Maple Leafs @ Islanders Game Chat: Final edition of Tavares-Watch

Maple Leafs (46-24-7) @ Islanders (32-35-10)

7:00 pm ET

TV: TSN

Our game preview with lineups is here.

It’s remarkable what’s going on with the Islanders this year. They started the year with all kinds of question marks about their future, between their arena problems and their franchise player — John Tavares — going into his last season before unrestricted free agency without a contract.

But they had a pretty strong first half of the season thanks to a young, exciting and prolific offense led by Tavares, Anders Lee,  Josh Baiely, Mathew Barzal, and Jordan Eberle. They also won a bid for a new arena development deal that seemed to solve that problem. Things were looking up for the franchise, and it seemed more likely than ever that Tavares would re-sign with his team like all NHL stars do.

But their offense was masking defense and goaltending that was as bad as their offense was good, and in the second half of the season they’ve tumbled out of a playoff spot and down to 12th in the conference. The Isles started acting in really confusing ways.... mainly moving Tavares to play on Barzal’s wing for... reasons? I’m a bit lost on why combine the two of them at all, let alone why move TAVARES to the wing instead of the rookie? Then there’s the ongoing Josh Ho-Sang drama that won’t go away.

Anyways, this is my long way of saying that the Leafs are definitely going to sign Tavares now because he’ll see how great the Leafs already are tonight and how much better they’ll be with him on the roster. BUDS ALL DAY!!

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What Leafs winger would look best on a line with Tavares?