While he no longer wears the captaincy on his jersey, Toronto Maple Leafs’ alternate captain John Tavares still has a lot to say when the microphones make their way over to him. As was the case when he did don the ‘C’ on his jersey, Tavares’ leadership and accountability in both himself and the team resonates in the words that he says.
Ahead of the team’s big win on Monday night against the Calgary Flames, and amidst a tough seven-game stretch for the team in which they had no regulations wins, Tavares noted the need for competition and accountability within the leadership group in Toronto.
After all, with the division and the playoff race getting much tighter around the Maple Leafs, every point matters and the Maple Leafs were letting each one slip away.
Maple Leafs Will Follow the Leaders
There’s a major drop-off between the top-end players — the team’s leadership group — and their second-tier depth players on the Maple Leafs when it comes to overall offensive production. Like most teams, the team will go in the direction that their leaders take them and in recent seasons it’s led to a first-round exit come playoff time.
Now, obviously the leadership group can’t take the brunt of all of the team’s failures, however, there is more expectation placed on those meant to drive the team’s overall play. When they don’t come through, the blame is placed on them naturally.
What Tavares is saying is that they need to feed off of each other’s efforts. He suggests that it’s imperative that the team feed off each other and work on the holes in their game to get back to playing at a competitive level.
Tavares also notes that each player — while trying to help drive the bus that is the team — has to find ways to push themselves individually as well. Those top guys need to find ways to produce offensively and those role players need to find ways to play their role to the best of their ability. Without it, the Maple Leafs won’t be going far come playoff time again.
Maple Leafs’ Leadership Group Wants to Win
The effort seems off at times and while Leafs Nation can get frustrated at times, head coach Craig Berube has noted that it’s not that the leadership group doesn’t want to win.
“They want to win,” said Berube of the scapegoat group in Toronto, including Matthews, Marner and others. “Trust me on that. They want to win. There’s a sense of frustration, for sure, and we gotta look past that. We can’t complain about or get undisciplined because teams are checking us hard. That’s what you gotta get through.”
In recent runs, it’s been noted that the Maple Leafs get bullied and pushed around by opponents — the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Florida Panthers and the Boston Bruins. They tried adding players like Ryan Reaves and others to the lineup, but those players tend to be one-dimensional.
What Tavares alludes to in this clip rings true for the group the Maple Leafs will be heading into the playoffs with. They have secondary scoring in Bobby McMann and inconsistently Nick Robertson and they have a new identity line that is lead by Scott Laughton. But in making sure that this unit can take that next step, the entire team needs to find ways to push each other to the very brink of what they can bring to the game.
If some nights pucks are going in for players like Matthews and William Nylander, how can they adapt to help the team succeed. Maybe Robertson might be relied upon in a tough spot to get one for the guys — how can he get to that next level? It’s like Tavares said, push each other and one’s self individually as well, all at the same time.
After all, success this season isn’t just needed for a team that has lacked it come playoff time for far too long. In a division like the Atlantic, that is only getting better, success with the core players they have now is — in the words of Tavares — imperative.
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