Can we really blame William Nylander for flipping the bird?

These are dark days for Leafs Nation—what with the terrible season, the supposed man-child antics of captain Auston Matthews and the fact that, to a growing contingent of Canadian hockey fans, the games are just the things that break up the steamy sex scenes on Heated Rivalry.

Long-time supporters are feeling the frustration, and the same is true of William Nylander, who made headlines at Sunday night’s game all the way from the press box, where he gave the middle finger on camera and was ceremoniously fined $5,000 by the NHL.

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The Leafs’ most reliable scorer has missed the past five games (four of them losses) due to a groin injury (there’s another Heated Rivalry joke to be made, but it feels like a sensitive area—oops). What’s more, it’s starting to look like his below-deck situation could keep Nylander out of the Olympics. So yeah—dark days and a lot of pent-up emotion that appears to have unleashed itself via an unsanctioned bird flip.

Did he know the cameras were on him? Yes, according to the Globe and Mail’s Cathal Kelly, an authority on not just the game but the gossip. Is it possible that this whole fiasco was a miscalculated attempt to deflect attention from the clobbering that was playing out on the ice? Probably not, but you never know.

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Fan reaction so far has been split. “Nylander is going through it just like the rest of us” is the title of a pro-Nylander Reddit thread about the incident. But there is an opposing perspective that casts fingergate as just the latest example of a bunch of entitled players who need to get their act together.

Nylander has apologized—first in an interview after the game and again on his Instagram, where he covered the offending middle finger with a heart-hands emoji. “Sorry about my moment of frustration,” he wrote in the caption, professing “only love for leafs nation” and signing off “love willy.”

Will fans accept the mea culpa? Presumably they will accept anything if the team can get their act together and start winning. And to anyone feeling bad for Nylander, keep in mind that he signed an eight-year, $92-million contract in 2024, so the fine is more of an embarrassment than an actual financial penalty. Let’s hope we see a recovered groin before that bird flies again.