Real Kyper & Bourne - John Tavares on his Road to 1000 NHL Games

Episode Date: January 30, 2023

Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares joined Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne to talk about reaching his 1000th NHL game and the Leafs' season so far. The captain discussed his gameday routine and off-ice activities, the evolution of his personal goals as a player, playing alongside Mitch Marner and the current Leafs roster, plus the difference of being with the New York Islanders versus playing for his hometown team. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Let's welcome in the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, John Tavares. JT, thank you very much for joining us. I'm sure it's an off day for you and one that you may need after recharging your batteries. How busy was it for you? Yeah, it was very busy. Thanks for having me on. But, yeah, I think obviously a lot of great things yesterday. Obviously, plying and just everything that went with it being a pretty cool milestone to hit.

So definitely feeling some of that today, but it's all good. And nice to have a couple days here before we're back at it on Wednesday. But, yeah, it's been a whirlwind. So JB here to JT is really concerned about how expensive it was for you this weekend. How many tickets was it, JB? 60 or 70, do you say? That many people at the game? Yeah. So it was really fortunate.

I think the organization was very helpful in that regard, and my teammates as well with our allotted tickets and the way they stepped up to the plate and took good care of me there. I definitely owe them one. But, yeah, there's still some expenses to the weekend for sure. I'll let my wife handle those, and I'll just continue to try to focus on playing some good hockey. That's great.

It sounded, I mean, it was beautiful seeing your kids out there with the silver sticks and all that, like in, you know, in Toronto, you know, somewhere where you grew up wanting to play, obviously, just such a cool moment for you when you watch that video back before the game and where maybe you were reflective on your own career, you know, what are you most proud of? What were you thinking about watching that video?

Well, I think there's lots of things. I think obviously definitely very proud of myself of, you know, just I think the commitment, the work ethic, you know, the sacrifice and dedication and, and, and really, it's really all those things because I think just the love of the game and the same feelings I get when I put my skates on, even though there's different components now from when you're a kid to being a professional and playing in the NHL.

But the same feelings I get and excitement to play the game and to compete are the same as I have as a kid. So I think just a lot of that, and I think just a lot of gratitude for a lot of people and obviously two great organizations in a big part of my career and helped me get to this point and where I'm at. So just really, really grateful for that. And obviously really special, like you said,

to have this game and this milestone where I grew up and to have so many people that were all part of that, either through my childhood and coming up through junior hockey and then obviously professionally. So it's really nice to share with them and with my teammates and the organization.

So all in all, it was a great day. We're joined with the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, John Tavares. JT, on this show, we often break down Sheldon Keefe's every word, right down to the nitty gritty. One of them today was in regards to your structure, your routine. For some of those listening out there, I mean, what does he mean? What's a game-by-game situation with you if it's a 7 o'clock start

and the things that you go through, maybe you can kind of quickly let our listeners and our watchers understand what they mean when they talk about your routine. Well, something that has always kind of given me a lot of confidence and probably something I've just realized and picked up on are things that I've learned from different people throughout my career. And just getting a sense of who I am as a player is just preparation and it gives me a lot of confidence and helps me feel good.

And not that I really want to be so strict, but I think, you know, you want to develop a really good process and habits that, you know, put you in the best possible, you know, state of mind. And I think obviously physically on a day-to-day basis and, you know, as I get older, you know, just your better understanding, you've been through it a lot of times and the more that you learn, whether about yourself or just the things that can make a difference for me over a long grind and the challenges of being consistent and playing at a high level and an elite level that, you know, I want to push for and from just even the simple things of routine

of just when you go to bed, when you wake up, and obviously how you take care of yourself, the way you eat and hydrate, and all the other things that are a big part of recovery and performance these days that a lot of science has gotten behind. So it's something I've been intrigued about and seen from other athletes or players or guys that have been around or obviously throughout our staff and the things they bring to our attention. And, you know, as I'm getting older, continuing to refine those things that I can still obviously play in an elite level and continue to make the most of this opportunity and just enjoying playing the game. So something I enjoy and something that helps bring me confidence and helps me feel prepared. So, and obviously being a father now and having a family,

you know, managing my time is extremely important and maximizing all that and making sure that, you know, that's priority number one for me in my life. So that's part of it as well. It really puts a lot of things in perspective and kind of weeds out of maybe a lot of things that you used to do or the way you used to spend your time and allocate it and whatnot that, you know,

it's helped me kind of even dial those things even a little bit more. John, when you look at that, you know, career arc for yourself again, you know, thinking of watching you at the Islanders in your early days, obviously as a player coming into the league, there's just a lot lot of go go and show everyone what you can do has your style changed intentionally in any way like do you feel like what you know when you go

into a game and you talk about your routine what you're trying to accomplish and what you're trying to bring is that always been the same or has it evolved as you've evolved over the years oh yeah no question that's evolved i think you know as a one young player and obviously you know a lot of expectations and i think even just for me that but i expected myself you know you want to come in you want to prove yourself um and and i think you know you never have to you always constantly have to uh prove yourself but i think to establish maybe better to I think to establish myself as a player in a league and as a good player and obviously pushing to be an all-star and an elite player

and counted on in a lot of areas and the strength of my game, obviously offensively and what I was able to do as a kid and through junior hockey. Obviously, you want to find that confidence and bring that ability and that's really fine-tuning, you know, the areas of your game that need some work and some polishing and some of that comes through experience and obviously, you know, playing in the league and understanding the league and obviously, you know, what you learn that is important to help bring success to all

parts of your game and how they all, how they all become connected. As I've really come to kind of realize over, over this, you know, last few years of my career, how, how, how important that is. And I think, you know, my role is, you know, probably changed over the last few seasons, especially I think with Sheldon coming in and he's been great and helping me with that, especially with, you know, just the way, you know, Austin has become one of the best players in the world

and how our team dynamic has kind of worked out. Just how you approach things and having a feel for your game and the team and how that dynamic works and how you can make the biggest impact possible. So, you know, I've tried to take a lot of pride in that and enjoy that part, that evolution part, and continuing to find the areas or the mindset that you want to attack and improve upon and see how things can kind of evolve.

And, you know, when you play and gain experience, you see other guys around the league or guys that you've played with who have been through that, and you can pick up things here and there and you you learn from all those things so that's the benefit of um you know you know playing in a thousand games now or 14 seasons and um that evolution i think it's critical to always think just what you did yesterday is going to work tomorrow um can be a little bit short-sighted um but in saying that, I also think it's important to know what your strengths are and to be good at your strengths because that is always kind of the foundation of your game. And then again, it doesn't hurt.

And there must be some sort of comfort in looking over your side and either seeing Marner or Nylander. You and Austin just draw straws before the game and there's really no loser either way. Yeah, I mean, it's a big reason why I came here. You see what those guys were doing, and even just coming into the league as extremely young players, so much expectation, a lot of attention,

especially playing in Toronto and what that brings and their ability to handle it and obviously their skill sets and the exceptional talents they all are. You obviously want to play with good players and seeing where they were at in their careers and where I was at in mine and knowing the opportunity of the contract I was going to be able to sign and it made a lot of sense and was part of the

decision making process so no doubt anytime you get to play with elite players like that it just makes the game that much easier and you learn so much more about the game and get so much better I talk a lot about in practice whether it's going up against Austin or you're, you know, you're working together in whatever we're doing in, you know,

our team settings or some of our skill development work, you just get so much better being around those types of players and challenging yourself going up against them every day. And you gain obviously so much respect for them and love playing with them, but they also help make you better. You know, so cool seeing your kids with the Islanders patch and the Leafs patch on their little jackets. You know, I'm curious about what the difference is

in your relationship with Long Island and your relationship with Toronto. Obviously, both positive experiences on the balance. Just wonder what's different. I know it's a tough market here in Toronto, given all the media attention, and obviously I imagine there's a lot of noise at being your hometown.

Yeah, I mean, different places, but both obviously incredibly special to me and impactful to me. You know, being just a young kid getting drafted first overall, the Islanders is a tremendous honour. And obviously, I took that with tremendous pride and tried to give it everything i have every single day and really embraced uh embraced being an islander um and it's a obviously a very passionate and proud fan base um and the organization obviously we're uh working hard and doing the best we can to try to turn things around and um you know have

a lot of great memories from the tremendous relationships built there. And obviously it was a big part of me growing up and becoming the player and person I am. And obviously just a really unique opportunity when things kind of came together and decided to come to Toronto. At the end of the day, I just, I love to play the game and, and you know, there's a lot of, you know, different things and things that you can read or listen to or watch or see. But at the end of the day, I think I just try to go out there and give it everything I have and believe in my ability and have fun

and know that getting to play in a market like Toronto with the history and tradition of the organization and obviously an unbelievable fan base um it doesn't get much better than that so you know it's uh it's really special i think you know that's what makes it makes it great is is expectations are high and people want the team to do so well so badly um that you know i think 99 of the things that i hear or when i'm in around town and people see it's all so positive and and you know i think they love the team watch the team and and the type of players that we have so um you know just continue to work at it and obviously for us to find a way to break through

we're talking to John Tavares the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs uh JT just going into the last 30 games as one of the leaders on the team, where is the focus these last 30 games? We're watching a Boston Bruins team absolutely run away with a lot of things so far in this National Hockey League regular season. But, you know, is that something that you guys discuss in the dressing room? A couple of losses, a win by you guys. Is that something that you have to keep an eye on? Is there believers that

you can still make this thing close in the Atlantic division? Well, I think all we can do is control what we can control and obviously that's with our play and trying to earn the results that we need and however that falls, we'll see. I think obviously

they've been playing at a record rate, which has been really impressive. I think at the end of the day, we know the road to get to where we want to get to is going to be extremely difficult. The East overall and obviously our division is tremendously tough. I think we saw that last year as well. So I think it's just continuing to build our game, obviously earn the results that we need and see where things fall.

Obviously you want to put yourself in the best possible position. And so, you know, continuously, honestly, just trying to take things day by day as boring as it can sound. It sounds sometimes. It's such a long season, long grind. You're looking at the big picture a lot. You know, it can, I don't want to say it becomes overwhelming, but I think it takes away from just the focus of how you can just get a little bit better today and, you know, things can continue to snowball

and we can continue to get better, work through the adversity or the challenges that we do face or the things that maybe we haven't been as good on throughout the season or through recent stretches and whatnot. So I think first and foremost, it's just trying to take care of what we can and what we have to. Obviously, we have some great tests coming up starting with Boston on Wednesday before our break. That's a great chance to go out there and earn two points.

And if it can chip away at things, that's great. We obviously want to take advantage of that. Well, we know you could have easily gone to Miami along with Willie Nylander. You're not, so maybe headed up to Collingwood or Niagara Falls for the break. Big plans? Beach it.

Yeah, no, nothing crazy. I think it'd be great to spend some time with the family and try to enjoy some winter. So I'm actually headed up to Mont-Tremblant for a few days. There you go. Winter has been a little different in TO this year, so it'll be good to get them on the skis and just to relax. Just nice to enjoy some peace and quiet and some good time with them.

It'll be good. It'll be really nice. Well deserved. We really appreciate your time. Thanks for coming on our show. Yeah, thanks so much. Appreciate it.