Captain Tavares not sour taking on lesser role with Maple Leafs
Well, a good captain should know how all decks on the ship perform their battle station duties.
So, John Tavares jumped right into his perceived demotion to the third line with the goal of getting to know “Robby” (Nick Robertson) and “Bobby” (McMann) better, while adjusting to losing his place on the top power-play unit.
The decisions by coach Sheldon Keefe have been easier for 1,000-point, 1,000-game Tavares to digest, knowing Max Domi has been a good fit in his centre spot with Tyler Bertuzzi on the new-look second line and Bertuzzi had two of his three goals Saturday on the man advantage.
“You want to do what you can to help the team, be ready when your name is called,” Tavares said Monday after practice. “(As a third-liner), you look to create opportunities, build momentum, play in the offensive zone and finish chances when you get them.
“It’s been a good week for myself, Robby and Bobby and we want to get better.”
Tavares accepted Keefe’s logic that something different had to be tried to kick-start Bertuzzi and get William Nylander rolling again, which meant elevating Domi’s role at centre. Tavares’ scoring numbers had dropped, too.
“It’s what (Keefe) felt was necessary and you just control what you can,” Tavares said. “We have a real strong club and the goal is to win and do something special. You just want to contribute to that.”
Keefe praised Tavares as someone who “gets it,” after explaining to the latter why he was making the switch.
“It gave us some different looks and John is all about the team,” Keefe said.
Tavares did have a rocky finish to the game in Denver where he had a great chance at an empty net, but didn’t get a shot off, while Ilya Samsonov had to stop the dangerous Nathan MacKinnon at the buzzer. Tavares said the puck took a strange bounce on him.
“Not the ideal situation when you’re looking to seal it,” he said. “And all their guys go the other way. But great job by Sammy.”
