William Nylander finally reacts to Nick Robertson’s shove that went wrong!
The Maple Leafs’ star forward with his take on the push that injured him:
It was not supposed to happen this way. On Thursday night, Toronto Maple Leafs star forward William Nylander did not return to the preseason game against the Montreal Canadiens after falling and hitting his head on Habs’ Christian Dvorak’s knee. Nylander was back-checking on the play when teammate Nick Robertson attempted pushed him with his stick into the zone, which knocked him off balance.
After the game, Robertson attempted to explain the play, saying:
“It’s unfortunate, I was trying to give him a little boost there and it is what it is.” Adding: “I talked to him and he’s doing good, we’ll see how he is for the next few days.”
On Friday, it was Nylander’s turn to try and explained what happened, and most importantly what went wrong. He did start things off by saying that Robertson checked on him, per David Alter:
“He called me after the game, I said I was all good, he scored. So it’s all good.”
He added: “I just wasn’t ready for it because it didn’t feel like it was needed in that way, but I wasn’t really ready for it, but it’s okay.”
After scoring the game-winning goal in a 2-1 victory over the Habs, Robertson probably felt better about the incident, though Nick Kypreos criticized the play and ripped Robertson apart for his decision to shove his teammate, calling it “bush league” during the first intermission.
It was later announced after the game by head coach Craig Berube that there was nothing to worry about when it comes to Nylander. He even attended practice on Friday when he finally opened up about the messy play.
Good thing it’s the preseason!
