Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander celebrated his 29th birthday on Thursday with a flourish, notching two goals and an assist to help propel his club to a series-clinching win over the Ottawa Senators. As has been well-publicized, the Leafs were the fortunate beneficiaries of the detection, by an NHL official, of an error in the Official Game Report, mistakenly listing farmhand Alex Nylander in Toronto’s lineup instead of his more famous brother. Had the mistake not been corrected prior to puck drop, William would have had to leave the all-important Game 6 matchup against the Sens.
The potential disastrous scenario would have been the second such playoff lineup card debacle for the Blue and White. Toronto fans with long memories felt a sense of déjà vu dating back nearly a quarter century, to the 2002 Eastern Conference Quarter Final versus the New York Islanders. Head coach Pat Quinn (then holding the dual role of coach and general manager) presented his team’s lineup before Game 5 at Air Canada Centre, but had mistakenly inserted the name of injured forward Mikael Renberg instead of Robert Reichel.
The key difference between that instance and last Thursday’s situation involving the Nylanders; the error went unnoticed until after the opening faceoff, granting Islanders coach Peter Laviolette to pounce on the opportunity to alert the referees (savvy Lavi?) Under Rule 5.1, such a correction to retain the player’s eligibility can be made only before play starts. However, once the game is underway, then, under Rule 5.2, Reichel was forced to leave Game Five.
Fortunately for the 2002 edition of the Leafs, Reichel’s absence had little impact on the outcome; a 6-3 Toronto win. The game is remembered much more for its vicious tenacity, notably Darcy Tucker ending Michael Peca’s series with a borderline clip, and Gary Roberts incurring a five-minute major for charging Kenny Jonsson. Toronto went on to win the “Steve Webb sucks” series in seven games.
If not for the shrewd awareness of the official who spotted Alex Nylander’s name on the game report, Game Six of the Battle of Ontario might have had an entirely different outcome. Rather than spending their Saturday preparing for the upcoming second-round series versus Florida, the Leafs might have been duelling with their provincial rivals to thwart off a collapse of epic proportions.
