BOSTON — At this point, it’s easier to ascertain the factors that didn’t lead to William Nylander’s mystery injury than the ones that did.
In speaking with multiple sources briefed on the situation, word is that the Toronto Maple Leafs winger wasn’t playing through any significant ailments during a closing stretch of the regular season in which he produced just four points (all assists) in 11 games, finishing shy of the 100-point milestone with 98.
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The issue is also said not to have cropped up as the result of some kind of off-ice incident, like a game of two-touch soccer gone wrong or whatever other conspiracy theories might be floating around out there.
Still, there isn’t a whole lot of clarity to be found, either on or off the record, about what did happen.
If he was able to play all 82 regular-season games, including a lengthy shift that bled into the final minute of Wednesday’s finale in Tampa, and there was no off-ice incident, what forced him to sit out Game 1 of the playoffs against the Boston Bruins on Saturday?
Per the sources, he is said to have woken up with an issue that needed attention Thursday morning and remained “pretty stiff” when the series got underway more than 48 hours later. There’s no evidence Nylander even came to TD Garden on game day as he wasn’t spotted walking off either of the team buses in the morning or late afternoon.
Fortunately for the Leafs, there was a Nylander sighting at Warrior Ice Arena on Sunday. He was the first player to take the ice — as he’s wont to do — before a 1:30 p.m. skate featuring the Game 1 scratches: Noah Gregor, TJ Brodie, Mark Giordano, Conor Timmins, prospect Cade Webber and goaltenders Martin Jones and Joseph Woll.
That was shortly after teammate Jake McCabe told reporters at the team hotel that Nylander “seemed to be in good spirits today,” but there wasn’t much joy to be found in the work he was doing inside the Bruins practice rink.
Nylander looked to be laboring, especially early in the session, and misfired entirely on a couple of shot attempts while the ice sheet was still freshly resurfaced. He wasn’t moving with his normal fluidity and frequently hunched over while regrouping along the boards between drills. He had Giordano feed him passes to practice one-timers and went through a series of puck-touch drills under the supervision of assistant coaches Manny Malhotra and Dean Chynoweth.
This was the first time Nylander had been spotted on the ice since the buzzer sounded on Wednesday’s 6-4 loss to the Lightning. He accompanied teammates to the practice rink Friday but didn’t skate alongside them, with head coach Sheldon Keefe telling reporters, “(General manager Brad Treliving) has made it pretty clear to me that there will not be daily injury updates or anything like that.”
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Keefe has held firm to that edict, twice responding to Nylander-related questions on Sunday by saying, “No updates on Willy.”
Whether Nylander will feel limber enough to return for Game 2 on Monday night remains unclear. How his body responds to the Sunday skate is crucial.
It would seem to be an encouraging sign that he lasted longer than any of his teammates while remaining out for 56 minutes. He appeared to get more comfortable and loose as the session went on. Nylander finished his work by taking a series of breakaways on Woll and raised a fist in celebration after scoring on his last attempt.
Getting him back in the lineup would be a big boost after a 5-1 loss to Boston in the opener, with the Leafs having difficulty getting through the neutral zone cleanly and establishing a sustained offensive attack. Nylander is an elite transporter of the puck who often gains the blue line with ease.
“Willy does so many great things for us,” McCabe said. “Obviously he can create by himself, frankly, and seemingly on out-of-nothing plays. He’s a threat all over the ice offensively for us and he kills penalties for us, too.”
He’s also not a player the Leafs have had to get accustomed to playing without. Saturday’s game was just the second he’d missed due to injury in a 653-game NHL career, and the first since November 2016.
There’s an expectation that he’ll be ready to play at some point during this series, per the sources, but every additional game he might potentially have to miss would be a blow for the Leafs.
Nylander is known for elevating his play during the postseason and this looks like a series where they’ll need all of the big dogs pulling on the rope. Nylander is also coming off the best year of his career — one where he was counted on to shoulder a heavier load personally.
And after being a mainstay all year, it can’t be any fun being on the outside of this series looking in.
(Photo of William Nylander and Luke Hughes: Elsa / Getty Images)