LEAFS CAMP TAKEAWAYS: Still scoring after all these years

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The preliminaries are through at Toronto’s training camp, exhibition games are next, so time for some takeaways.

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The preliminaries are through at Toronto’s training camp, exhibition games are next, so time for some takeaways.

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TIME CAN’T TAKE DOWN TAVARES

Any National Hockey League team would love to squeeze Stanley Cup silver from a player in his golden sunset years.

In Toronto, that’s been a pipe dream. The top five scorers in franchise history were traded or ended their careers elsewhere, partial explanation of 58 years without a title.

John Tavares might buck that trend, turning 35 on Saturday with another 35-goal season attainable this coming season.

year’s 38 goals — to go with his durable attendance of 75 games played — ranked 12th in league history for his age.

Gartner is the only Leaf to score 35 at 35 (thank you, NHL Stats) and were J.T. to reach 40 goals, he’d be just the eighth on a legendary list with the likes of Gordie Howe, Phil Esposito, Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and his former Leafs boss, Brendan Shanahan.

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Goals, however, are just the gravy for Tavares and the team after seven years in Toronto. His service as an old-school, low-key captain, steering clear of controversy, has endeared him to teammates, as has setting a tireless example of practice and conditioning for younger mates to emulate.

He’s let a few rookies live with his young family to ease their team and Toronto transition.

As every year, his birthday comes as training camp ramps up and he jokes that too many cake calories when his wife and three kids celebrate with him are a nutritional no-no. But that he can still blow out so many candles after another arduous start to camp says a lot.

The feeling I have playing the game is the same as I had starting out, falling in love with hockey,” he said during training camp. “I enjoy, the tough days, the challenges, the grind — everything I do to be at the level I expect to be at and impact the team.”

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Tavares and the training staff spent the summer maintaining his game pace, skating, checking and corner work, leaving camp to reinforce his offensive tools.

“Production is part of that (his 494 career goals with the Isles and Leafs rank 50th in NHL history), but I like the way my game has been trending the past three years.”

There was no doubt Tavares came at a cost, a seven-year, $77-million US contract after they won the 2018 UFA bidding war. His salary was complicated for the club, first by COVID-19 and the ensuing flat salary cap. But starting this season, Tavares will work under a club friendly four-year $4.389-million hit, value for money if he clears 30 goals again centring William Nylander and on power-play duty.

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It sounds like a broken record when a GTA native talks of bringing the Cup home, but Tavares never says that just for a sound byte. When he took less money to stay another four years, Craig Berube wasn’t surprised.

“He’s a Leaf,” emphasized the head coach. “And he wants the opportunity to do something special with the Leafs.”

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STICKING WITH NICKY IS TRICKY

Few recall when Nick Robertson scored the last goal of 2024-25 in a pathetic 6-1 playoff elimination loss to Florida.

Fewer might care that he notched the first of the new campaign Saturday in the initial intrasquad scrimmage on a breakaway.

But as the goal was the game-winner in a four-way netminding duel for the Blues over the Whites — before he added the 2-0 empty-netter — welcome to another debate on whether Nick sticks in the lineup.

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Berube has given Robertson the right-wing slot on the fourth line with Scott Laughton and Steven Lorentz, the most tenuously held spot as this camp opened.

Robertson teased his new coach last year with dry spells, punctuated by goals the moment Berube reinstated him. He’s playing on a $1.825-million deal this year with restricted free agency to follow.

There’s no such thing as a meaningless game for Robertson now, with his anticipated appearance in some of the six exhibition games that start Sunday afternoon in Ottawa.

“I don’t take them lightly,” assured Robertson. “It’s a chance to get the rust off and prepare myself.”

As always with his coaches and managers, it’s how well he can hold his own defensively in those tight physical contests where his quick and hard shot don’t always pay off in goals.

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GET IT OVER WITH ALREADY

“Fire all exhibition games into the sun” snapped an NHL colleague of ours, who hates covering so many September dress-rehearsals.

The overdue plan to shorten the pre-season schedule doesn’t kick in until next year, but until then, Berube and his colleagues have to cobble a league-sanctioned lineup six times before opening night.

We’re not sure if a rebuilding team or a mostly set roster such as the Leafs have provides a bigger challenge to select a squad, but the rough pecking order goes like this:

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A minimum number of veterans must dress to satisfy ticket-buyers, then newcomers and those in the closest position battles, recent draft picks that teams want to see in a big league milieu before returning them to junior, and then farmhands, all with an eye to not risking any slightly injured players.

After Sunday’s tilt, the Leafs host Ottawa on Tuesday, then it’s home-and-home with both Montreal and Detroit, leading to the Oct. 8 regular-season opener here against the Canadiens.

“It’s hard, because you’re not going to get a look at everybody,” Berube said. “But we have to put guys in who we think have an opportunity, and guys who’ve earned it. Our veterans need to play some, too.

“In general, we want to get guys together and get them some chemistry.”

Sunday’s Leafs lineup to face the Senators will be revealed in the morning.

lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby

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