Nylander looking for fraternal revenge on the ice
Growing up the son of an NHL dad and with an older brother who started playing hockey at an early age meant one thing for Alexander Nylander: He was always going to face stiff competition.
That was true on the tennis courts. Or at the Ping-Pong table. Or on the golf course.
The fiercest competition for Nylander, though, has come when he's gone up against brother William in the NHL, something that happened for the third time when the Blackhawks hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday.
"I've played against him twice before, and he's won both of those games," said Nylander, whose Sabres lost to the Maple Leafs on April 3, 2017 and March 20, 2019. "So looking for revenge. It's going to be great. It's always fun to play against my brother."
Despite William scoring a pair of goals, Alex did indeed get his revenge as the Hawks pulled out a 5-4 victory.
Incredibly, the two were both drafted eighth overall - William to Toronto in 2014 and Alex to Buffalo in 2016. William has had more success thus far, posting back-to-back 20-goal campaigns from 2016-18, but Alex has shown serious promise with the Hawks after a rough start to his career.
The two have always been close and talk nearly every day.
"It doesn't have to be about hockey too," Alex said. "Just a real easy brother to have. (It's) been great growing up with him."
Even when the competition reached a boiling point.
"Obviously he was a little bit stronger growing up since he's two years older, where now it's even," Alex said. "It's just about who's better now. ... Sometimes we're friends, sometimes we come out of it not friends, but at the end of the day we're brothers. It's just been great."
Memories:
No matter how long Auston Matthews plays, he'll never forget his team's thrilling 7-6 overtime victory against the Blackhawks at the United Center last season.
That was the night Matthews taunted the UC crowd by cupping his hand to his ear after giving Toronto a 6-5 lead with just 1:02 remaining. A mere 33 seconds later, Patrick Kane knotted the score and duplicated the hand-to-the-ear gesture, eliciting a giant roar from the home crowd.
"Yeah, it was a blast," Matthews said Sunday. "I mean I looked up to him obviously as a kid - one of my favorite players to watch. Still one of my favorite players to watch."
And to model his game after.
"When you're a coach, when you're a reporter, when you're a TV person - you're watching everybody around you," Toronto coach Mike Babcock said. "You're taking the best from all the people around you that do things really well. And you're saying, 'Gee, I can maybe tweak that a little bit and make it my own.'
"So that's what he's doing. He's just a young kid growing his craft."
Slap shots:
Hawks forward Ryan Carpenter had a death in the family and did not play against Toronto. ... Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner injured his right ankle against Philadelphia on Saturday will miss about four weeks.