Tavares injury overshadows Game 1 loss
Captain conscious but spends night in hospital after Perry knee to head
When John Tavares lay motionless on the ice, a bit like a rag doll when lifted, all the hype about the first playoff game between the Maple Leafs and Canadiens in 42 years seemed meaningless. The hopes of a team to win a Stanley Cup seemed trivial.
All that mattered, for teammates and his Montreal rivals, was the health of the Leafs captain.
“Life comes into play at that point,” said Leafs forward Nick Foligno. “Just seeing how he was in pain, it made you sick to your stomach. You think about him as a family man. The game takes a back seat in those circumstances.”
Tavares was expected to be in hospital overnight, with coach Sheldon Keefe remaining optimistic.
“He’s conscious and communicating well,” Keefe said after the game. “The tests that he’s had so far have come back clear.”
And when Corey Perry, whose knee to Tavares’s head was responsible, tapped Tavares as he was stretchered off, and Tavares lifted his hand — so the cameras could see that maybe, just maybe, he was OK — then the game could return.
“I’ve experienced a lot of different things, a lot of tough injuries and stuff like that in my time as a player and as a coach,” Keefe added. “That was probably the most uncomfortable situation that I’ve been a part of on the ice. It was really tough to get through. Our players were rattled and concerned.” á One down: The game resumed and the result was a 2-1 win by the Montreal Canadiens, with Paul Byron scoring short-handed at 12:44 of the third period to break a tie. William Nylander had the lone goal of the second. Montreal’s Josh Anderson opened the scoring in the first. Game 2 goes Saturday night.
The Leafs played with fire all night but took too many penalties, mostly of the delay-ofgame variety. Meanwhile, their own power play sputtered and surrendered a goal. The Leafs went 0-for-5 with the man advantage, including one chance with less than three minutes to go in the third and two extra skaters with the goalie pulled.
“You can’t just give teams life by giving them power plays,” said Foligno. “And it was a really choppy game, and then nobody gets a feel for it. It kind of takes away what we’re really good at, which is being a five-on-five team.”
Leafs goalie Jack Campbell couldn’t be blamed for the loss, making a number of key saves. Canadiens goalie Carey Price gets full marks for the win, including a game-saving stop on Mitch Marner with the game tied. He’s the kind of goalie who rises to the occasion, and if he’s on his game the Leafs have their work cut out for them. á ‘Clear accident:’ Sources within the NHL’s department of player safety indicated to the Star that the contact that hurt Tavares was unavoidable — a freak accident — and even though Perry has a reputation for walking the line between clean and dirty, it was unlikely that the league would suspend him.
“Clear accident,” said one
league official. “Unavoidable,” said another.
Perhaps knowing that, it was Foligno — who had famously called the Leafs soft a few years ago — who took down Perry in a fight, retribution for violating those unwritten rules in an unwritten code.
“I don’t think Perry maliciously did anything. I think it’s just a matter of answering and being done with it. It allows us to go play hockey,” Foligno said of the fight. “Whether you feel one way or another about it, our captain’s laying on the ice and I’m sure those guys feel the same way if it was their captain laying on the ice.
“I think it’s the right response and Perry’s a big boy. He obliged and we handled it, and moved on and played hockey.”
Truly, it was a bang-bang play in every sense of the word, with Tavares hit twice.
Montreal defender Ben Chiarot got Tavares at the Leafs blue line and he fell backward before Perry’s knee caught him in the head. No penalty was called. Tavares lay motionless with 9:31 to go in the first period.
When first lifted, Tavares’s head lilted back. Even though only media, scouts and team officials were allowed in Scotiabank Arena, there was an audible gasp.
Doctors from both benches rushed to the Leafs captain, aided by players from both teams. It took a while for the stretcher to come, for Tavares to be loaded on.
Sticks tapped as the stretcher left the ice. Perry skated by and Tavares gave that thumbs up. General manager Kyle Dubas was spotted running down to the stretcher.
“Any time one of your brothers goes down, it’s pretty gutwrenching,” said Campbell. “We’re thinking of him.” á Without Tavares: If Tavares’s injury keeps him out for Game 2 and longer, Keefe will have to dip into his depth. A simple solution would be to activate winger Alex Galchenyuk for third-line duty and keep Alex Kerfoot in Tavares’s spot, where he saw plenty of ice time Thursday. Adam Brooks and Pierre Engvall are also possibilities at centre.