John Tavares Hat-Trick Gives Toronto Maple Leafs Hope Again

Captain John Tavares lived up to his $11M contract last night, leading the Toronto Maple Leafs to victory.

$11M is a lot of money to pay a 32-year-old centre, but John Tavares lived up to ever dollar of that deal last night when the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Philadelphia Flyer 5-2 on home-ice.

The past 10 days in Leafs Nation have been rough. The city has been on pins and needles waiting for someone to either get fired or traded.

And that’s been justified because the team has played like crap.

They continued to lose games to terrible teams and the core-four didn’t deliver. They’d looked fine at times, but nothing to the extent of what Tavares did on Wednesday night.

With seven goals and 14 points in 11 games, Tavares leads the Leafs in both categories. From the very first game, he’s been the team’s best player and is turning back on the clock.

Tavares Gives Toronto Maple Leafs Fans Something to Cheer About

Maybe it was the injuries or the pressure of being the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs over the first few years of his contract, but Tavares has never felt like the leader of the team, despite wearing the “C”.

Auston Matthews has held that title for the Leafs over the past few seasons, but as of today, that role has shifted to Tavares.

Since being drafted first-overall in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, Tavares has been an NHL All-Star, point-per-game player and 40-plus goal-scorer, but he’s only made it out of the First Round once. I know this is still the regular season, but his attitude thus far makes me feel like he’s sick of that.

He’s sick of people saying he’s overpaid and should be traded. He’s sick of people calling him washed-up. He’s sick of the losing and the hardship of playing in Toronto.

And that passion to stop losing is showing on the ice thus far.

As previously mentioned, the last 10 days have been hell. When the Toronto Maple Leafs stink, it feels like a dark cloud hovers over the city, but when they’re winning, it’s 30 degrees and sunny, even in the dead of winter.

With that angst building up throughout the fanbase, someone needed to step up last night and Tavares took that role. After allowing the opening goal, it kind of felt like the Leafs may lose another one and keep this losing streak alive, but the captain showed up and put the team on his back.

A four-point (3 G, 1 A) game from Tavares and two-point (1 G, 1 A) from Matthews is exactly what this team needed. Although life is good after this dominating win against the Flyers, they’ll need to keep that momentum going against a red-hot Boston Bruins team on Saturday night.