Tavares carries the Canadian hopes on his back
John Tavares has been turning in some super-human performances lately.
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No, the Oshawa Generals’ star isn’t hiding a cape when he slips on his Team Canada jersey at the World Junior Championships in Ottawa, but he has turned in some heroic performances.
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The 18-year-old sniper leads the tournament with eight goals and almost single-handily brought Canada back into a game that they had no business being in. After falling behind by three goals to the U.S.A. early in the first period on New Year’s Eve, Tavares took his team on his back and brought 20,000 delirious fans at ScotiaBank Place to their feet with a pair of first-period goals.
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He capped the win with an empty-net effort that was anything but a gimme and took a firm hold of his place among the greatest junior hockey players that this country has ever produced.
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Tavares will need to be at his best again on Saturday when Canada faces an underachieving but always dangerous Russian squad in the tournament semi-finals (7:30 p.m. Eastern on TSN and RDS). The winner will face whoever comes out of the other semi-final between the powerhouse Sweden squad and the upstart Slovaks that shocked the U.S. with a quarter-final win on Friday.
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Despite his success so far in the tournament, Tavares refuses to get caught up in the attention that he is garnering.
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“I just want to play well and have the coach have coach count on me to deliver when I have to,” Tavares said. “That’s what I focus on every game. It’s nice to step up and be a leader.”
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Tavares is the Canadian Hockey League’s top prospect for the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and is making a convincing case to become the third straight OHL player to be selected first overall in June.
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“He’s proven it every time and I have no doubt that he’s going to do that at the NHL level,” said Canadian defenceman P.K. Subban of the Belleville Bulls who was childhood friends with Tavares. “He’s amazing. I hate him when I play in the OHL but I’ve got to be honest; he’s a dominant player. He’s that good. He comes up in the big games every time.”
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Tavares came to the Generals four seasons ago as a special exemption to the OHL’s Priority Selection rules. He was simply too good to spend another year dominating minor hockey players. After an outstanding rookie-of-the-year campaign, Tavares gave notice to the hockey world that he was a special player when he put Wayne Gretzky’s record for most goals by a 16-year-old behind him.
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Through all of the accolades and the occasional arrow about the deficiencies in his game, Tavares has kept an even-keel like a person twice his age. He just doesn’t seem to get too pumped up about things when they are good or rattled when they go the other way. Wednesday’s game against the U.S. was a perfect example. He didn’t panic when Canada was down and wasn’t cocky about his efforts after helping the home team salvage a win.
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“I think our emotions were kind of getting the best of us and we were running around out there,” Tavares said after Wednesday’s game. “I think it was good that we were excited but I think it got us out of whack and gave them some good opportunities. I kind of just said to the guys during a TV timeout to ‘just relax and go out and let’s play our game out there’. Obviously I wanted to step up and make good plays and score goals. That’s what I’m counted on for out there.”
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Pat Quinn has spent a lot of time around players at the top level and has a lot of praise for the offensive leader of his Canadian Junior squad.
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“I’m having the pleasure of watching him live for the first time,” said Quinn, who has also coached Canadian teams at the Olympics and the Under-18 World Cup. “He’s a good player and we want our top players to perform well within the team concept. He’s trying to do that. You can excel when you have the extra skills within a team concept and he’s doing that. I’m really pleased about that. That’s the only way we will win. He’s doing a good job that way and he was big when it counted.”
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Photo: Aaron Bell/CHL