William Nylander

[IPS]

Let me know when that is the case on the Leafs.

Well the Matthews-Marner line should certainly at least be the one part of the structure that should be soundly in place, so when they fail why is Nylander's defensive game suddenly so important?

 

[BraveCanadian]

Well the Matthews-Marner line should certainly at least be the one part of the structure that should be soundly in place, so when they fail why is Nylander's defensive game suddenly so important?

Cause he by necessity plays on a different line if M&M are together? Are you daft?

Having good defense on one line means everyone else can just do whatever???

 

[IPS]

Cause he by necessity plays on a different line if M&M are together? Are you daft?

M&M ain't doing nearly what they should be doing in the playoffs buddy.

This is the very first year Nylander is finally in their pay grade, all the other years he was paid significantly less. Your misplaced blame continues to look sillier and sillier. Atleast this year if they bomb out your criticisms will finally have some validity eh?

 

[GoonieFace]

Kopitar, Bergeron and Toews held the value they did because they provided that game as the #1C. It simply does not work that way with wingers.

Marner reminds me of the kid playing shortstop, but has to run all over the infield to try and make plays. Being a defensive winger is easy, especially when you hang out with your own defenceman most of the time in the offensive zone

 

[ACC1224]

Cause he by necessity plays on a different line if M&M are together? Are you daft?

Having good defense on one line means everyone else can just do whatever???

It's crazy all the excuses that gets put up for Nylander.
As the 2nd highest paid player he should be held to a much higher standard.

 

[BraveCanadian]

M&M ain't doing nearly what they should be doing in the playoffs buddy.

This is the very first year Nylander is finally in their pay grade, all the other years he was paid significantly less. Your misplaced blame continues to look sillier and sillier. Atleast this year if they bomb out your criticisms will finally have some validity eh?

Oh yes the Nylander wasn't trying hard because he was only being paid 7 million dollars a year to play hockey excuse.. ok. Byyyyee.

 

[IPS]

Oh yes the Nylander wasn't trying hard because he was only being paid 7 million dollars a year to play hockey excuse.. ok. Byyyyee.

Yeah go ahead and completely miss the point again before you peace out

I'm pretty confident I conveyed my stance well. As I said - if we bomb out again this year go ahead and go stir crazy on the Willy critcisims since he's finally paid at M&M 's level.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Generally I agree. However, anyone with eyeballs can see how Nylander cheats for offense, and is generally awful in his own zone when he occasionally goes there.

Anyone with eyeballs can see how many of the Leafs forwards, including Marner, Matthews, and JT, cheat for offence (Nylander is more noticeable because he's faster and more successful), which is a large part of why the defence struggles to clear the zone.

 

[Menzinger]

He definitely does but it's comical how much you guys blow it out of proportion.

Patrick Kane was generally terrible at defence too but it never got focused on becasue all the other amazing things he did. I didn't see any Blackhawks fans running around claiming Hossa was superior cause of how much better his defensive game was.

I think few would ever claim Nylander is great defensively, he certainly won't ever be nominated for a Selke, but the narrative around his poor defensive play reaches absurd levels of exaggeration. As you rightly point out, most star wingers are very much one-way offensive first players, with the odd exception like Hossa.

The coaches are lucky that Nylander doesn't ever let ego disrupt plans to move him around the lineup - doesn't complain about needing to play with specific linemates, just goes out there and makes things happen with what he's given