William Nylander makes surprise admission about his shorthanded goal against Columbus
The Toronto Maple Leafs earned themselves a crucial victory heading into the Christmas break after dispatching the Columbus Blue Jackets by a score of 4-1. Martin Jones has become a pillar in goal with Ilya Samsonov struggling, while the big guns flexed their skill last night with 2 goals coming from Auston Matthews and 1 apiece from John Tavares and William Nylander.
The Maple Leafs were up 3-1 midway through the third period before Max Domi was sent to the sin bin for a high sticking minor. Rather than clawing their way back into the game, the Blue Jackets coughed up the puck and allowed Nylander and T.J. Brodie to skate out on a 2-on-1 shorthanded.
With Ivan Provorov the last man back, Nylander looked at Brodie who had a lot of open ice to work with before flexing his stick and firing a perfect seed of a shot past goaltender Daniil Tarasov. It was Nylander's 16th goal of the season.
After the game Nylander was asked what his mindset was on the odd-man rush and whether or not he was thinking about passing it off to Brodie - who had 0 goals on the season entering last night's tilt. Nylander admitted that he was thinking pass the whole way, but when the opening came to shoot the puck, he did so without any hesitation.
Nylander was definitely thinking pass after he waited patiently while flexing his stick in anticipation of either Tarasov or Provorov to blink first. However, the Swedish winger did the right thing by firing it himself as he gave the Maple Leafs a 3-goal lead with just a shade over 8 minutes to play.
Source: NHL.com
