Toronto Maple Leafs:Tavares Scores 1000 Is Worth Every Single Dollar

The Toronto Maple Leafs lost an overtime coin-flip, but it was still a hell of an entertaining game, especially for a midweek game in December.

The Toronto Maple Leafs had a horrendous first period, but recovered with two really good ones, and made yet another multi-goal comeback to secure at least a single point.

John Tavares scored and added an assist to become the 998th 1000 points scorer in NHL history.

For Tavares to scores his 1000 points against his former team was pretty sweet.

Funny enough, the two guys Tavares passed on the all-time list on the way to 1000 were Phil Kessel and Jason Spezza, which means that at least for right now, the 98, 99 and 100 spots on the all-time list are Leafs.

Lanny McDonald is at 96 and Dave Keon at 103.

Tavares should be good for about 57 more points this year, which would put him 76th all-time.  That’s pretty impressive, and should guarantee the Hall of Fame for the Leafs captain.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs New York Islanders

Last night, the Leafs deserved to lose.

They started the game horribly, and were down by two goals before they started to play Ok.

The Leafs do this constantly – it’s bizarre how many two-goal games they’ve overcome.  While that might seem like a good thing, it’s an incredibly unsustainable way to win hockey games. (Or in this case, at least getting a point).

It was a good game once the score effects took hold, but you aren’t scoring four times on Sorokin very often, so it’s no surprise they lost in overtime – they have won too many one-goal games as it is, and were due for the loss.

Frustrating trends continued in this game (besides the teams inability to start on time).

Trends such as:

Ryan Reaves playing and looking like crap. Shot attempts were 15-5 NYI with him on the ice, and the Leafs, overall, were 25% worse when he played.  Why they continue to embarrass him, and the organization by playing him is beyond my comprehension. (naturalstattrick.com).

No one on the blue-line can make a breakout pass.  You can sometimes get a good game out of guys like Benoit or Lagesson, but when you’re playing them every night you can see how bad they are.   Benoit especially last night was brutal.

The blue-line just sucks.  End of story.  It’s honestly pathetic that they keep running out so many bad players, but I guess since they keep getting points, so who cares?

From the lineup they dress, to the way Keefe deploys it, to the blue-line, the top line, to all the injuries, this team has so many problems.

But they keep winning.  It’s really something else.

Anyways, Congrats to John Tavares, he’s awesome and worth every single dollar.