William Nylander says Auston Matthews Drew Up Maple Leafs Play for Goal in First 9 Seconds Against Blackhawks

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been letting their stars be more active in calling plays and Wednesday it led to one of the team’s fastest goals to start a game.

William Nylander wasted no time in scoring the opening goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday.

The goal was scored just nine seconds into the contest and Nylander moved into a tie for fourth for the fastest goal scored in Leafs history.

It turns out, it was Auston Matthews who came up with the play off the faceoff that led to the goal. 

"We just talked about it in the locker room that this is what we were going to try and do," Nylander said. 

The goal was also Nylander's team-leading 30th of the season.

Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said he's been encouraging his players to take more an active approach in some of the schemes during plays. A constant this season has been seeing Maple Leafs players huddle up before every faceoff to discuss how they will approach everything after the draw.

"We've been talking to our guys a lot about taking charge, a lot of these guys have been playing together for a long time," Keefe said. "They have a sense of what the structure is. They know what they can do and they get the information for faceoffs but they have a lot of flexibility to call plays."

Three of Toronto's top four forwards (Matthews, Nylander and Mitch Marner) have played together for seven seasons. Add John Tavares in that mix and that core of played together for five seasons.

Matthews returned after missing nearly three weeks with a knee sprain and his impact was evident, not just in the play call for Nylander but in scoring his own goal.