William Nylander apologizes for giving middle finger to camera during Leafs-Avalanche game

“Yes, first of all I would like to apologize for my actions,” Nylander told a crowd of reporters during practice Monday morning. “It’s a lot of frustration, so I’m sorry.”

Nylander had previously taken to his Instagram Story to issue a less formal apology to fans.

When asked about his frustration, Nylander admitted he struggled with not being able to help the team on the ice as they lost their fourth straight game on Sunday at a crucial time of the year.

“Just not, you know, playing,” Nylander continued. “You know, I want to be there with the guys, and yeah, I’m just frustrated.”

Nylander, who hasn’t played since Jan. 15 against the Vegas Golden Knights and previously missed a number of games due to injury, has been one of the Maple Leafs’ healthiest forwards since joining the team in 2015-16. This season is one of two in his ten-year career in which he has not played in all or almost all of the games. The other was due to his contract extension in 2018/19. The Swedish forward said missing a lot of time is something he hasn’t had to deal with in his career.

“I haven’t missed this amount of time since I can remember.” Nylander said.

Matthew Knies also addressed Nylander’s gesture and injury issues during training.

“Yeah, I don’t know exactly what he was doing, I think he smiled after that,” Knies said. “I don’t think he meant it in a threatening way, and obviously he apologized immediately afterwards. So yeah, there’s obviously a little bit of frustration, you know, that’s been building up at this point, so we’ve just got to work it out and not allow that frustration to get the better of us.”

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