Steven Ellis/Daily Faceoff
Not only did the Toronto Maple Leafs play one of their best games of the season so far in their 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.
But Oakville’s John Tavares scored his 400th career NHL goal in that game.
It was a typical Tavares goal, JT took a great pass from defenseman Jordie Benn in the high slot and used a screen to his advantage and shot it into the top left corner to score the first goal of the game and gave the leafs a 1-0 lead with just under eight minutes left in the first period.
TSN put out an interesting stat last night after Tavares scored his goal.
Though Tavares has taken much criticism from hockey fans about his play potentially deteriorating, he is now third in career goals among active skaters since 2009 behind his childhood friend Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning with 466 goals and future Hall of Famer Alex Ovechkin with 569.
Tavares spoke after the game about his accomplishment, saying, "It’s that much more meaningful on a night where we get two points and when the group plays extremely well."
With Tavares clearly having more hockey left in him at this elite level, 500 goals are not out of the realm of possibility and he is only 77 points away from hitting 1,000 lifetime points - something only 100 NHL players in the league’s history have accomplished.
