From kristen_shilton: Fired up Nylander aims to become dominant Leaf when play resumes:
TORONTO —When the COVID-19 pandemic cut short the NHL’s regular season in March, it also halted what was swiftly becoming the best season ofBut he's not feeling slighted. Rather, Nylander is using that success to fuel his ultimate goal of becoming a bona fide playoff performer for the Maple Leafs, when they embark on another postseason run in Phase 4 of the NHL’s return to play plan next month.
Through 68 games before the pause, Nylander put up 59 points and a career-high 31 goals, placing him second only toIt was all a triumphant return to form for Nylander, who cobbled together a forgettable 27-point season in 2018-19 after missing the Leafs’ first 28 games embroiled in a contract stalemate. But while the 24-year-old will never know now just how inflated his recent stats could have become, he’ll still take valuable lessons from the pandemic-shortened year into Toronto’s playoff push.
“I think we played probably about 45 [tennis] matches,” Nylander laughed. “And I think he was up one or two [games] there when we left Florida so it was a pretty tight [competition]. It was a long time ago since we spent that much time together. We had a blast. We were playing video games, playing tennis every day, so it was lots of fun.”
“That [line combination] is how we finished, just before the pause,” Keefe explained. “We had made that switch, so I felt strongly enough about it at that time [to revisit it]. That said, it's about two weeks [we have] here. I expect to move things around a little bit here and just try different things and get guys comfortable with each other and renew some chemistry so I expect it to move around a fair bit.
In Tuesday’s session, Keefe actually had two linesmen and a referee on the ice during special teams scrimmages, adding some realism to the power play and penalty kill work.
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