New York Islanders John Tavares Injury Won’t Hurt

Any injury to John Tavares is usually gut-wrenching in every sense of the word for New York Islanders fans. But the captain’s latest injury isn’t as dreadful.

John Tavares is listed as week-to-week with a hamstring issue meaning he won’t play in any of the remaining regular season games. But is it really that bad? These games are practically meaningless to the New York Islanders

The Islanders aren’t making the playoffs. Mathematically speaking it’s possible. But this team needs a miracle now.

New York Islanders

If we’re going to be realistic, our last shred of hope was crushed by the first period blow out in the loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. Face it, three consecutive losses aren’t going to cut it in a tight playoff race.

Is the injury disappointing? Yes of course, but not devastating. Don’t get me wrong, I hate seeing John Tavares go down whatever the situation with the team. He is the backbone and the driving force of the Islanders.

But if there is such thing as a “best situation to be injured in”, it’s this one. Tavares can take his time to recover completely without worrying how much the team will suffer in his absence.

Imagine if the Islanders were still in the race for the playoffs. What a disastrous situation that would have been. Or if this happened midway through the season. Talent like Tavares’s is irreplaceable in the lineup.

And who knows, maybe it could hurt his trade value just enough to put off a trade. Follow that up with a nice contract extension and everyone’s happy. Letting Tavares go would set this team back five years in terms of the rebuild.

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Tavares has stated that he loves Long Island and he wants to remain an Islander. But would you blame him is he changes his mind after the way this team has fallen apart in a span of a week? Not to mention the way it’s been mismanaged all season long.

We better hope Tavares is as blindly loyal to this team as he says he is. Otherwise, we’re going to be stuck in limbo for the better half of another decade.