What happened to John Tavares on Thursday night’s Game 1 matchup between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens, is something nobody wants to see.
In what should’ve been a satisfying and surprising 2-1 win for the Montreal Canadiens led by an impressive shorthanded marker from Paul Byron, was instead characterized by Tavares, and the health, safety, and concern that he deserves.
Simply put, no matter if you’re a fan of the Canadiens, the Leafs, or any other NHL team or sports team for that matter, what happened to Tavares is completely separate from all that. As hockey fans, or just people in general, Tavares’s condition comes first and foremost before anything else, and that’s something I just wanted to get out of the way before we discuss anything further.
Montreal Canadiens forward Corey Perry simply found himself on the wrong end of an accidental collision as he came down the ice off the rush. Tavares, the Leafs’ Captain, and leader in many ways, was involved in a separate collision with Canadiens defenseman Ben Chiarot, when Perry’s knee subsequently made contact with Tavares head while he was down on the ice. It was a frightening scene, to say the least, and seeing the wobbly and disoriented Tavares buckle as he was brought to his feet was as difficult to watch as any other, similar, serious injury.
Perry himself has been no stranger to controversy regarding his on-ice actions over the course of his career. But as Leafs’ forward Nick Foligno confronted Perry on the subsequent faceoff (after Tavares relievedly gave the thumbs up as he was carted away on a stretcher), it instigated what is known as the NHL’s unwritten “code” of standing up for your teammates by engaging with the alleged perpetrator in a fight. And this time was no different. Perry and Foligno squared off, both went to the penalty box, and the dust should’ve settled right then and there.
However, that didn’t happen, as Leafs’ checker Wayne Simmonds also took a run at Perry later in the game, and the general tone from the Leafs’ lineup was that Perry, and even Chiarot, were now public enemy No. 1. All the while, Tavares was being evaluated in the hospital, where he has since been released and is not surprisingly, out indefinitely. While it was a satisfying win for Montreal, it has a rather large asterisk attached, which is, quite frankly, something I ultimately should’ve seen coming.
As I had mentioned prior to Game 1, the Canadiens were quite a large underdog in this series, and as such, their Game 1 win comes as a shock to most Leafs fans. Couple this with the difficulties the Leafs’ lineup had moving past Tavares’s injury, and there’s quite a few questions that need to be answered before, during, and depending on the outcome, after Saturday’s game two matchup. Following game one, Foligno had this to say regarding his fight with Perry.
Foligno on why he took on Perry after the hit. "Our captain is laying on the ice. They would have done the same if (it was) their captain. (The hit) wasn't malicious. (The fight) takes away any grey (area). Perry's a big boy. It just allows everyone to go back and play."
— Lance Hornby 🇺🇦 (@sunhornby) May 21, 2021
Now, admittedly, it is true that the Canadiens would most likely do the same thing if faced with the same situation, but regardless, I still feel as though Perry shouldn’t have been reprimanded, or vilified even, for an incident that was no fault of his own. He simply tried his best to get out of the way and, as stated, found himself caught up in a previously awkward collision between Tavares and Chiarot.
In spite of a 2-1 Montreal Canadiens Game 1 win, Toronto Maple Leafs Captain John Tavares’s injury remains, regardless of your team bias, of the upmost importance.
Now, I know that in saying, one might argue that my own viewpoint, that of a writer covering the Canadiens, influences my outlook on how accountable Perry is in all this, but in direct opposition to that, I will repeat my earlier statement. What happened to Tavares on Thursday, is not a case of whether you’re a Leafs fan or a Habs fan. It’s a case of simply, as human beings, looking out for the safety and health of another, fellow human being.
At that moment, when Tavares was laying unconscious on the ice, it was no longer about Game 1 of this first round series between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens. It was a case of someone’s health and safety being at risk, and as such, any and all biases regarding your favourite team and/or disdain for another team should be thrown out the window.
I get that Leafs fans are looking for anything or anyone to assign blame to, following what was a doubtless tough loss to swallow. Jack Campbell played well in net, the offence was moving the puck well and getting off solid scoring opportunities, and the defensive lapses, while ultimately costly, were few and far between. They simply ran into a vintage Carey Price, and a roster that was visibly shaken by a traumatic and disturbing incident. Regardless of any “code” or unwritten rule that applies to the NHL, injuries and incidents like this shouldn’t be applicable to this same “code”.
When it comes to injuries like these, the focus should be, first and foremost, on the injured person, and as the NHL seemingly moves further and further towards an agenda punctuated by clean hits resulting in bench-clearing brawls, the response the Leafs had to Tavares’s injury, while understandable, is unjustified. Regardless of his supposed involvement, what happened to Tavares was an accident, and one which was unfortunately followed by an upset loss for the Leafs.
In the end, I’m just thankful to see that Tavares is out of the hospital and recovering from the safety of his own home, and as the tone appears to be set for the rest of this Leafs-Habs playoff series, that same tone shouldn’t be punctuated by an incident which was accidental.
This simply isn’t just a hockey game any more folks, it’s an injury no one wants to see, and as we look towards what should be an exciting series overall, the Leafs’ response, according to this so called “code”, should be met with the exact same sentiment.