Toronto Maple Leafs: John Tavares Injured, Out for 3 Weeks

The list of injuries is getting longer for the Toronto Maple Leafs, as John Tavares is now out for a minimum of three weeks.

Losing John Tavares at the beginning of the season is a huge blow for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

You can blame me for the bad luck, as this injury happened one day after I had glowing remarks to say about how excited I was for him to start the season healthy and energized.

Tavares suffered an oblique strain, which will keep him out of the opening day line-up and if lucky (based on that three-week timeline), he’ll be back by October 20th against the Dallas Stars.

If all goes well, it could only mean a three-game absence for Tavares, but this is a strange injury that could end up nagging him, so it would best to let him rest until he’s completely healthy. There’s no need to rush him back, especially when the team will be fine for a few games without him.

Tavares Injury Could Spark a Creative Toronto Maple Leafs Line-Up

I’ve been advocating this for a few years now, but I’ve always been a fan of splitting up Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews. The dynamic duo may be one of the best in the NHL, but they don’t need to play together for every shift 5v5.

Instead, the team could benefit from spreading the offense and putting Marner on the second-line. Ideally, you’d want to have Marner paired with John Tavares, but with him out of the line-up, you can still execute this strategy with William Nylander.

For example:

• Michael Bunting – Auston Matthews – Calle Jarnkrok
• Nick Robertson- William Nylander – Mitch Marner
• Alex Kerfoot – David Kampf – Nicolas Aube-Kubel
• Zach Aston-Reese – Alex Steeves- Adam Gaudette

Matthews probably couldn’t have won the Hart Trophy and Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy last year without playing beside Marner, but those awards don’t really mean anything. They’re nice in the trophy case, but a Stanley Cup is nicer.

Sidney Crosby carried a line forever with the Pittsburgh Penguins and it led to multiple Stanley Cup’s. Matthews can still score 40-50 goals with Bunting and Jarnkrok on his wing and then he can torch the opponent on the power-play with Marner.

As for the second-line, this is where you get even more creative.

For years, I’ve always wanted to see Nylander at centre. It seems like a natural fit for him and it’s a position he’s familiar with. It hasn’t worked out at the NHL-level yet, but if you want to evolve his game and make him an even better player, having him at centre can open up the line-up.

A trio of Robertson, Nylander and Marner would create a ton of offense, making up for Tavares’ absense. Marner would be able to feed Robertson and Nylander all day long and they’d be able to suplement any offense you’re missing with Marner off the top-line.

Continuing throughout the line-up, it would be a combination of defensive specialists, mixed with some skill. Overall, the bottom-six would be very good at stopping the opposition, but they probably wouldn’t score much, which is fine.

Nobody wants to see Tavares injured, but it could inspire Sheldon Keefe to get creative, which is never a bad thing.

Hopefully the captain doesn’t miss much time, because they’ll need him in the long-run, but in the short-turn, it could give a huge opportunity to someone like Calle Jarnkrok, who looks to make an impact in his first season with the Toronto Maple Leafs.