William Nylander leaves game vs. Senators with lower-body injury

If Nylander misses any sort of substantial time, it would be a big loss for a Maple Leafs team that hasn’t really been able to get everybody healthy at the same time. Nylander was slumping hard heading into the Leafs’ win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, with no goals in his past 11 games leading up to that game and only five assists in that span. He ended up exploding for two goals and two assists against the Penguins and had a goal in Saturday’s game against the Senators before leaving with the injury.

Nylander spoke about his struggles following the Maple Leafs’ 5-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Sunday, and admitted it was something he wasn’t used to.

“It’s just not going in, that’s the way it is,” Nylander said following Sunday’s game. I don’t know if I’ve felt like this before, or had a stretch like this. I’m not sure, I don’t feel like I’ve had that in the NHL, at least.”

Nylander is currently leading the Maple Leafs in points with 40 in 32 games on the season, and he’s two behind Auston Matthews for the team lead in goals. He was skating on a line with Matias Maccelli and John Tavares going back to Tuesday’s four-point outburst, and scored a power play goal in the first minute of Saturday’s game.