URGENT: Administrative Blunder Nearly Scratches Nylander—Swede Hits the Ice Just in Time to Star in Pivotal Game 6

It took only a matter of seconds—and the sharp eyes of an NHL off‑ice official—to keep William Nylander from watching a winner‑take‑all game in street clothes. Minutes before puck‑drop in Ottawa last night, the Maple Leafs discovered that their top‑line winger had been left off the official Game 6 roster, mistakenly replaced by his older brother Alex Nylander and Alex’s No. 92 on the electronic game sheet. Had the error slipped through the cracks until after the opening face‑off, Toronto would have been forced to remove its 40‑goal scorer without the right to dress a substitute.

According to Sportsnet’s broadcast crew, the mistake surfaced when an NHL linesman performing a final roster cross‑check noticed the wrong first name beside No. 92 and alerted the league’s supervisor in the timekeeper’s booth. Under Rule 5.1 of the NHL rulebook, officials are obliged to warn a team about any lineup discrepancy that is detected before play begins, allowing the club to amend its sheet with no penalty assessed.

Assistant equipment manager Bobby Hastings sprinted down the hallway to the Toronto dressing room, tablet in hand, and within 90 frenetic seconds the typo was corrected. “It was maybe the fastest I’ve ever seen the NHL’s line‑management app refresh,” head coach Craig Berube later dead‑panned.

Crisis averted, Nylander celebrated his 29th birthday in style. He set up Auston Matthews for a power‑play opener at 18:50 of the first period, then wired a blocker‑side wrister just 43 seconds into the second to give Toronto breathing room. He added an empty‑netter with 19 seconds left to seal a 4‑2 victory that eliminated the Ottawa Senators and propelled the Leafs into Round 2.

Berube praised his winger’s poise: “Willie shrugged it off like someone misspelled his Starbucks order. Then he went out and stole the show.” Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, whose second‑period goal briefly cut the margin to one, called the mix‑up “kind of hilarious—until he started scoring.”

The incident has already sparked debate among fans who argue the league should take a harsher stance on clerical oversights. Yet Rule 5.1 exists precisely to prevent a playoff series from swinging on a typo, and it is hardly new: Nashville was given the same courtesy during a November 2024 regular‑season game when Filip Forsberg’s name was omitted from the starting‑lineup card, though the Predators were still assessed a minor penalty for a different infraction under Rule 7.2.

Long‑time NHL analyst Elliotte Friedman noted on the TBS intermission panel that most coaching staffs triple‑check the electronic sheet, then print a paper copy as redundancy. “The Leafs checked twice,” Friedman said. “Tonight proved you sometimes need a third set of eyes.”

In a post‑game scrum that was equal parts relief and amusement, Nylander admitted he learned of the blunder only when a breathless staffer burst in to have him sign a fresh roster print‑out. “I looked down and thought, ‘Well, at least they didn’t mix me up with Jonas Gustavsson,’” he joked, referencing another Swedish Leaf of yesteryear. Berube, meanwhile, confessed he had already drawn up special‑teams rotations that excluded the star forward. “For about ten minutes,” the coach said, “I was planning how to stretch Mitch Marner into three different positions.”

Defenseman Morgan Rielly called the episode “the most Toronto thing ever—nothing ever comes easy for us.” Yet he credited the front‑office analytics staff stationed behind the bench with catching an “odd jersey number” on their iPads moments after warm‑up.

Within minutes of Friedman’s on‑air explanation, #LineupGate and “Nylander paperwork” began trending on X (formerly Twitter). Leafs Nation’s collective heart rate spiked; Senators fans briefly fantasized about a Nylander‑less Maple Leafs; and Alex Nylander’s own team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, chimed in with a winking post: “He’s still ours, sorry Toronto.”

Toronto’s victory secures a second‑round date against the Presidents’ Trophy‑winning Florida Panthers, a rematch of last spring’s bitter six‑game defeat. More importantly, it underscored Nylander’s growing reputation as a player who thrives amid mayhem—whether that chaos is on the ice or in the back office.

He’s been our security blanket all season,” Matthews said. “Tonight he literally saved us from ourselves.” General manager Brad Treliving vowed that the organisation would review its pre‑game protocols: “We’ve automated almost everything in high‑performance hockey, but apparently spell‑check is still a manual job.”