Toronto Maple Leafs: A Healthy John Tavares Makes All the Difference

The Toronto Maple Leafs would not have lost to the Montreal Canadiens if John Tavares wasn’t knocked out of the playoffs in the first minute of game one, by a freak accident that saw one player hit him and another player kick him in the head.

Made all the more intense by the empty building, the incident was the worst thing Toronto Maple Leafs fans have seen since probably the Brian Berard incident nearly 20 years ago.

Fortunately, John Tavares has made a full recovery and was on the ice for the Leafs first preseason game this past Saturday against Montreal (a 4-1 win).

A healthy Tavares will make all the difference in the Leafs fortunes. 

Toronto Maple Leafs and John Tavares

Since the Leafs ultimately won 3 games in the aforementioned series without their captain, I think it’s fair to say that they definitely would have won one of the three games they lost (which included two OT coinflips) if Tavares was playing.

This is pretty much a given, and yet, due to some macho nonsense intertwined in the DNA of professional sports fans, injuries are not seen as a valid excuse.

Even though we wrote about 50 blogs on this site alone about the acquisition of borderline NHL player Riley Nash , the absence of the elite, future hall of famer, 47 goal captain John Tavares totally had no effect on the outcome. 

If you’ve ever met an intellectually superior, highly condescending person who smirks at you when you mention your love of sports, this is the kind of nonsensical logic that goes into that smirk.

There is really no defense for this ridiculous gap in logic,  but that doesn’t stop people from saying “But good teams overcome injuries,” which is the kind of response you expect from people who “do their own research” about Covid 19 vaccines.  Bottom line – with Tavares. the Leafs are a much, much better team.

The Oilers play Leon Draisaitl on McDavid’s wing about half the time, which means that John Tavares is the undisputed best second line centre in the NHL at least half the time.  At worst, he’s the second best second best centre.

But what is funny is that almost everyone is analyzing the Leafs this season like they were the team who lost to the Canadiens last fall.  But the Leafs who lost to the Canadiens didn’t have John Tavares and they had an Auston Matthews who couldn’t shoot the puck.

There is no reason that a healthy John Tavares can’t be the 47 goal scorer from two years ago.  But he doesn’t even need to be that good. If Matthews scores 50 and Tavares scores 30, which is, I think, a underselling their potential, then the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to be unstoppable.

It’s nice to have the captain back, and if both the Leafs centres are healthy, they are going to make everyone forget about their playoff troubles.