Fuck Steve Simmons.  Life is better when he’s questioning every writing instinct he has because he doesn’t come up with drivel like this.

Toronto Sun: William Nylander is like buying furniture from IKEA with the instructions somehow missing from the package.

You know you have all the parts — you see them in front of you — you just have no real idea of how to put it all together.

Nylander was not the reason why the Maple Leafs blew a 5-1 lead Monday night and lost in rather embarrassing fashion to the hapless but growing Ottawa Senators. But bigger picture, away from this messy defeat, away from the somewhat offence-first style of the North Division, his lack of impact in games has become a serious issue for the Leafs.

He’s not alone. The captain John Tavares, Nylander’s centre on the Leafs’ second line, the fifth-highest-paid player in the National Hockey League, is struggling alongside Nylander. Their line, even with new addition Zach Hyman, seems rather lost. Sheldon Keefe is nothing if not an equal-opportunity coach.

Before you start wondering what Steve’s issue is with the best team in the NHL, he HATES the organization.  He’s been belittled by Dubas, Shanny, and others before them because he’s spent the past 30 years making up stories about Phil Kessel’s Hot Dog Adventures and outing players’ personal medical information.  He’s been hated by every Leaf player and employee for the majority of his whiney career and now he’s setting his sights on William Nylander along with Swedish furniture giant IKEA for some reason.

Steve failed to mention Willy’s 12 points including 2 game-winners, instead, he’s still harping about how much he gets paid in Steve’s latest ‘What Have You Done for Us Lately’ shit post.

Play well and you get ice time. Don’t play well, and it’s cut considerably. Nylander is 152nd in the NHL in ice time for forwards. That tells you what Keefe thinks of his play. Tavares is 90th among forwards in time on ice per game — hardly what GM Kyle Dubas envisioned when he and the club committed $77 million over seven years for Tavares and, months after that, signed Nylander for just under $7 million a year. That’s more money than anyone on the Boston big line of Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand are paid. And more than Nathan MacKinnon, Brayden Point, Johnny Gaudreau, Patrik Laine … We could go on.

That’s right, Stevie.  Willy gets 7 million a year.  Big fucking deal.  That narrative is less and less relevant as the years go by and in 2021, 7 million for William Nylander, is a deal.  Unless your name is Steve Simmons and your pea brain can’t process 11-3-2 for a league-leading 24 points.  Then it’s time to harp on Willy’s contract and ice time.  Speaking of Ice time, if he’s this productive playing a fraction of the time, doesn’t that make Steve’s point completely mute?

A friendly reminder to all #LeafsForever fans out there that are screaming the Freddy sucks, D sucks, what’s wrong with Tavares & trade Nylander nonsense after losing last night.

The Leafs are 11-3-2 = 24pts & have the best record in the league.
Take a deep breathe & R-E-L-A-X pic.twitter.com/BisX8xgxmI

— Carlo Colaiacovo (@CarloColaiacovo) February 16, 2021

The words used to describe him around the Leafs and around the league are mercurial, erratic, alluring, disappointing, fascinating and curious. The players on the team like him and respect his talents. But this group seems to like everybody.

It’s about a team and how it comes together. The Leafs, with their amazing record, are caught in a bind of their own creation. Without second-line contribution, they can’t succeed in the playoffs.

Huh?  Mercurial?  The dude hasn’t said a word in 4 fucking years.

This is how you know Steve Simmons is full of SHIT, btw.  Painting Nylander as mercurial is like saying Tavares is a whiner.  It’s inflammatory and categorically stupid. For those of us watching Leaf games with a brain and a couple of working eyeballs, ‘Mercurial’ or ‘Curious’ are not mutually exclusive words anyone would use to describe William Nylander.  So what does Steve do?  It appears he’s making up words to fit whatever narrative he wants to use to dump on players or management with the Maple Leafs because he’s out of  Hot Dog Stories.

https://crier.co/sports/toronto-sun-journalist-steve-simmons-tests-positive-for-being-human-garbage/

He wouldn’t dare critique Tavares for his brutal giveaways in the third against Ottawa during that four-goal collapse a few days ago.  He shits on players on the periphery for attention and Nylander is an easy mark.  Steve’s an asshole so the story probably came to him naturally and he’s hoping we’re all dumber than he is.  Bruce Arthur might be jacked-up by Stevie’s latest shit piece, but the rest of us just assume every premise behind Steve’s writing comes to him after crying on the bathroom floor for a few solid hours wondering where it all went.

The Nylander hate from certain media types isn’t hard to figure out, it’s a combination of a few things. 1) He doesn’t talk to them. 2) While he was born in Canada he’s not a “good ol’ Canadian boy”. 3) He’s loved by stats people. Not complicated.

— Andrew Berkshire (@AndrewBerkshire) February 17, 2021

Nylander featured prominently in precisely 0 of the goals against in the Ottawa collapse (maybe you can get mad Tavares tried to pass to him on the 5-2 goal if you really want to embarrass yourself) and he gets a cover feature from the man with the crustiest lips in the world pic.twitter.com/QrNi60ZbrO

— mostly want to die (@mostlyleafies) February 17, 2021

Nylander is too busy living that life to give a fuck about Steve Simmons but I’m not. Every time ‘Wart Head’ puts pen to toilet paper I’ll be there.

William Nylander’s enigmatic season:
3rd on the team in GAR/60, 5th by xG RAPM, 2nd by Corsi RAPM, 4th in points, 3rd in 5v5 points, 54.9 xGF%, 55.1 CF%

Also while getting 1.5 minutes less at 5v5 and 1 minute less on the powerplay per game compared to last year.

— mostly want to die (@mostlyleafies) February 17, 2021

You’re welcome.

DB

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