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The Star: A need for speed drives Leafs captain John Tavares in summer workouts

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hockeywiz542

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www.thestar.com

A need for speed drives Leafs captain John Tavares in summer workouts

A quicker Tavares would be an important component to a Leafs lineup that lost speedy forwards Ilya Mikheyev and Ondrej Kaše in free agency.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

John Tavares expects to arrive as a leaner, hopefully faster version of himself when the Maple Leafs’ season gets underway this fall.

To that end, the captain is working with the team’s development staff over the summer — a regular at the Ford Performance Centre, training in a way he couldn’t last year.

“I’m always trying to tweak things and work on things as best I can,” Tavares said in a recent interview. “For me, obviously just trying to be a little quicker, a little lighter on my feet. I think that’s really important ..."

“I’ve done some really good work there with the development staff already, and I like where things have started.”

Tavares will be 32 when the Leafs open their season (his 14th in the NHL, fifth with Toronto) against the Canadiens in Montreal on Oct. 12. His production has yet to really sag — he had 76 points in 79 games last season, and has been close to a point-a-game player his entire career. But he was never the best skater, and the league has only gotten faster since he was drafted first overall by the New York Islanders in 2009.

He might have had a better start to the 2021-22 season if his 2021 playoffs hadn’t ended with a concussion. That hindered his off-season training.

“Right now, physically, I feel really good,” said Tavares. “Obviously last off-season, coming off the injury, there (were) hurdles to get to a point where I felt really good about where I was at, and getting cleared to return."

“This year, I’m relatively healthy going to the off-season and could get right at it.”

A quicker Tavares would be an important component to a Leafs lineup that lost speedy forwards Ilya Mikheyev and Ondrej Kaše in free agency, at a time when the power balance in the Atlantic Division may be shifting.
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hockeywiz542 said:
www.thestar.com

A need for speed drives Leafs captain John Tavares in summer workouts

A quicker Tavares would be an important component to a Leafs lineup that lost speedy forwards Ilya Mikheyev and Ondrej Kaše in free agency.
www.thestar.com www.thestar.com

John Tavares expects to arrive as a leaner, hopefully faster version of himself when the Maple Leafs’ season gets underway this fall.

To that end, the captain is working with the team’s development staff over the summer — a regular at the Ford Performance Centre, training in a way he couldn’t last year.

“I’m always trying to tweak things and work on things as best I can,” Tavares said in a recent interview. “For me, obviously just trying to be a little quicker, a little lighter on my feet. I think that’s really important ..."

“I’ve done some really good work there with the development staff already, and I like where things have started.”

Tavares will be 32 when the Leafs open their season (his 14th in the NHL, fifth with Toronto) against the Canadiens in Montreal on Oct. 12. His production has yet to really sag — he had 76 points in 79 games last season, and has been close to a point-a-game player his entire career. But he was never the best skater, and the league has only gotten faster since he was drafted first overall by the New York Islanders in 2009.

He might have had a better start to the 2021-22 season if his 2021 playoffs hadn’t ended with a concussion. That hindered his off-season training.

“Right now, physically, I feel really good,” said Tavares. “Obviously last off-season, coming off the injury, there (were) hurdles to get to a point where I felt really good about where I was at, and getting cleared to return."

“This year, I’m relatively healthy going to the off-season and could get right at it.”

A quicker Tavares would be an important component to a Leafs lineup that lost speedy forwards Ilya Mikheyev and Ondrej Kaše in free agency, at a time when the power balance in the Atlantic Division may be shifting.
Click to expand...
I thought other NHL teams complained about Leafs training at Leaf facilities in the offseason and the NHL banned it? Or was that only certain amenities?
 
Hope so. I do wonder how much having to recover from the concussion last off-season impacted his training.

Glad he realizes his speed was an issue. Hopefully he comes back more dynamic, we need him to be more of a play driver.

At this point he's not going to be that $11 AAV anymore. Rather I hope he can be a strong #2C, that is more impactful 5 on 5. He was near PPG last year, which is great, but he definitely benefitted from the Leafs' PP. A "rebound" season would be nice.
 
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BertCorbeau said:
Hope so. I do wonder how much having to recover from the concussion last off-season impacted his training.

Glad he realizes his speed was an issue. Hopefully he comes back more dynamic, we need him to be more of a play driver.

At this point he's not going to be that $11 AAV anymore. Rather I hope he can be a strong #2C, that is more impactful 5 on 5. He was near PPG last year, which is great, but he definitely benefitted from the Leafs' PP. A "rebound" season would be nice.
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He was tied for his third-highest ES PTs/60 of his career last year.

He is playing less ES minutes than he did before, so that hurts his production (obviously). His shooting percentage was also well below average (9.9% or something) after December, so he wasn't scoring as many goals despite generating chances as he was earlier in the year when he was like top 20 in goal scoring.

Honestly, if he was able to just meet his expected goal totals at ES in the second half (like he did in the first half), he puts up north of a PPG, he puts up close to 35 goals, and he has a lot more assists than he was putting up earlier in his career. That is not only the makings of a top line center, but a top half of the league top line center.

And while he does benefit from that PP, that PP also benefits a lot from him doing the dirty work in front of the net. Nylander benefits from that PP a lot more than Tavares does, considering teams have to worry about Matthews more than him.
 
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JTs issue wasn't just being slow of foot. It's being slow to react, slow of mind. He's not anticipating well or outthinking opponents the way he should. Its not a hcokey IQ thing, cuz he's smart and experienced enough. It almost seems like hes working harder not smarter. Hes always taking these direct.lines and being predictable and late in his pursuits. When really, he just needs to take a breath and stop proving how "hard he's working" all the time. Basically, I dont think his speed issue is all physical. In addition to footspeed, I hope the sports psychology and hockey science team can get him refocused on being more proactive and anticipatory again. That would make all the difference in the world.
 
Antropovsky said:
I thought other NHL teams complained about Leafs training at Leaf facilities in the offseason and the NHL banned it? Or was that only certain amenities?
Click to expand...

No it was an issue of the Leafs paying for their prospects and players to travel to come to and stay in Toronto and use the facilities. NHL franchises also can't pay for specialty coaches to come in and work with their players and prospects either or else they'll be fined.





Basically the "poorer" billionaires bitched and moaned that the Leafs were flexing their financial muscle and rather than spend some of their own money to help their players improve and bring the league playing level to a higher standard they'd rather just stop other teams from doing the best they can for the players they have under contract.

We'll keep subsidizing the likes of Arizona though.
 
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Just a thought. Would Engvall be any good on LW w/JT. Big body, seems heavy on the forcheck. Need a mucker (Hyman) to get the puck. Or is he still too soft.
 
He's the key. At his salary the Leafs need him to drive a line ala his Islanders days and being lighter on his feet will help. I wonder how splitting Nylander and Tavares and playing them with similar playstyle players would do.

Robertson-Matthews-Marner
Bunting-Tavares-Knies
Kerfoot-Nylander-Engvall
 
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both jt and nylander have 90 points next season. Nylander was robbed a good 10-15 points due to Tavares being off in the second half (before he was off himself for a few weeks) yet still finished with 80 and tavares 76.

There were also game where they could have 3-5 points and end up with 0-1 instead. Some cleaner finish and these two have a 100 point ceiling especially Tavares since he's a better hunter for points. What may hold them back from this ceiling is bad choice 2LW.

When I first sign here the weird thing was not the extreme dubas lovers it was the tavares haters. Get ready to be proven wrong.
 
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Gary Nylund said:
People really need to stop whining about the decline of this guy. Say what you want about him but the guy's a gud pro and I'll wager to say that there is not one player on our team who wants to win the cup next season more than him.

Atta boy JT, keep setting that good example like a captain should!
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Everyone knows the more years into the deal the worse the cap hit was gonna look, and the flat cap accelerated that. That's the deal with UFA's generally,

As for JT, while his lack of speed can be frustrating, I've never doubted his desire to win and improve as a player.
 
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For years the conventional wisdsom in the league was to prioritize strength down the middle. I don't think there are many teams in the NHL with a better second-line center than John Tavares. He has always been maligned due to his cap hit and foot speed, but he has consistently been able to produce. Take him out of the lineup and I think we look a lot worse.

Glad to hear he knows where his weaknesses are and is working to improve on them.
 
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