TAVARES, STAMKOS EAGER TO WEAR MAPLE LEAF
World Cup represents unfinished business for Toronto-area products
Come Sept. 17, two of the Greater Toronto Area’s most gifted hockey-playing native sons will step onto the Air Canada Centre ice, beaming with pride at being able to wear that beloved maple leaf on their chests.
Sorry, Toronto, not that maple leaf. The logo is red and white, not blue and white.
Despite the deep-rooted desires of Maple Leafs fans to somehow see these local-kidsdone-good one day play for the NHL team they each grew up watching, the reality is, it’s not going to happen. At least not for a while.
Stamkos loves being with the Lightning and signed an eightyear deal in late June to stay in Tampa Bay.
Tavares, meanwhile, embraces being an Islander and hopes to sign an extension with the organization once the remaining two years on his deal expires, a desire he first publicly aired during a radio interview in Toronto this summer.
But the opportunity to represent your country at home is a concept both are embracing, each repeatedly using the word “special” to describe what it will be like when they line up for Team Canada for the opening game at the World Cup of Hockey against the Czech Republic at the Air Canada Centre a week from Saturday.
Little did they know, however, that when they arrived Monday at the Canadian Tire Centre for Canada’s opening practice, they would be linemates (at least for now), both having been moved to the wing, flanking centre Ryan Getzlaf.
Tavares and Stamkos have far more in common than just a southern Ontario childhood. Indeed, both still harbour that haunting empty feeling of wanting to be on the ice for the gold medal game at the 2014 Sochi Olympics — a reality neither experienced.
Stamkos broke his leg against the Boston Bruins on Nov. 11, 2013 and was left off the Canadian team despite a remarkable rehab stint. Tavares made it to Russia, but had his tournament prematurely end when he suffered ligament damage to his left knee.
As such, both players told Postmedia Monday that the World Cup will be a chance to complete some unfinished business. And winning the tournament for Canada as linemates while playing in Toronto would be hitting the hockey jackpot.
“Absolutely,” Stamkos said. “I know Johnny went over and got hurt and I obviously couldn’t play because of the injury. We were talking about that today.
“It was pretty special when we saw the lines and saw that we were together. A chance to make some new memories and be part of a gold medal together. To do that, it would be special.”
Tavares is in total agreement with his linemate.
“Obviously for me the Olympic Games was special but it was bittersweet,” Tavares said. “I’d love to stay healthy and see this thing through.”
With Stamkos having grown up in Markham, his decision not to snap up the free agent bucks being waved by the hometown Leafs didn’t sit well with everyone in Leafs Nation. Still, for the most part, he said fans were respectful of his choice.
“Even back home walking down the streets, people would come up and say: “‘We wish you had signed in Toronto but good luck in Tampa,’” Stamkos said. “You understand where they are coming from with their love for the game of hockey.
“It’s not like I don’t love Toronto. I come back every summer and enjoy being there and being around the people I grew up with. It has a special place in my heart. Obviously Tampa has become like a second home and that city has been great for me.”
As for Tavares, who honed his hockey skills as a boy in Oakville, he, too, grasps the concept of why Torontonians want to deck him out in a Leafs jersey one day.
“I think it’s obviously the nature of the beast,” he said. “Toronto’s a great hockey city — obviously I’m from there — so I grew up around it, I understand it. You learn to expect it.
“Some great players have come from there and obviously (fans) look at some of the local players from there. Obviously (Stamkos and I) had good starts to our careers. And, obviously, in a place like Toronto, fans look at every type of scenario.
“You just learn to handle it the best way.”
And when it comes to the World Cup of Hockey, the socalled “best way” to finish the tournament — in the minds of Tavares and Stamkos — would be to hoist the World Cup trophy.
As linemates. At home. For Canada.
No matter what colour that maple leaf logo might be.
A chance to make some new memories and be part of a gold medal together. To do that, it would be special.