If the Toronto Maple Leafs are thriving, William Nylander is likely on his game. If they’re struggling, he probably is too. I know, breaking news! Star hockey player helps team play better when he’s playing well. Nothing new to see here. But it’s never rung truer than it has over the past two weeks.

The Maple Leafs have been playing some streaky hockey lately, but fortunately, the majority of it has been good hockey. They won four games in a row to start the calendar year, then lost three games in a row, and now they’re back on their saddles with another three-game win streak. In those three losses, Nylander was held to one goal and zero assists. In the past three wins, he’s scored four goals and totalled five points. When he’s hot, the team is too, and you can say that about any of their core players.

Nylander took some heat after the Leafs’ third loss in a row. When asked about the concern level in the room, he responded with a sly, “It’s only three games; what’s the big deal?”

In fairness to those who were rubbed the wrong way by the quote, it’s not something that fans of a team that’s routinely struggled to put together any meaningful postseason success will have much of an appetite to hear. Heck, in the “All or Nothing” Amazon Prime documentary about the Leafs’ 2020-21 season, there’s a scene where then-head coach Sheldon Keefe was giving the team a hard time over some bad habits despite being first in the North Division at the time, and veteran Joe Thornton says something to the effect of ‘relax coach, we’re in first place.” So, to hear Nylander say something similar to that when the Leafs are first in the Atlantic Division wasn’t exactly the most inspiring thing.

The Leafs have seen firsthand how important it is to secure as many wins as possible in the regular season, no matter how secure their playoff spot is. In the past, this has cost them home-ice advantage, and for a team that already has enough of its own demons in the playoffs, they can’t afford to settle for anything. So, all of this is to say that Nylander probably could have worded things better at the time. But his quote made a lot more sense when he addressed reporters following the Leafs’ win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday.

And just like that, Nylander’s initial quote suddenly reads a lot differently than it did at first.

You may not have wanted to hear it after a loss, but hearing it after a win shows that Nylander isn’t suggesting that the Leafs are complacent or okay with dropping games here and there. It simply shows that he and his teammates are not letting a three-game sample size define the season as a whole, which is hard to argue with no matter how important it is to stack up as many wins as possible.

The reality of cheering for a team like the Toronto Maple Leafs is that with only one playoff-round win in eight years of this current era of star players, the highs of the regular season will be brushed off and the lows will be magnified. Yes, it’s important to slash as many bad habits in the regular season as you can, but it’s equally important to remember that there simply isn’t a world where they will have a seamless regular season. And that’s the case for all teams, not just Toronto. If you look back to the 2022-23 season, the Florida Panthers essentially limped into the playoffs and had to stare down the giant of facing a juggernaut regular season Boston Bruins team that set NHL records with a whopping 62 wins and 135 points.

The Panthers went on to come back from a 3-1 series deficit, defeating the Bruins and turning it into a long playoff run that ended with a Cup final appearance. If you asked Panthers fans throughout the season if they had faith in their team making a Cup run, they probably would have laughed it off. Eliminating bad habits before the playoffs start will always be a priority for the Leafs, as it should be and as it is for every other playoff team, but to expect them to completely wipe them out is both unrealistic and bound to leave you disappointed. What’s more important (and realistic) is that they don’t let any of these bad habits spark any lengthy losing streaks and bounce back from their off-games, and with three convincing wins in a row since that three-game losing streak, they’re doing a good job of that so far.

This iteration of the Leafs is incomplete. They’re going to add at the trade deadline, and as we all know, their current regular season success doesn’t mean anything unless they turn it into something bigger past April. But, if you find yourself getting overly stressed after a couple of bad games or overly excited after a couple of good games, take Nylander’s advice and remind yourself that it’s only three games.