William Nylander says Maple Leafs must build confidence after busting power play slump vs. Sharks

Nylander then earned his second assist of the game in the middle frame, giving a cross-ice feed on the power play to Auston Matthews who buried it. Heading into the game, Toronto held the league’s worst man advantage unit, converting on just 13.7% of opportunities, but benefitted from extra work on their special teams amidst their current homestand, according to Craig Berube. Now, they’re seeing some results.

“I feel like we didn’t score in a long time (on the power play),” Nylander said. “Yeah, we should be able to score way more on the power play. But it was a confidence builder and I thought we moved the puck pretty well today and had a few chances, so it’s good.”

Overall the Leafs went 1/3 on the power play on Thursday. They’ll have an opportunity to keep firing on the man advantage Saturday, facing off against the Edmonton Oilers, who are in the bottom half of the league with a 79.8% penalty-kill percentage.

While the Leafs are not putting together wins consecutively, they’re looking a lot stronger defensively as of late, averaging 1.5 goals against over the last six games. Nylander acknowledged the improved results, though didn’t elaborate much on how they got it done.

“We did a little switch in our structure, so that’s helped us,” Nylander said.

Despite the loss, the Leafs have taken at least a point from their last six games. Toronto currently sit two points back from a wild card spot in the tightly-contested Eastern Conference.