without the puck, that’s what you can do when you don’t have the puck on your stick.”
Jim Hiller acknowledges that Nylander can play better, but isn’t being overly critical right now.
“He’s trying,” the head coach stressed. “I think what happens to a lot of us is we get in our own head a little bit. He wants to do well for the team. His heart’s in the right place. He knows he’s not playing his best. That’s obvious. He wants to and we just got to help him try to clear it out and just free himself and get him out there just skating and playing. I think he’s maybe overthinking a little bit right now. That’s what I see.”
Nylander was minus-four in Tuesday’s 6-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche and, for the first time this season, was held without a shot on goal.
“Last night is just one of those nights where that’s just what happens,” he said. “Just want to focus on the next game.”
The Leafs will host the Minnesota Wild, who sit second overall in the NHL standings, on Thursday.
Despite the recent dry spell, Nylander is tied for the team lead with 11 goals and sits second on the Leafs with 22 points.
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John Tavares feels he can do more to support his longtime linemate.
“No one expects more of himself than Willy,” the 36-year-old centre said. “Very driven. One of the best game breakers in the league. On me to play better myself and to get more out of him and for us play at the level we’re capable of.”
Tavares is minus-six and has failed to hit the scoresheet in three games since returning from a lower-body injury.
“It’s difficult to evaluate John after being out for a month,” said Hiller. “We threw him in the lineup. We’re banged up and we’re making him play a lot of minutes coming off an injury, right? And he has hardly practised with the team. So, that’s going to be part of it for sure ... They’ll work their way out of it. They’re world-class players. We have full trust and belief in them.”
“I’m not too worried about it,” Nylander said. “I mean, John’s coming back off of being injured and started on the wing and we adjusted our systems a little bit. So, I mean, I’m not too worried about it.”
Nick Paul skated as the centre on the second line between Tavares and Nylander on Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens. Tavares shifted back to the middle on Sunday against the New Jersey Devils as rookie Gavin McKenna joined the line.
With forwards Colton Sissons (lower body) and Kirill Marchenko (lower body) sidelined, Hiller has less flexibility when it comes to shaking things up. The coach is understandably reluctant to tinker with the top line (Auston Matthews between Easton Cowan and Jack Roslovic) which has performed well. Cowan and Roslovic both scored against the Avalanche.
The Leafs called up Ryan Tverberg from the American Hockey League on Tuesday and played him with Tavares and Nylander. That trio remained together at Wednesday’s practice.
“I think Tverberg helped them,” Hiller said. “I really liked Tverberg’s game last night. If you guys watched, he was in on the forecheck. So, I’m hoping that that’s going to translate into more O-zone time from them. Get John back up to speed and then we’re talking about how good they are in the O-zone instead of what they’re doing in the D zone.”
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Zack MacEwen left Tuesday’s game favouring his wrist and the gritty winger did not take part in practice.
“Got better as the day went along today,” Hiller said. “We’ll see how he’s doing tomorrow. Not much of an update.”
MacEwen cracked the Leafs lineup thanks to a strong training camp and has formed an effective fourth line with Teddy Blueger and Brandon Duhaime.
“Not ideal,” Duhaime said of the injury. “You know, line is doing good. He competes every night, and it’s not great to see him go down there.”
MacEwen is second on the team in hits per 60 this season.
The Leafs do not have an extra forward on the roster right now. Defenceman Cole McWard skated on the fourth line as a placeholder for MacEwen at practice.
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Marchenko skated in a tracksuit prior to Leafs practice. It’s the first time he’s been spotted on the ice since suffering a lower-body injury on Oct. 26 in Calgary. He continues to be listed as week-to-week.
The Leafs have lost six of seven games dating back to the game in Calgary.
Defenceman Nick Blankenburg, who has been out since suffering an upper-body injury on Oct. 22, also skated before practice. He also remains listed as week-to-week.
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Canadiens defenceman Arber Xhekaj is upset with a gloveless punch Duhaime threw at Kirby Dach during a scrum in the third period on Saturday night.
“Two-on-one and that guy punched him without a glove on,” Xhekaj told reporters in Montreal earlier this week. “I didn’t see that until the end. I got fined for punching a guy in the face last year with a glove on, never mind a glove off, so that pissed me off, and I’ll remember that one.”
The scrum started after Xhekaj went hard to the net and bumped Jake McCabe after Sergei Bobrovsky made a save. Duhaime and Blueger were engaged with Dach, who threw a punch at Blueger.
“He crashed the net, and obviously he knows what he’s doing there, starting a scrum,” Duhaime said. “Then I see my boy get popped so, you know, it is what it is. It’s a scrum and we stick together.”
What does Duhaime think of Xhekaj’s comment?
“Just let him talk and [we’ll] just focus on our group and what we got to do to win games.”
The Leafs and Canadiens next face off on Boxing Day in Montreal.
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Bobrovsky usually stays off the ice the day after playing a game, but the 38-year-old participated in Wednesday’s practice. These are unusual times for the two-time Vezina Trophy winner who has lost five straight in regulation for the first time since October 2015.
Bobrovsky was not available to the media on Wednesday, but was asked about his losing streak on Tuesday night.
“Definitely you don’t want to be in it, but it is what it is,” he said. “Again, one shot. I’m focused on the moment, on the things that I can control, and I try to give the best chance [to the] team to win.”
Bobrovsky is 3-8-2 with an .881 save percentage on the season.
Bobrovsky allowed five goals on 27 shots on Tuesday, but felt Colorado’s second score could have been disallowed. Nicolas Roy drove the net hard and bumped into Bobrovsky, which gave Gabriel Landeskog an opening to score.
“Yeah, I was moved away, so I couldn’t recover for the second shot,” Bobrovsky said. “So, I don’t know. Again, I trust the coaches that they are looking the video. You know, they have different camera angles, and I try to focus again on one shot.”
Hiller contemplated challenging, but ultimately decided it was not worth the risk.
“It was pretty clear that it’s not a high probability that they’re going to overturn,” Hiller explained. “It’s just that simple. It’s all based on probability and the exact type of situation.”
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The Leafs shuffled their bottom two defence pairs at practice as Troy Stecher moved up to skate beside Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Chris Tanev shifted down to the third pair with Dakota Mermis.
“I wouldn’t read too much into it,” Hiller cautioned. “We’re always just doing different things for different reasons. Sometimes some guys will take fewer reps. They’ve got to penalty kill. Some guys have got the power play. There are different things some days that we plan on based on practice that shift those guys around.”
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Cowan leads the Leafs with seven hits in the last two games.
“I think that just comes with playing simple,” the 6-foot winger said of the uptick in physicality. “I’m just trying to play hard and when you have a couple hits in a game, it just gets you into it. So I tried to do that in the first shift there and I felt like it got me into the game.”
Cowan snapped a four-game point drought on Tuesday and matched a season high with four shots on net.
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Lines at Wednesday’s practice:
Cowan - Matthews - Roslovic
Tverberg - Tavares - Nylander
McKenna - Paul - Joshua
Duhaime - Blueger - McWard
McCabe - Raddysh
Ekman-Larsson - Stecher
Mermis - Tanev
Bobrovsky
Stolarz
Power play units at Wednesday’s practice:
PP1
Raddysh, Matthews, Roslovic, Nylander, Tavares
PP2
Ekman-Larsson, Tverberg, Paul, Cowan, McKenna