Nylander played in all 82 regular season games this season but missed the club's first postseason game with an unknown injury,
Nylander played in all 82 regular season games this season but missed the club's first postseason game with an unknown injury,
BOSTON — As he has promised since the beginning of the series, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe provided no lineup updates for his club following his team's 5-1 loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
That policy extended to William Nylander, who missed the contest with an unknown ailment, after playing in all 82 regular season games.
"No updates on William," Keefe said when asked if the player has been able to at least skate.
How about how the player is holding up after having to miss his first game due to injury since 2016?
"No updates on Willy," he reiterated.
The Leafs did not take the ice for practice on Sunday before taking on the Bruins for Game 2 at TD Garden on Monday. Instead, they elected to look at footage of the game and do much of their prep from their hotel.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ecE8EIIkPE[/embed]
UPDATE: Nylander was spotted joining the other Leafs scratches on the ice for a highly-optional skate at Warrior Ice Arena in Boston.
Nylander's absence in Game 1 was felt by his teammates.
"I mean Willy does so many great things for us," Maple Leafs defenseman Jake McCabe said of Nylander. "Obviously he can create by himself frankly and seemingly out-of-nothing plays and he's a threat all over the ice offensively for us and he kills penalties for us too. So he's a good leader for us in the room."
The defenseman probably provided the best insight as to how Nylander is feeling.
"Yeah he's seemed to be in good spirits today so I'm not going to speak too much on it," McCabe said.
Nylander scored 40 goals for the second consecutive season in 2023-24 and he recorded a career-high 98 points. Adding increased penalty kill duties, the Leafs could have used him on both special teams units on Saturday after having gone 0-for-3 on the power play while allowing two Boston power-play goals.
"He's a huge part of our team," Ryan Reaves said of Nylander. "A guy who can put the puck in the net, a guy who can break out the puck by himself, he can carry the play, does a little bit of everything.
"You need those guys on the ice, especially in the playoffs. So yeah, he's missed. I don't know what his status is, hopefully he's ready to go. You want a healthy group for sure."
After a hot start to this past season, the Maple Leafs signed Nylander to an eight-year, $92 million contract extension.
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