It’s the middle of July, so The Leafs Nation are recapping the best goals of the 2024-25 season. We started this series yesterday by looking back on Philippe Myers’ wondergoal against the Detroit Red Wings, and if you missed it, few would blame you for skipping the final game of the regular season. Today, we’re focusing on a goal that few Leafs fans would’ve skipped last year.
William Nylander was a constant force for the Maple Leafs. When the team found itself on losing streaks, Nylander was the cool, calm and collected superstar stating ‘good teams find their way out’ which often rang prophetic. Toronto’s power play struggled badly through the opening stages of the regular season, stumbling into a 3-for-38 clip. It was too formulaic, relying on an initial drop pass that teams readily anticipated, setting up their base defence cleanly. And while Nylander likely isn’t paying too much attention to the critical press, he responded with an emphatic goal against the Montreal Canadiens on November 9.
Nylander picked up the puck and flew through the neutral zone, as the Leafs held onto a 1-0 lead early in the second period. Instead of dropping the puck back to the point man, in this case, Morgan Rielly, Nylander continued straight to the net and the Canadiens couldn’t get set. Nylander breezed past Jake Evans and made light work of a Lane Hutson stick-check, before ripping the puck into the cage for a 2-0 lead. It was a remarkable goal against the Leafs’ historical rival and a pathway towards a more direct power play, that eventually connected at a 24.8 percent clip, the ninth-best rate in the NHL.
This goal headlined an excellent performance from Nylander overall, where he kept the Canadiens’ defence on its heels, while recording a game-high seven shots. And you could argue that Nylander recorded a superior goal against the Canadiens later in the season, where he outmuscled Hutson and tied the game in the third period on the road, in a stunning January 17 comeback, where the Maple Leafs rallied from a 3-0 deficit to record seven unanswered goals in the winning effort.
Nylander makes the game look so simple when he’s at his best, and the Canadiens received a front-row view of his tremendous skill set, ability to weave through traffic and get his dynamic shot off, throughout the 2024-25 season.
