Toronto Maple Leafs Ex- captain John Tavares on Max Pacioretty’s injury (image credit: IMAGN)

Former Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares shared his concern about Max Pacioretty’s lower-body injury during a postgame media briefing. Pacioretty was injured in the first period of Saturday’s 4-1 win over Montreal. He needed help off the ice and did not return to the game. This is his second lower-body injury of the season. Pacioretty has six points in 12 games this season.

Tavares hopes the news will be better than it seemed.

“You just hope the news is better than how he’s feeling in the moment. It’s never easy to see,” Tavares said. “We’ve obviously found some chemistry together and had some success early, so we’re obviously going to miss him and what he brings to the table.”

On the other hand, Tavares has been playing well. He scored a goal in the win over Montreal, bringing his total to eight goals and six assists in 15 games. His 56 shots tie him for sixth in the NHL, and he is on pace to shoot over 300 shots this season, which would be a career-high.

If Pacioretty can’t play in Tuesday’s game against the Ottawa Senators, Connor Dewar is expected to make his season debut.

John Tavares also commented on the 4-1 win against Monreal

Toronto Maple Leafs have now won three straight games after their 4-1 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday. They scored two power-play goals, continuing a strong run on special teams. The Leafs have improved with their power-play since struggling earlier in the season, going 8-for-15 in their last four games.

John Tavares talked about the team’s progress.

“The results hadn’t been going well but there were good trends underneath,” Tavares said. “You just have to stay with it.”

“Good week all around but we know we still have a lot of areas to get better in.”

The Leafs got off to a strong start. Conor Timmins scored the first goal at 14:55 of the first period as his shot deflected off a defender and into the net. William Nylander made it 2-0 in the second period with a power-play goal. Mitch Marner then scored a short-handed goal to extend the lead to 3-0.

Montreal’s Brendan Gallagher scored to make it 3-1, but Tavares added a power-play goal at 12:15 to seal the win at 4-1. The Leafs are now 9-5-2 on the season.