Maple Leafs' Tavares has 'great week' with birth of daughter, scoring series winner
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John Tavares won’t soon forget the last week of April.
Check that, the Maple Leafs captain will never forget it.
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Maple Leafs' Tavares has 'great week' with birth of daughter, scoring series winner Back to video
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In the days before Tavares scored the series-winning goal in overtime of Game 6 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, his wife Aryne gave birth to the couple’s third child, daughter Rae.
The baby joins big brothers Jace and Axton in the growing family.
“It has been busy, it has been great,” Tavares said on Tuesday, hours before the Leafs and Florida Panthers clashed in Game 1 of their second-round series of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs. “The highlight of my daughter being born is really special. Things have been great on the home front. It has been a great time for my family.
“Competing in the Stanley Cup playoffs along with that, a lot of emotions, a lot of support from my family. Big credit to my wife as well. It has been a great week.”
Tavares’ Leafs teammates, naturally, were thrilled for him. Tavares capped the week on Saturday night at Amalie Arena, when his shot in overtime bounced off Lightning defenceman Darren Raddysh and past goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, sending the Leafs to the second round for the first time in 19 years.
“It’s funny how those things work,” Leafs defenceman Jake McCabe said. “People talk about it in golf a lot — guys have kids and go on to win.
“John scores a big goal for us right after his baby girl is born, and I know it’s such an exciting time for him and his family and his boys and his wife Aryne. It was more special for him to get that goal and being a dad (with a newborn). It’s a lot of emotion.”
If anyone could be expected to separate the emotions that come with becoming a dad again and the emotions of a tight playoff series with a heavy amount of pressure, it’s Tavares. So it wasn’t a surprise to the coaching staff that Tavares didn’t miss a step as the Leafs looked to close out the Lightning.
“John, as we know, is a very detailed guy, very diligent in that he takes care of himself and his routine, his body,” Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “Any time there is a big event happening outside of the game, he is just as diligent to take care of the details and make sure things are handled properly, both for his family and for himself to manage both things.
“His wife and his support team did an unbelievable job of allowing him to play and be prepared. The timing worked that he was able to be there and be a part of things. It’s crazy how things work out, and he’s the guy that gets that goal, it’s an awesome time for him.”
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