{"id":433548,"date":"2026-01-26T03:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T03:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/433548\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T03:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T03:44:07","slug":"toronto-maple-leafs-william-nylander-apologizes-for-flipping-middle-finger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/433548\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Maple Leafs\u2019 William Nylander apologizes for flipping middle finger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/toronto-maple-leafs\/10\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/toronto-maple-leafs\/10\" target=\"_blank\">Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/william-nylander\/8477939\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/william-nylander\/8477939\" target=\"_blank\">William Nylander<\/a> has apologized for what he called a \u201cmoment of frustration\u201d after making an obscene gesture during Sunday\u2019s game against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/colorado-avalanche\/21\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/colorado-avalanche\/21\" target=\"_blank\">Colorado Avalanche<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201conly love for leafs nation. sorry about my moment of frustration today! didn\u2019t mean to upset anyone. looking forward to being back on the ice and not in the stands. love willy,\u201d the Leafs star said as part of a post on Instagram after Sunday\u2019s 4-1 loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">However, TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston reports that the NHL is looking into the incident and that it\u2019s possible Nylander will face punishment. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The NHL is looking at this William Nylander incident, per sources. It&#8217;s possible the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/leafs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#leafs<\/a> forward will face punishment for flipping the middle finger at the broadcast camera during today&#8217;s game. <\/p>\n<p>Nylander has since apologized, calling it a &#8220;moment of frustration.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rmitPYDyd2\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/rmitPYDyd2<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/reporterchris\/status\/2015617387471548841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 26, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">With the Leafs trailing the NHL-leading Avalanche 3-0 early in the third period, a TSN camera panned to an injured Nylander sitting in a booth with teammates <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/chris-tanev\/8475690\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/chris-tanev\/8475690\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Tanev<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/dakota-joshua\/8478057\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/dakota-joshua\/8478057\" target=\"_blank\">Dakota Joshua<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/calle-jarnkrok\/8475714\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/calle-jarnkrok\/8475714\" target=\"_blank\">Calle Jarnkrok<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/philippe-myers\/8479026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/philippe-myers\/8479026\" target=\"_blank\">Philippe Myers<\/a>. Nylander then briefly flashed the middle finger before the camera panned back toward the ice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Including Sunday\u2019s contest, Nylander has missed the previous five games with a groin injury. Toronto\u2019s loss Sunday afternoon was their fourth home loss in a row and their sixth defeat in seven games. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Nylander has 17 goals and 31 assists for 48 points in 37 games so far this season while playing 18:33 a night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Toronto (24-19-9) will be back in action on Tuesday against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/buffalo-sabres\/7\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/buffalo-sabres\/7\" target=\"_blank\">Buffalo Sabres<\/a> before setting out on a six-game road trip.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander has apologized for what he called a \u201cmoment of frustration\u201d after making&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[712,49,48,82,74650,86762],"class_list":["post-433548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-10","tag-william-nylander-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8477939"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}