Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> get doubled up 6-3 by the Columbus Blue Jackets on a school night probably weren\u2019t glued to the action with the Leafs down 6-1 and only 4:15 remaining in garbage time.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s when Tavares\u2019s clean rush snipe past Elvis Merzlikins elevated him further into rarified air \u2014 only 48 other shooters in NHL history have lit the lamp as often \u2014 and atop the team lead in goals (six) and second in points (14). This despite sharing a dressing room with the likes of prime Auston Matthews and prime William Nylander, further evidence of Tavares\u2019s endurance and consistency.<\/p>\n
Sadly, in a barn where cannon blasts are routine, the phenomenal feat barely garnered a peep.<\/p>\n
Heck, Tavares\u2019s meaningless\/meaningful goal itself might\u2019ve been ruled offside upon review. But the Blue Jackets saw no need to bother wasting anyone\u2019s time with the scoreboard already so lopsided when history struck.<\/p>\n
Difficult to excite at the best of times, Tavares wasn\u2019t about to celebrate a 6-2 goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to comment on it right now. I understand the question,\u201d Tavares told reporters in Ohio postgame.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you play this game to win as a team. It\u2019s all about the team, and you\u2019d like to have it make more of an impact in the game. For sure in the moments ahead and the days ahead, I\u2019ll appreciate it more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among active players, only Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, and Evgeni Malkin are also in Club 500. Future first-ballot Hall of Famers, all of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. Can\u2019t say enough great things about Johnny, the person he is, the teammate, the professional that shows up to the rink every day,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cFeel very lucky to call him a great friend, a teammate, a guy that all of us are extremely happy for.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The way Craig Berube describes him, Tavares is no-maintenance. A coach\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s so professional and dedicated \u2014 and he loves the Leafs,” Berube said. “He loves the team, and he just comes to work every night. He doesn\u2019t ever take a night off. He doesn\u2019t take a\u00a0day\u00a0off. Like, he\u2019s always just doing his thing, working, highly competitive out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Highly competitive\u00a0isn\u2019t the way observers would describe the team Tavares is playing for this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The positive momentum Toronto built via grind-it-out home wins over Buffalo and Calgary dissipated swiftly in Columbus, as they surrendered two goals on the first four shots sent their way and never gained much traction.<\/p>\n
Mismanagement of the puck, particularly in the neutral zone, fed the Blue Jackets’ transition attack. Rush defence remains a glaring issue, symptomatic of a five-man disconnect.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we have breakdowns, they\u2019re just really significant and lead to high-quality chances for them,\u201d Tavares said. \u201cWe\u2019re a little bit too connected, just loose.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hurting us, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Berube noted the frequency of forced plays and the lack of attention to detail: \u201cWe didn\u2019t have it tonight, and we got burnt for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Especially with Nylander sidelined and Matthews still searching for another gear, the Leafs can no longer outscore their opponent on a night where they commit 23 giveaways and dress their backup goalie.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s an effort thing. Guys worked hard. I thought we competed. Just when breakdowns happen and mistakes happen, they\u2019re too big,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s more a cerebral thing than an effort thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Tavares, it\u2019s always been both: the mind and the effort in unison, working toward a common goal. Five hundred times over.<\/p>\n
Shame the moment fell on deaf ears, in a road rink, on a channel no one was watching.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Nylander has missed two of the past three games due to a lower-body injury he\u2019s been managing since he got cross-checked by Jason Zucker Friday. The Leafs\u2019 best player and his coach are both being tight-lipped about the nature of his injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s getting better, but he thought he could play last game, and he did. And I thought he played OK (in Tuesday\u2019s win over Calgary). I mean, he did some good things in the game, and he played through it and helped us win,\u201d Berube said. \u201cSo, I think he\u2019ll be fine. I really do. You get two days after this before we play again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite sitting two games, Nylander still leads the team in points (15) and plus\/minus (+5).<\/p>\n
\u2022 With Nylander out, Sammy Blais finally made his Leafs debut 22 days after getting plucked off waivers from the Canadiens \u2014 and scored a greasy one by driving the net and having a rebound bounce off his shoulder and past Elvis Merzlikins.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a physical player. He likes to throw his body around on the forecheck,\u201d said Berube, who won a Cup with Blais in St. Louis. \u201cAnd he\u2019s got really good hands. He\u2019s good in tight with the puck and can do pretty incredible things with the puck. He\u2019s got a good shot, too. But more so in anything, he\u2019s a guy that’s going to go out there and finish his checks and try to make the other team uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blais tacked on an assist, threw a game-high five hits, took three shots, and had a takeaway. Not bad for coming in cold and getting 11 minutes of work.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst game in the NHL in a year, so it felt really good. Really happy I played tonight and it went well,\u201d Blais said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Cayden Primeau\u2019s save percentage as a Maple Leaf: .838.<\/p>\n
The Leafs’ next back-to-back is Nov. 8 (vs. Boston) and Nov. 9 (vs. Carolina).<\/p>\n
\u2022 Just as one fourth-liner (Scott Laughton) nears a return, another goes out.<\/p>\n
Steven Lorentz crashed hard shoulder-first into the end boards late in the second period and did not return to the game. He needs further evaluation.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Funny, the day Matthew Knies got shifted to Tavares\u2019s left wing, the 22-year-old was asked about the possibility of assisting on his new centreman and onetime billet dad\u2019s magic goal No. 500.<\/p>\n
Knies, 22, broke into a wide smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019d be sweet. I feel like we\u2019re always talking about a milestone goal here,\u201d Knies said. \u201cThat\u2019s an astonishing achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sure enough, Knies served up Tavares\u2019s 500th with a nifty backhand saucer pass on the rush.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If a milestone is reached in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-249686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}