Only a week after the Toronto Maple Leafs went on a three-game losing streak and the sky seemed to be falling, they won their next three games in a row and brought their fans back to earth.

One of the players facing some criticism during that three-game slide was William Nylander, who particularly rubbed some people the wrong way with a comment to the effect of “It’s only three games, what’s the big deal?” As much as this quote reads poorly on paper, the point he was trying to make was that you can’t take what happens over a three-game stretch as an indictment on the state of the team, rather than it doesn’t matter that they lost three games in a row. He said the exact same thing when asked what to make of the team’s current three-game winning streak, further proving his original point.

Nylander has four goals and five points in three games throughout the recent streak, and if it seems like Nylander is scoring all of his goals on breakaways, it’s actually not far off. Three of his four goals in those games have come on breakaways, including the game-winning goal last Thursday over the New Jersey Devils. His coach, Craig Berube, penned him with a new nickname while meeting with the media after Monday night’s win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“Who? Oh, the breakaway man!” Berube said with a laugh as a reporter teed up a question about Nylander’s game. He followed it up by talking about his conversations with Nylander on a day-to-day basis and why Nylander is so effective at getting those 1-on-1 opportunities with opposing goalies.

“He reads the play really well. Slashes out well on those plays,” Berube said. “A lot of times, like that last time, he just wins a puck battle. His ability with his stick and his feet are high-end. Some of the things I see him do are pretty incredible.”

Nylander, on the other hand, didn’t offer much insight into what he sees on those breakaway opportunities. Maybe it’s a case of a magician not wanting to reveal his tricks, or maybe this is just a man of few words.

“I don’t know, I think it’s just instinct in the moment, I guess.” Nylander said.

Like the humble man he is, Nylander credited his breakaway goal against Tampa to his teammates for starting the play with a solid defensive play.

“Great defensive play there by Stevie [Lorentz] and Mo [Rielly],” Nylander said. “I was able to poke it by and get some separation.”

Teammate and Leafs captain Auston Matthews joked last week that he didn’t think anyone in the NHL got more breakaways than Nylander, and doubled down on that when talking to the media after Monday’s game.

“He’s really good at cheating for offence, and I mean that in the best way possible. He reads the plays, and he’s obviously very fast, his IQ,” Matthews said, listing off a grocery list of reasons Nylander is so successful at creating those opportunities.

The Maple Leafs will be back in action on Wednesday night when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets. While Nylander isn’t going to actively seek out those breakaways, if he manages to get one, odds are the other team is going to hurt.

The way he just reads the play and is able to get behind you. Nobody does it better than him.” Matthews said with a smile.