Craig Berube Provides Unfortunate Reason Why William Nylander Was Benched vs. Bruins

It didn't take long coming out of the 4 Nations break for the Leafs to be dealing with injury issues yet again.

Last night in Boston, defenseman Chris Tanev didn't return for the second period after taking a hard hit in the first, forcing the Leafs to play with five defensemen the rest of the game.

The injury to Tanev was a huge blow to the Leafs, but they managed to force the game into an overtime scenario where Mitch Marner played hero and secured the Leafs' third win in a row and 6th win in their last 7 games.

While the Leafs stole the extra point from the Bruins, many noticed that William Nylander did not get a shift during overtime, leaving many wondering why. Following the game, Berube was asked about Nylander's absence in overtime and provided a very unfortunate answer.

Berube did not get into specifics in regards to whether Nylander's injury was upper-body or lower-body, but it's worth mentioning that Nylander did have his gloves off on the bench and appeared to be trying to work something out in his wrist/hand area.

The 28-year-old is one of three Leafs to have skated in every game so far this season, tallying 33 goals and 58 points in 58 games.

Losing Nylander and Tanev just days before the trade deadline may force Brad Treliving to completely change his approach to bolstering the Leafs' lineup.

As it has become the norm for injuries under Berube and Treliving, it will likely take a couple of days before we find out the severity and nature of Nylander's injury, but hopefully it was the same type of soreness that kept Auston Matthews out of the lineup against Sweden during the 4 Nations Face-Off, which he has seemed to bounce back pretty quick from.