The Maple Leafs lost 3-2 to the Detroit Red Wings on Monday afternoon at Scotiabank Arena.
—
William Nylander may be tied for the team lead with four points, but coach Craig Berube believes the Leafs winger is not playing to his potential so far.
“Willy needs more shots,” Berube said after watching his team drop a second straight game to the Red Wings. “He needs to attack more, needs to shoot more. He’s got to get on the inside more.”
Nylander has landed just three shots on net through three regular-season games. The smooth-skating Swede averaged 3.1 shots per game last season en route to scoring a career-high 45 goals, which ranked second in the NHL.
“There’s shifts and times where he is skating,” said Berube. “But I just feel like it’s not enough. We need more out of him.”
Nylander assisted on Toronto’s opening goal in the opening-night win over the Montreal Canadiens. He also added an empty-net goal and an empty-net assist in the 5-2 victory. Nylander then picked up a secondary assist on a goal by Nicolas Roy in Detroit on Saturday night before being blanked in Monday’s rematch against the Wings.
It’s hard to pinpoint what’s causing the slow start by Nylander, who was also quiet during pre-season play with just one goal in three exhibition outings.
“I don’t know exactly what it is, to be honest with you,” Berube admitted. “But I’ll have a conversation with him and see where he’s at and what’s going on.”
In a bid to spark the second line and create more offensive-zone time, Berube moved playmaker Matias Maccelli to the unit with John Tavares and Nylander for Monday’s matinee.
“They were better,” Berube said. “They’re in the offensive zone a lot. They started in the offensive zone a lot. We still need more out of them. They got to score at some point. I still think they can be better and they will be better.”
Tavares has registered two assists and just four shots on net through three games.
Nylander didn’t exactly storm out of the gates last year. He was held off the scoresheet in the first two games of the 2024-25 season before scoring twice in the third game. He had five shots in those three games.
Should there be concerns with Nylander’s slow goal scoring start? William Nylander led the Maple Leafs in goal scoring last season, but sits with only one empty netter so far in three games this season. Should there be any concern for the winger? TSN’s Mark Masters has more on that, as well as the season debut of Easton Cowan.
—
Easton Cowan made an impressive NHL debut on Monday while logging most of his shifts on Toronto’s top line beside Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies. The 20-year-old even earned the chance to be on the ice in the final minute when the Leafs were pressing for the tying goal.
“He had a great game,” Berube said. “He made a lot of good plays with the puck. And he made a good one [at] 6-on-5 too. So that’s why he was out there.”
Matthews made a nice play to spring Matthews for a breakaway look in the third period.
“Phenomenal with his puck play,” Knies raved. “That pass to Matty for that breakaway, that’s pretty elite. He did a tremendous job in every zone. He played simple and made some great plays.”
“He just carries himself with such a good confidence … in the way that he can play and compete,” Matthews observed. “He played really well. Easy guy to play with.”
Matthews credited Cowan for good puck management and not trying to force things.
It would have been easy for the 2023 first round pick to get carried away or feel the pressure to produce. There was a sense of anticipation in the building for the debut of the organization’s top prospect.
The Scotiabank Arena DJ played the song ‘Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)’ as the kid nicknamed ‘Cowboy’ took his rookie lap to start warm-up. Cowan spotted his old teammates from the London Knights cheering him on from the stands. And the crowd popped when Cowan was announced as a starter as part of the top line.
But Cowan remained calm throughout his 14 minutes and eight seconds of ice time, which ranked fifth among Leafs forwards.
“I felt good,” he said. “I wasn’t really nervous at all. It was just another game.”
Cowan, who stands 6-foot, worked hard to add seven pounds of muscle during the summer. He weighed in at 190 pounds at camp.
“They were trying to rub him out a couple times and he stood his ground,” noted goalie Anthony Stolarz. “You can definitely see the maturity and definitely the growth in terms of his size and his weight. I think he put on a couple pounds and he looks the part now.”
It’s been a rapid rise for Cowan, who led the Knights to a Memorial Cup title last season.
“It’s pretty crazy,” he said. “About five years ago I was playing Junior B, so it just shows if you stick with it and work hard, good things will come, so I’m just going to keep doing that. Felt good today, but back at it tomorrow and hopefully get the two points.”
NHL: Red Wings 3, Maple Leafs 2 After Matthew Knies scored and assisted to tie the game in the third period for the Maple Leafs, Mason Appleton sniped the game winner with under a minute left to help Detroit sweep the home-and-home series with Toronto. Cam Talbot was a rock, stopping 39 shots in the victory.
—
After the Leafs lost 6-3 on Saturday in Detroit, Berube was looking for a response and, for the most part, he got it on Monday.
“It was a good solid 60 minutes in my opinion,” the coach said. “I thought we controlled the play. Plenty of opportunities to score, didn’t go in enough, I mean, that’s the bottom line. And probably shouldn’t have gave up the 2-on-1 goal.”
Former Leaf James van Riemsdyk scored off an odd-man rush early in the third period to give the Wings a 2-0 lead. Off a scrambled offensive-zone draw, Tavares attempted to pass the puck to defenceman Brandon Carlo at the point but Andrew Copp intercepted it and sprang van Riemsdyk.
The Leafs ended up outshooting the Wings 40-15.
“That’s definitely more of the style of play and the way we want to compete through 60 minutes and type a game that we want to play,” Matthews said. “It was a good hockey game. I thought we played well. There’s going to be nights like that where you just come up on the wrong side of it, but I think there’s lots that we can take from this game and build on.”
Matthews, who fired a game-highregular-season eight shots on net, credited veteran Wings goalie Cam Talbot.
Knies, though, wasn’t interested in praising his opponent or letting his own team off the hook.
“We need to play a full 60 minutes,” the 22-year-old winger said. “We can’t let it break down, especially in the last few minutes of a period, of a game. That’s unacceptable by us and I think we just need to play simpler at those times of the game, manage the clock a little bit better.”
The Leafs roared back to tie the game 2-2 in the third, but Toronto’s top line was on the ice in the final minute when Mason Appleton scored the decisive goal.
Knies also highlighted a too many men penalty in the second period as a mistake that shouldn’t be happening.
“We’re just finding our rhythm here,” Knies explained. “I think we’re going to clean everything up, you know, watch some video and just stick to our structure and hopefully it’ll figure itself out here. We have an unbelievable leadership group and a lot of veterans on the team so I think we can find our rhythm and get back on track.”
—
As was the case on Saturday, the Leafs power play went 0/2 on Monday. Toronto is now 0/6 on the season.
“It’s been a little inconsistent,” Matthews acknowledged. “I thought the other night in Detroit we were pretty good. I take that penalty there that just kind of killed the momentum [on their first chance].”
Two of Toronto’s power plays have been abbreviated chances that didn’t last the full two minutes.
“I didn’t think we generated enough opportunities to get power plays,” Matthews continued. “I think just being better with the puck in the O-zone, hanging on to it and trying to draw more penalties so we get more opportunities [will help us] kind of get more in a rhythm.”
—
Veteran winger Calle Jarnkrok scored in a third straight game.
“He’s working his tail off,” Knies said. “He’s always got the puck on his stick and he’s ripping it on net really good. He’s finding the right spots on the ice.”
After returning from sports hernia and groin surgery, Jarnkrok scored just once in 31 games down the stretch last season.
“He’s healthy and he’s skating well,” Matthews said. “He’s always going to be one of the hardest working guys on the ice and puts himself in good spots. And he’s got a really good shot, really good release. When [he’s] got a little bit of time to get it off, he’s going to make you pay, and he’s been doing that. I think that line’s been playing really well for us, just keeping it simple and grinding down the other team.”
Jarnkrok skated on the fifth line for most of training camp and looked destined to start the season as a healthy scratch. However, an injury sustained by Scott Laughton late in training camp led Berube to juggle his lines and the 34-year-old Swede has found a nice fit alongside Roy.
“He goes out every shift and it’s just work,” said Berube. “That’s his game. And he’s in the right spot and capitalizing on some goals, which is great. It’s great to get that secondary scoring from guys. So, he’s played really well.”
Jarnkrok is the only Leafs player with multiple goals this season.
—
Steven Lorentz missed Monday’s game after sustaining an upper-body injury in Detroit. Berube revealed that the winger skated in the morning and may be able to return to the lineup for Tuesday’s game against the Nashville Predators.
—
Leafs lines to start Monday’s game:
Knies – Matthews – Cowan
Maccelli – Tavares – Nylander
Robertson – Domi – McMann
Joshua – Roy – Jarnkrok
McCabe – Tanev
Rielly – Carlo
Benoit – Ekman-Larsson
Stolarz
Primeau