{"id":431965,"date":"2026-01-27T03:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T03:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/431965\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T03:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T03:09:08","slug":"william-nylander-says-frustration-led-to-middle-finger-gesture-hopes-to-return-before-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/431965\/","title":{"rendered":"William Nylander says frustration led to middle finger gesture; hopes to return before Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TORONTO \u2014 William Nylander didn\u2019t practise with the Maple Leafs Monday morning, but did come out afterward to address some of the confusion with his current injury as well as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6998059\/2026\/01\/25\/william-nylander-middle-finger-maple-leafs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">middle finger he delivered<\/a> to a TV camera Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Nylander resumed skating over the weekend and skated again before Monday\u2019s practice, but will miss his sixth straight game with a groin injury Tuesday night when the Leafs host the Buffalo Sabres.<\/p>\n<p>He said he hoped to return at some point on the Leafs\u2019 upcoming road trip, which begins Thursday night in Seattle.<\/p>\n<p>The following week, he\u2019ll join Team Sweden at the Olympics in Italy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt obviously (would be) nice to get a game before heading over there, but I want to be back as soon as possible, playing here and hopefully getting some wins before heading over to the Olympics,\u201d Nylander said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only thing we\u2019re thinking of is helping our team,\u201d Leafs coach Craig Berube said. \u201cAnd I get the Olympics, and it\u2019s important to his country and to the player. But we\u2019re looking at getting him quickly (back in) to help our team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to how it may have appeared at the time, Nylander said the re-aggravation of his groin injury didn\u2019t stem from a goal celebration in Vegas Jan. 15. \u201cNothing happened there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was before that, the first shift, and then I tried to keep playing and just didn\u2019t feel great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nylander played four shifts that night in an eventual 6-5 overtime loss to the Golden Knights; he notched an assist on the first and a goal on the second.<\/p>\n<p>This marks the first time Nylander has missed significant time with injuries in the regular season during his Leafs career.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, Nylander had missed only one regular-season game to injury before this season.<\/p>\n<p>William Nylander games missed to injury<\/p>\n<p>          SeasonGames missed to injury<\/p>\n<p>2015-16<\/p>\n<p>0<\/p>\n<p>2016-17<\/p>\n<p>1<\/p>\n<p>2017-18<\/p>\n<p>0<\/p>\n<p>2018-19<\/p>\n<p>0<\/p>\n<p>2019-20<\/p>\n<p>0<\/p>\n<p>2020-21<\/p>\n<p>0<\/p>\n<p>2021-22<\/p>\n<p>0<\/p>\n<p>2022-23<\/p>\n<p>0<\/p>\n<p>2023-24<\/p>\n<p>0<\/p>\n<p>2024-25<\/p>\n<p>0<\/p>\n<p>2025-26<\/p>\n<p>14<\/p>\n<p>He has missed 14 this year due to injuries and one more for an illness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe wants to play. He wants to be here helping the team, for sure,\u201d Berube said. \u201cWilly\u2019s gone a long time in his career without missing games. It\u2019s been different this year for him, so it\u2019s something new that he\u2019s going through. It\u2019s hard for a player who wants to be out there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is frustrating,\u201d Berube added. \u201cWe want him out here, too. He wants to be playing. So, he\u2019s doing everything he can to get back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nylander said it was that frustration, sitting in the press box with other scratched players, that led him to flash the middle finger to the TSN camera during Sunday\u2019s broadcast of the team\u2019s game against the Colorado Avalanche. He apologized on Instagram soon after the game. The NHL fined Nylander $5,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for the gesture on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was just frustrated,\u201d he said Monday. \u201cI apologize for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe made a mistake. He owned up to it,\u201d Berube said. \u201cThings happen. People make mistakes. Players make mistakes. Coaches make mistakes. It happens. He knows it\u2019s wrong and he owned up to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite missing time, Nylander continues to lead the Leafs in scoring with 48 points.<\/p>\n<p>The Leafs have lost four of the five games he\u2019s missed during this recent absence and six of seven overall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou don\u2019t fill that void,\u201d said Berube. \u201cYour team\u2019s got to fill that void. Not one player\u2019s gonna come in and be William Nylander. That\u2019s not realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 William Nylander didn\u2019t practise with the Maple Leafs Monday morning, but did come out afterward to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99,1788],"class_list":["post-431965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}