Leafs captain John Tavares puts duty before everything as he deals with changing role
Tavares #Tavares
CALGARY—If you had to describe John Tavares in the context of NHL stars, the word would be dutiful. There may never have been a more earnest No. 1 pick in every facet, who has aimed his entire existence at maximizing whatever he has. Nutrition, routines, every detail, in every way. John Tavares is the son of a Portuguese roofer, and was identified as exceptional as a child. He has tried to live up to it.
The Maple Leafs captain scored his 27th goal of the season earlier this week, matching last year’s total, in Toronto’s 5-1 win over the Seattle Kraken. He nearly scored while sitting on his butt against Edmonton on Wednesday, and he worked hard but was on the ice for two goals against the Connor McDavid line in a 5-1 loss that saw some teamwide failures. It was a measure of how poorly the Leafs played that Tavares, as captain, was the first player to come out and denounce it.
This will clearly be Tavares’s highest-scoring Leafs season since his 47-goal debut in 2018-19, and he is still nearly on pace to match his final season with the Islanders, before the Leafs brought him home as a prized free agent.
He has also spent much of his time on the wing after the Leafs’ trade for Ryan O’Reilly, and could end up there for good. Tavares was always a centre, outside of some national team work, or a brief lockout stop in Switzerland. No. 1 picks like him, those varying levels of chosen ones, usually are. The sainted modern line of Canadian hockey gods are mostly centres: Gretzky, Lemieux, Lindros, Crosby, McDavid. Tavares was not in that range, but belongs somewhere toward the bottom of the next group of successful centres who were No. 1 picks: Dale Hawerchuk, Pierre Turgeon, Joe Thornton, Steven Stamkos, Nathan MacKinnon. Stamkos, for one, has played a lot of wing.
But it says something that what seemed like the very first decision when the Leafs acquired O’Reilly from St. Louis was that Tavares, the team’s captain and second-line centre, was a winger. Tavares can work on his foot speed all he likes; his lack of speed has always made this move, combined with longevity, inevitable. The Leafs said they would flip it back and forth, and they did in the third period in Edmonton, and in Calgary Thursday night.
But the smart bet is Tavares will be a winger. There could be some ego bruising with that, but he is handling it dutifully. Of course he is.
“Just trying to just play my game,” Tavares said earlier this week. “Just that adjustment, and you know, continue to work at things and evolve and just keep trying to get better, and push myself and (be) consistent throughout the year.
“And you know, in the big picture, the ebbs and flows throughout a career, just continue to push forward and find ways to get better … and, obviously, to produce.”
Tavares can speak obliquely even when he’s being direct, but the part of that answer that jumped out was ebbs and flows. He had just talked about the strangely quiet season for Auston Matthews, who is presumably playing through some kind of injury that impinges his shooting; Tavares talked about the ebbs and flows of a career there, too. For Tavares, this seems like an ebb he wants to turn to a flow. He has a stoic’s approach to hockey, and it has served him well.
Of course, it’s not like moving to the wing is moving to the moon. There are different responsibilities, but Tavares does some of his best work along the boards and down low, fighting for pucks. He could be one of the best left wingers in the league.
“I think that everything offensively, especially nowadays in the game, it doesn’t matter if you’re playing wing or centre offensively,” said Leafs forward Alex Kerfoot, who has played both positions. “Coming through the neutral zone it’s a little bit different, but I think the adjustment for him is just in the D-zone. And we talked (about) some of those reads, being able to pick up the puck with speed, getting your feet moving from a standstill, those types of things. But he’s as smart as they come, and he’s going to pick it up pretty quickly.”
“I think the toughest thing for me is just being in the shot lanes and reading some of those things defensively that I’m not quite used to but, you know, continue to get better and better,” said Tavares.
And if there is any ego at play, Tavares wouldn’t say it anyway.
“He’s adjusted well; I think that the biggest thing is that it’s really that moving from centre to wing is not that big a deal,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I think we make a bigger deal of it than it really is. And you know, you’re gonna make a big deal out of a guy that’s played so long in the middle, of course, but in terms of the actual play and making the adjustment, probably the biggest thing is just accepting it and being in the right place mentally.
“And certainly John has been, right from the time I discussed it with him. And he just continues to play. Obviously he’s fit in well with O’Reilly and he’s going to the net and pucks are getting there, and he’s as good as anybody in the league in that area.”
Dutiful. Tavares is in a strange spot: the captain but never the best player, the stoic whose entire career is based on caring as much as he can. If moving to the wing bothers him … well, it’s an ebb and a flow, another problem to be solved. The reason he’ll succeed is the same reason he has to move there: he’s doing the best he can.
SHARE:
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)
Conversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the Code of Conduct. The Star does not endorse these opinions.