One quick gesture during Sunday’s 4-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche cost Toronto Maple Leafs winger William Nylander, who wasn’t even playing. Nylander flipped his middle finger to the broadcast camera, and the NHL fined him $5,000 for that “obscene gesture.”
Due to a groin injury, Nylander has been out since Jan. 15. When the camera panned his group of injured teammates, Nylander shot the bird.
“I apologize for my actions yesterday,” Nylander said. “It was out of frustration, so I’m sorry about that.”
It didn’t take Nylander long to realize that he made a mistake. Shortly after he gestured toward the camera, he received a message on his phone.
“Sitting there, I got a text message,” Nylander said. “I was like, ‘Oh, not a good idea. Not a good thing to do.’ So, yeah, I apologize about that.”
Nylander probably won’t sweat the fine too much — he’s set to make $13.5 million this season between his signing bonus and base salary. However, that gesture pretty well sums up the Maple Leafs’ season to this point.
Frustration mounting for Maple Leafs
Nylander is certainly not alone. Toronto’s season has been frustrating across the board. The Maple Leafs suffered four straight losses, and dropped six of their last seven. They’re now six points out of a playoff spot in an Eastern Conference that’s much more competitive than anyone could’ve anticipated.
Part of those struggles can be explained by the image of Nylander in the press box — gesture aside. Nylander, the team’s leading scorer, has missed 52 games this season. On Sunday, he was joined by fellow forwards Calle Jarnkrok and Dakota Joshua, as well as shutdown defenseman Chris Tanev.
Injuries plagued Toronto all season. Goaltender Joseph Woll and defenseman Brandon Carlo are two more key players who have missed extended time in 2025-26, and the team doesn’t have enough depth to paper over its personnel losses.
However, not all of the Leafs’ woes can be pinned on the pesky injury bug. The team has just been subpar on a number of different levels. According to Natural Stat Trick, Toronto owns a 47.5% expected goals share and a minus-7 goal differential at five-on-five. The latter ranks 22nd, and the former ranks 26th.
The team’s expected goals numbers aren’t all that worse than they were in 2024-25, but the actual results have cratered. Last season, Toronto owned a plus-33 goal differential at five-on-five, which was fourth in the NHL. The loss of a dynamic playmaker like Mitch Marner, who just returned with the Vegas Golden Knights to hand the Leafs a 6-3 loss, has played a role in the team’s inability to outperform middling underlying metrics.
There are still 30 games left in the season, and two good weeks can vault the Maple Leafs from outside the playoffs to a top-three spot in the division. This team is far from dead, but it Toronto hasn’t provided much evidence that it could be a real Stanley Cup threat even if it does reach the postseason.
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