After an underwhelming debut for the Swedish national team, William Nylander sparkled in a 7-2 victory against Germany. Despite the scoreline, this was a real game until midway through the 3rd period, where Sweden scored three goals in the span of a few minutes. Nylander got two of these, and was on the ice for the third.

Earlier in the game, he set up Jonas Brodin for a one-timer to register his first point for the national team.

We’re used to seeing such passing from Willie. We’re also used to seeing this shot.

Here’s another view, with bonus Babcock reaction, and extra ABBA.

And we’re definitely used to seeing these hands.

As mentioned earlier, Nylander looked much better in this game than he did against the Russians — something that is surely due to quality of competition. With all due respect to the Germans, they’re not nearly as formidable an opponent as Russia. However, Nylander was also given the chance to play alongside Gabriel Landeskog at times, and he took full advantage, especially on his second goal. William Karlsson remained on Nylander’s line.

Nylander is arguably the best forward on Sweden’s roster - hitching him to the corpse of Carl Soderberg doesn’t make much sense to me. Playing him with someone like Joel Eriksson-Ek, or with Karlsson and Landskog does. I could get used to hearing Nylander, from Landeskog at the ACC. We know Babcock was in the building too. After this game, maybe he would like that too.

IIHF World Championships