Craig Berube provides unfortunate reason why William Nylander was benched vs. Bruins

Leafs head coach Craig Berube shared the tough reality as to why William Nylander did not see a shift at the end of the third period and overtime in Boston Tuesday night.

It didn't take long coming out of the 4 Nations break for the Leafs to be dealing with injury issues yet again.

On Tuesday night in Boston, defenseman Chris Tanev didn't return for the second period after taking a hard hit in the first, forcing the Leafs to play with five defensemen the rest of the game.

The injury to Tanev was a huge blow to the Leafs, but they managed to force the game into an overtime scenario where Mitch Marner played hero and secured the Leafs' third win in a row and sixth win in their last seven games.

While the Leafs stole the extra point from the Bruins, many noticed that William Nylander did not get a shift during overtime, leaving many wondering why. Following the game, Berube was asked about Nylander's absence in overtime and provided a very unfortunate answer.

"He just came back (to the bench), and something was bothering him. He didn't go out in the overtime."

Berube did not get into specifics in regard to whether Nylander's injury was upper-body or lower-body, but it's worth mentioning that Nylander did have his gloves off on the bench and appeared to be trying to work something out in his wrist/hand area.

The 28-year-old is one of three Leafs to have skated in every game so far this season, tallying 33 goals and 58 points in 58 games.

Losing Nylander and Tanev just days before the trade deadline may force Brad Treliving to completely change his approach to bolstering the Leafs' lineup.