"I don't get a lot of good passes": William Nylander takes a playful jibe at Maple Leafs teammates after scoring breakaway OT winner against Devils

After scoring the overtime winner on a breakaway against the New Jersey Devils, Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander took a lighthearted jab at his teammates about not giving him enough good passes.

The Maple Leafs defeated the Devils 4-3 on Thursday night, with Nylander's breakaway goal coming just 1:10 into overtime.

When asked after the game how he seems to score so many goals on breakaways, Nylander joked:

"I don't know, I don't get a lot of good passes."

“I think we gained our momentum,” Nylander said. “We had a lot of hard work and that started paying off, started getting more high-quality scoring chances so just try to build off that. I just saw an opening and he just put it right there and I was able to walk in.”

After going seven straight games with just one point, Nylander broke out with two goals and an assist against New Jersey.

"It's nice. It's nice when you find the back of the net, that's for sure," he remarked.

Teammate Auston Matthews joked that Nylander seems to get more breakaways than anyone else in the NHL.

"I don't know who gets more breakaways in the NHL than this guy. So yeah, I had a pretty good feeling about it," Matthews said.

Matthews also scored twice for Toronto. Nico Hischier (two goals) and Jack Hughes scored for the Devils. Joseph Woll made 21 saves, while Devils netminder Jacob Markstrom stopped 37 shots.

Toronto HC Craig Berube on William Nylander's performance

William Nylander scored just once in his last 11 games coming into the game, despite leading the Maple Leafs with 26 goals this season.

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube was full of praise for William Nylander's play.

“He reads the game very well,” Berube said. “He’s got a real high hockey IQ with reading where he can get open and take advantage of people."

That’s a great play by Mitch too (on the overtime goal) to read the change and get it up to Willy. Willy had a heck of a game. He had second and third effort on pucks. He was working tonight as everybody was.”

The Leafs will next face the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.