Berube appeared to be yelling at Nylander on the bench after Toronto allowed two goals in less than a minute during the second period.
Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube wasn't happy after the team gave up their third goal to the Ottawa Senators.
The Maple Leafs couldn't generate anything on Tuesday night, getting shut out 3-0 at home for the first time since Nov. 20, 2021, against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Berube tried everything — even switching up the lines and having a trio of John Tavares, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander — but didn't get a spark.
"It was not a good game for us. There wasn't much good to talk about in the game overall," Toronto's head coach said. "We got out-skated. They wanted it more than us. That's the bottom line."
One part of the game that caught the attention of many was Berube's interaction with William Nylander shortly after Ottawa's third goal.
After Jake McCabe's shot went wide, no Maple Leafs player could pick up the puck. Ottawa's Artem Zub sent the puck around the boards and McCabe pinched at the blue line, which created a partial two-on-one for the Senators.
Michael Amadio beat Anthony Stolarz, making their lead over Toronto even larger.
A few minutes later, Berube was seen shouting down his bench at what appeared to be Nylander. The 28-year-old forward, who played the most among Toronto's forwards on Tuesday (21:48), looked back at his head coach before glancing back onto the ice.
In the past, Nylander has welcomed the criticism. Former Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe was often hard on the forward, always pushing him for more.
With Berube, it's been nothing different.
The two have been in constant communication and it seems like they're having conversations before or after nearly every practice. On Oct. 31, Nylander mentioned that he wanted more ice time and that the discussions at practice are what that's about.
But he enjoys hearing what the head coach wants from him.
"I mean, you just hear him talking. I don't see what he's doing back there or whatever, but I think it's great," Nylander said after the game. "Sometimes it's called for and the team needs a little bit of a wake-up call. That's great."
Nylander was also on the ice for Toronto's first goal against where he turned the puck over at Ottawa's blue line, resulting in them coming the other way and beating Stolarz.
"Willy showed bursts of things. He had the puck and did some things. But I'm not going to get into all of that, about why he wasn't at practice the other day or any of this," Berube said on Tuesday when asked if Nylander's play might've had to do with him missing practice a day earlier.
"He was fine to play. That's the bottom line."
The good thing about back-to-backs is being able to forget about it and move on. Toronto plays in Washington against the Capitals on Wednesday, and with how they played against Ottawa, there likely isn't much to take from their loss.
"I mean, it wasn't good. The other games we lost, I mean, there was different situations in the other games," Berube said bluntly.
"But tonight, we didn't have control of the game at all."