All the buildup and apprehension that this series might look like when the Leafs were trounced by the Panthers two years ago dissipated rather quickly when William Nylander ripped two pucks past Sergei Bobrovsky in the first 13 minutes of Game 1 on Monday night.
Nylander followed up that brilliant performance with another huge goal in Game 2, scoring on a play maybe a handful of players in the world could convert on in that situation.
He now has six goals and 13 points in eight games, trailing only Dallas’ Mikko Rantanen leaguewide in the scoring race. Nylander is doing things that haven’t happened in Toronto in a very, very long time, including 1.63 points per game, which is the best for a Leaf in the playoffs since Doug Gilmour in 1993. (Which, let’s just say, a few people remember in these parts.)
“There is no too big a stage for this guy,” coach Craig Berube said. “He thrives on this stuff. He looks forward to it. He wants to be in all of those critical situations.”
And it’s not just this year. Nylander has pulled away from the other members of the Core Four in general in playoff production, with 21 goals in the last five postseasons. It’s a nearly 50-goal pace over 82 games and eight better than anyone else for Toronto.
Among NHL players with at least 30 playoff games played in that span, only Nathan MacKinnon has a better goal-per-game average.
There aren’t any demons here.