The Toronto Maple Leafs fans were holding their breaths last night as William Nylander left the pre-season game against the Montreal Canadiens in the first period due to an injury.
And it wasn’t the ordinary injury incident that forced Nylander to the dressing room early.
Nylander was skating towards his own zone through the neutral when all of a sudden, his teammate Nick Robertson tried to give him a boost by shoving him in the back with the help of his stick. It’s not the first time a player tried to help a teammate out in the forecheck by shoving him with a stick, but this time, it went wrong.
Instead of giving Nylander a boost, the Maple Leafs superstar lost balance and fell to the ice, colliding head-first with a Canadiens player. Nylander went straight to the locker room and didn’t return to the game, with the Maple Leafs noting that it was only precautionary.
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On social media, fans were absolutely ruthless against Robertson, with many deeming the play both reckless and unnecessary. But it wasn’t just fans who reacted strongly. Sportsnet analyst Nick Kypreos slammed Robertson’s decision to push Nylander during the intermission, calling it a ’bush league move.’
”To me, that’s just a bush move,” Kypreos said.
”Listen, nothing tells me more that ’I’m either too slow, or not willing to work hard enough to put my head down and get back in the zone, but I’m going to help you.’ This is just so unnecessary.”
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Nick Robertson was asked about the incident wolling his team’s 2-1 win.
”It’s unfortunate, I was trying to give him a little boost there and it is what it is,” Robertson said. ”I talked to him and he’s doing good, we’ll see how he is for the next few days.”
