NHL insider Chris Johnston, of the Athletic, said on The Chris Johnston Show podcast with Julian McKenzie that Nylander would have been wearing the mic when he and fellow superstars Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner were seen arguing with each other on the team’s bench during yet another disastrous performance. Matthews later exited the game due to an illness. Toronto lost 3-1 to fall behind in the series to the Bruins 3-1.
“The interesting part about that bickering Julian, is that William Nylander was wearing a microphone on this night,” Johnston said on the podcast.
“I think it’s fair to assume given the sensitivity around that conversation that we’ll never hear that audio, but my goodness, what would that be worth if you could? I mean, you can read his lips enough that you have a pretty good idea of what he was saying, but wouldn’t you actually like to hear him say it? You might actually hear a little bit more about what else was being said back. I have a reasonable idea of what Nylander was saying but I don’t know exactly what precipitated it.”
Johnston is right that there is little chance that audio gets out, but you never know. Marner, Nylander and Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe all down-played the incident after the game with Keefe even spinning it as something new from the group and possibly a positive. Marner said “We aren’t yelling at each other because we hate each other,” claiming they were going over things on the ice.
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