John Tavares After Islanders’ Game: “I Moved Forward”

The line between love and hate is very thin. At one moment, you could be the best person in the world, and after one decision, suddenly become the synonym for all the bad things.

John Tavares felt that last night while entering the Nassau Coliseum. For the first time in his career, he appeared here not playing for the New York Islanders.

After his decision to sign a seven-year deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of the best centers in the game instantly became the most despicable person among the Islanders fans.

While approaching the arena, you could see his jerseys all over the place. Some of them laid on the road deliberately placed there so that the vehicles could run them over. Others were changed and instead of his name, wrote “traitor.”

In general, it wasn’t pleasant to be his fan yesterday in New York.

The situation was even worse inside the Nassau Coliseum. Chants, booes, threats, vulgar speech, all that was involved.

But the player himself wasn’t excited too much, nor did he had any grudges against the people who loved him until several months ago.

“They always made it tough on the opponent when I played here,” Tavares said. “They have their feelings and that’s out of my control.”

The former icon of the Islanders expected something like this to happen and told the reporters that he had moved on after the decision to leave New York. Now, Tavares just wants to play hockey, saying that he understands the feelings of the fans.

“I expected it was coming.. you know, no one’s walked in my shoes… no one has to like my decision. It is what it is, I made my decision I moved forward, so I’m just kinda trying to go up there and play.”

The 28-year old received a tribute video from the organization, which was played during the middle of the first period. Despite fans’ displeasure when seeing the footage, Tavares appreciated this gesture of his former franchise.

“I was fortunate to have some good moments individually to help contribute,” he said about his time with the Islanders. “So those were nice to see and to be acknowledged and I just try to show my appreciation of that.”

The home team destroyed Maple Leafs with 6-1, mostly because of the electric atmosphere created by the crowd.

Islanders fans were more than hostile, and they were giving the much-needed energy to the hosts, who simply rolled over the Canadians.

For most of the players, this was a unique experience, as they never faced this kind of energy and intensity from the stands, not even in the playoffs.

Islanders center, Matthew Barzal was stunned with the supporters, and although he played for the Islanders last season, he ever encountered with anything similar like this.

“I didn’t think it was going to be like that. …. It was something I’ve never played in before.” said the 21-year old.

The Islanders are on top of the Metropolitan division, with 81 points, and have the toughest defense in the whole league. They are just one point behind the Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference standings, but also with one game fewer, meaning that they could quickly seize the No.3 spot in the East. And if that happens, the Boston Bruins at No.2 wouldn’t be far. .

But all this was not relevant last night in New York. The only thing which mattered was to humiliate John Tavares. And that pretty much happened.

Tavares was the No.1 overall pick in the 2009 draft, selected by the Islanders, and he quickly became the franchise leader and the cornerstone of their organization.

During nine years in New York, he was elected 6 times to be an NHL All-Star and was Hart Trophy finalist in 2015. He didn’t lead the Islanders to any notable results during his stint here, but was the favorite player of the fans, which made his jump to Toronto even more controversial.

These two sides will meet again on April the 1st. In New York.

We’ll see what happens then.