William Nylander seems to be in top form ahead of the new NHL season.
Last night he scored a delicious dream goal – which made everyone think back to Mats Sundin’s heyday.
“It’s disgustingly nice,” writes the NHL.
For some reason, there is almost always a storm around William Nylander. He is an established top star in the NHL, but never seems to find any peace and quiet in hockey-crazy Toronto. He is coming off a career-best season, accounting for an insanely impressive 40 goals and a total of 87 points in 82 games.
Best season
Despite that, there has been talk throughout the spring and summer that Toronto should get rid of him. The Maple Leafs are struggling to get under the salary cap, especially after recently giving superstar Auston Matthews a new monster contract, but so far Nylander is staying, and now everything points to staying that way next season. And for that season, Nylander seems to be in great shape.
The NHL premiere is just a few days away now, and last night Toronto played practice against Detroit, where both teams had relatively regular teams. And Nylander was the big player of the match – and it was the Swede who opened the scoring, and not with just any goal. In the first period, in four-on-four play, Nylander got the puck in the offensive zone, with two Detroit players in front of him, but with a good shooting position.
The dream goal last night
Instead of shooting, however, Nylander kept the puck in one long backhand pull, and on the way to the goal, he conjured away his opponents – and the Detroit goaltender. In the end, all that was left was for Nylander to put the puck into the open net, making it 1-0. The goal was widely spread in North America, and many now state that it is undoubtedly the best looking of the pre-season.
“That is just disgustingly beautiful,” the NHL writes on Twitter.
Nylander wasn’t done there, though. The training match ended 3-3 and went to extra time. There William stepped forward with his second goal of the game, and decided for his Toronto. In the match, Jonatan Berggren also scored for Detroit. The Swede has had a brilliant pre-season and looks set to take a place in the Red Wings for the winter.
See the goal here:
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