Leafs need Tavares more than ever
Captain’s back but uneasiness surrounds club
The second act of John Tavares’ seven-year tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs begins now, in a season that should be about a return to normalcy but instead has an air of uneasiness surrounding it.
No one knows what quite to expect out of the Leafs this year. Not after the way last year ended, with the team blowing a 3-1 series lead to the Montreal Canadiens in one of most embarrassing first-round exits in pro sports.
Even fewer know what to expect out of Tavares.
The last time anyone saw the Leafs captain play in a meaningful hockey game was five months ago, when he had to be stretched off the ice after taking an accidental knee to the head from Corey Perry in Game 1 of the playoffs. Now, Tavares is healthy. But he’s also 31 years old, in a sport where players of that age typically get slower and less productive — if not effective.
In previous years, this wouldn’t have been a problem. Even at his best, Tavares was considered the thirdor fourth-best offensive weapon in Toronto’s arsenal, somewhere behind Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander. But with Matthews’ surgically repaired wrist keeping him out of the lineup for the foreseeable future — and Zach Hyman no longer on the team and Ilya Mikheyev out for a couple of months with a broken ankle — Tavares’ role just got a lot more important.
It won’t be enough for Tavares to be a secondary scoring option or for him to lead just with his professionalism and his work habits, as he’s done in the past. With Tavares now centring the top line with Mitch Marner and Nick Ritchie on the wings, he needs to grow his game in a way that he’s never had to before.
It’s not just about the offence. Sure, it would be helpful if Tavares can score more than he did last year, when he managed just 19 goals in 56 games. But even more important is whether he can find new ways to justify an US$11 million cap hit that is in danger of becoming one of the worst contracts in the NHL.
Can Tavares become better defensively? Can he develop a specialty on the power play?
Can he reinvent himself in a constantly evolving league that is getting faster, better and younger with each passing year?
“I think that’s already been going on for me,” Tavares said of changing with the times. “I mean, every year is a new challenge, a new set of circumstances, a different journey of things I can learn from and adapt towards and understanding my role and responsibility and how I can go through the biggest impact consistently.”
That’s another way of saying that Tavares understands he isn’t getting younger. Nor is winning a Stanley Cup getting any easier.
In his first year in Toronto, he scored a career-best 47 goals and 88 points in 82 games while on a line with Marner.
That was back when the roster was so deep that Nazem Kadri was the third-line centre and the team could still afford to keep Connor Brown, Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson around.
The following year, Tavares had just 26 goals in 63 games. Last year, he was scoring at a 28-goal pace that was among the lowest of his career.
And yet, talk to teammates and coaches and they will tell you that they expect great things from Tavares as he heads toward the halfway point of a contract that is in danger of looking worse and worse with each passing year. After all, look at how he treated the pre-season.
While most veterans tend to use the exhibition schedule as a way to get their legs under them, Tavares used the so-called meaningless games to send a statement. Not just to his opponents, but to himself. Tavares, who had two goals and five points in three games, wanted to prove that he was healthy, that is still a top-50 player, one that is deserving of a spot on Team Canada’s Olympic roster as well as the money Toronto is paying him.
“He put in a lot of hard work,” said veteran forward Jason Spezza. “Johnny is such a detailed guy that there’s no stone unturned.”
“Focused,” was the word that head coach Sheldon Keefe used to describe Tavares’ mindset.
“You could probably always say that for John,” added Keefe. “I just feel that he’s taken it to another level. As an organization, we’ve talked about raising the standard that we had last season. And I would say that John’s as focused as I’ve ever seen him.”
For Tavares, it’s all about desperation.
“We’ve talked about just continuing to be a hard team to play against,” he said. “When things are going well, it can be human nature to let the foot off the gas, whether that’s in a game or a few games in a row.
“Just being able to consistently push the envelope and how can we find ways to get better and really challenge our opponents and challenge ourselves to continuously never feel like we’re comfortable with the way we’re playing.”
The Leafs captain might not be at a crossroads in his career. But at his age, he’s at a point now where too much time has been wasted. There needs to be a sense of urgency to how the Leafs play this season. They need to win. And they need to win now.
And Tavares, who only has so many good years remaining, needs to lead them in a way he’s never led before.