Toronto Maple Leafs: John Tavares Back on the Ice + Game 5 Tonight

The Toronto Maple Leafs are scheduled to take on the Montreal Canadiens in game five tonight.

After taking both games in Montreal, the Toronto Maple Leafs will return home and try to win their first series since they beat the Ottawa Senators in game seven back in 2004.

17 years is a pathetically long time between series wins, especially considering you need to win four to be the Champs and the 2004 Leafs lost in round two, but the Leafs have some extra motivation to get it done tonight:

The return of John Tavares.  He isn’t playing, but the fact that he skated is extremely good news.

The Return of John Tavares

One week ago, the playoff got off to a terrible star when the Leafs captain was hit by Ben Chariot then kicked in the face by Corey Perry.

The image was horrible, and it looked obvious that Tavares would be out for the playoffs.  The news, however, was much  better than could have been expected: Tavares didn’t have any structural damage, and though he did have a knee injury that would keep him out two weeks, as well as a concussion, he seemed to escape serious injury by means of a miracle.

Just the fact that Tavares can get out of bed a week later is surprising and impressive, let alone that he can suit up and go to practice.  Now, certainly he is still going to be out for a while, and the Leafs have said multiple times that they will take the utmost care with his concussion, but this is great news.  (stats naturalstattrick.com).

It inspires me, so I’m sure it is inspiring to his teammates, who will look to get the job done tonight with their fourth win in a row.

So far the Toronto Maple Leafs have absolutely owned this series, with their smallest expected-goals rating coming in at game three and still a very strong 54%.  In fact, the only time Montreal has carried the play at all has been in the third period of the last two games as the Leafs hold a lead.

Something, it’s worth pointing out, they’re pretty good at these days.  The most scary thing for Montreal tonight is the prospect that they’re down 3-1 despite allowing points from Auston Matthews in just one game.

Not that they’ve shut him down, he’s dominated play all series.  He just hasn’t been very lucky.  I’m not sure he’s ever played five games before and been held pointless in four of them, so the Canadiens are most likely in trouble tonight.

Tavares is back on the ice, and the Jets are on the horizon.