Hockey Confidential (7 page)

“I loved playing both sports,” Young John said. “I really looked up to [J.T.], and until I was 13 years old, I really thought I could just keep on playing both sports. I played lacrosse with my cousins and we had a lot of good friends. It was how we bonded. My lacrosse highlight was winning the provincial championship in bantam. Our Oakville team started out as kids and we were getting beat by Whitby by 15 or 16 goals, and in bantam, we won it all. That was a really tight group of guys that grew up together. We beat Whitby in the final. I had the game-winning goal in the semifinal and the final.”

In midget lacrosse, at the Ontario Summer Games in London, Tavares's Oakville team finished third, but his lacrosse game really took off. He was named tournament MVP. He played a year of Junior A lacrosse for Mississauga the summer before he was granted early admission to the OHL. And even after he finished his rookie season in the OHL with the Oshawa Generals, he played one more season of Junior A with the Tomahawks.

It was only after he played his second OHL season that he knew, as difficult as it was for him, he'd have to stop playing lacrosse to focus on his hockey career.

“I went to the [Junior A lacrosse] tryouts that summer, and for the first time, I knew that was it for lacrosse,” he said. “I ran in that practice, and when it was over, I told them I was done, that I had to put more time into my off-season hockey conditioning. You just can't train for hockey and play lacrosse at the same time. I'd get home at one in the morning from Peterborough or St. Catharines and then have to get up and work out in the morning. I just couldn't do it. It was time.”

Joe Tavares never imagined that the two Johns—his brother
the lacrosse superstar and his son the hockey superstar—would make the impact they have on their respective worlds, so there's plenty of family pride to go around.

“We're all very proud, our whole family,” Joe said. “They're phenomenal athletes and they're very proud of each other. You can see that.”

Proud, and thankful as well, especially to the man who never got the same athletic opportunities as they did, which allowed them to chase their sporting dreams and scale the greatest of heights in their respective games.

Older John is eternally grateful that Joe sacrificed his own youth to work and support the family so he was able to play lacrosse. Younger John feels the same way about his dad doing everything he did to allow him to play both hockey and lacrosse.

And maybe, just maybe, this J.T.–John Tavares story could turn out to be a trilogy. Peter Tavares, 18 years Joe's junior, is the youngest of Manuel's and Dorotea's children. On September 14, 2012—six days after Lacrosse John's 44th birthday and six days before Hockey John's 22nd birthday—Peter Tavares became a father for the first time. He and his wife Misty had a little boy.

They named him Jonathan.

Jonathan Tavares.

•   •   •

In an effort to unearth the secrets of goal-scoring success,
we didn't need to go around the world. We needed only to invite two of the greatest natural goal scorers in two sports—the lacrosse J.T. and the hockey John Tavares—to a coffee shop in Mississauga, Ontario. Here's the transcript of an interview conducted in August 2013:

BM:
First goal you ever scored, do you remember it?

Uncle John:
I was five or six. I zigzagged through the whole Mimico team and scored. It's funny, I don't remember the ball actually going in the net. What I remember is what I felt after I scored: confident. I knew I could get through everyone and score.

Young John:
I don't remember my first goal, but it's weird, I remember not being able to score. I was at a hockey camp, I was really young and I had six or seven breakaways in a scrimmage at the end, and I didn't score on any of them. I didn't start off too well. My mom took video of it. I remember watching it a few years ago—maybe that's why I remember it.

BM:
From an artistic point of view, what's the best goal you've ever scored?

Uncle John:
Hmmm, I'm like [Young] John: I remember more of my errors than my goals. There was a goal I scored, and my part of it, that was the easy part. It was the most artistic because of the whole play. It was in Brampton. Darris Kilgour won the faceoff and he passed it to Jim Veltman, and Veltman backhanded a beautiful pass to me and I just shot it in the net. It was like
boom-boom-boom.
What I did wasn't anything special, but the whole play, the flow, the simplicity of it . . . it was just beautiful. But I think you're looking for something else, more individual.

Okay, I came down my wrong side, which I did a lot. I would normally bring the ball across myself, cross my arms and dive through the air and just push it in on the far side where I was diving. But goalies would catch on to what I was doing, and the goalie this time—it was Anthony Cosmo—he knew me really well, so I started doing it and then I realized he knew exactly what I was doing. So while I was in the air, diving across the crease, instead of shooting it into the net far side, I somehow wrapped the stick around behind my back and twisted my body while I was in the air and shot it back to the other side and it went in. I don't think there's any video of it, it was Buffalo vs. Toronto. I would like to see that one again.

Young John:
I can't believe you didn't say the one that was on the ESPN Top 10.

Uncle John:
Oh yeah, that was a good one, too. [
He grins.
]

Young John:
Look it up on YouTube. It was on ESPN. Buffalo against Portland. He went through three guys and made, like, eight fakes. It was an incredible goal, one of the best I've ever seen.

A few stand out for me. There was a minor hockey game, they were checking me all game. I got hauled down on a breakaway. Laying on my back, I somehow shot it, the goalie was down and I just sort of chipped it over him. The other one I think of, it was my first goal in the OHL, against Kingston. We were shorthanded—I'm not sure why a 15-year-old was on the ice, killing a penalty, in his first OHL game. [
He laughs.
] I just let a snap shot go from top of circle, one of the best shots I've ever taken. It went far side, top corner. I don't normally shoot it like that.

BM:
What about your most important goal?

Uncle John:
It was 1992 [Tavares's rookie season in the NLL], Buffalo versus Philly at the Spectrum—a great game, sudden-death overtime, sold-out crowd. The atmosphere was unreal. It was a broken play. Philly's goaltenders were Dallas Eliuk and Dwight Maetche, who I played with in Vancouver. Dwight was a great goalie, I really respected him, and I never say a goalie is good, but he was good. In practice, he would never let me score. I hated that. So Dwight got into the game and I didn't want to shoot on him—he was in my head a bit. So there's a broken play and the ball comes to me in overtime, and I decide I'm going to take a backhand [over the shoulder]—and I don't take a lot of backhands. I see the top corner open and I take the shot. It went straight into the ground and between Dwight's legs and in. [
He laughs.
] Nice shot. But it won the NLL championship.

Young John:
For me, it's probably the [2009] World Junior Championship. It was New Year's Eve, we're down 3–0, like that, against the Americans. I scored three goals, but it was the second goal that was the big one. I drove wide, shot it into the top corner. That goal really turned things around for us in that game and the tournament. But I would have to say the shootout goal I scored against Russia in the semifinals that year was really important, too. We all remember the [miraculous tying goal by Jordan Eberle], but I knew I couldn't miss on the shootout. What I remember is I didn't hear anything—
nothing
—when I skated in on the goalie, and the place was going crazy, but that's the most focused I've ever been on a shot. I almost lost the puck, but the goalie went down and I scored.

BM:
This may be repetitive, because you've talked about a lot of goals already, but what about, for any reason you see fit, the most memorable goal you've scored?

Uncle John:
That would be the game-winning goal in the Founders Cup Junior B championship or the 1992 NLL [overtime game-winning goal] against Philly.

Young John:
For me, that would be when I broke Wayne Gretzky's record for most goals by a 16-year-old in the OHL. I tried to pass the puck to Cal Clutterbuck on the back door, Logan Couture went down to block it, the puck went off his skate and back to me. The goalie anticipated the pass, went down, and I shot it low blocker. I didn't even celebrate the goal; I just went and got the puck. The guys gave me a hard time about that one.

BM:
How about this one: the most vindictive, suck-on-that, in-your-face goal you scored?

Uncle John:
I don't have one like that.

Young John:
Oh, I do. There were tons in minor hockey. Kids would follow me and slash me and stick me and I'd score and be so pumped . . .

Uncle John:
Yeah, I probably have a few like that, but not one I remember any more than another. I'd be in Peterborough or Boston, and I'm tired, and some guy is yipping at me from the bench, saying, “You're too old,” and I'm thinking, “You don't really want to wake me up. I'm an old man now.” [
He laughs.
] So I'd take the ball, I'd have a look up at the 30-second shot clock and I'd just shoot it in and look over the bench, like, “Really?”

Young John:
I know when I played in minor atom, a guy was shadowing me, being really dirty with me. My dad thought it was coming from their coach, and he would tell me to protect myself. They would butt-end or stick me in the nuts. I scored a hat trick in this game. The guy who was sticking me, after I scored, he faked like he was going to slash me in the head. He got a penalty. I didn't even move, never flinched. I scored again and I said, “What are you going to do now, fake slash me in the head again?”

BM:
How about a goal someone else scored that you wish you scored? Do you have any goal envy?

Uncle John:
I played some minor lacrosse with Brendan Shanahan and he'd say to me, “Show me a fancy goal.” I didn't score fancy goals; I'd just try to do things the right way. Gary Gait, now there's a guy who scored some fancy goals. He'd rip a backhand from the top of the power play into the top corner. I wouldn't even have the guts to try that, especially on the power play. So I'd like to score a Gary Gait backhand from the top of the power play.

Young John:
For me, it would be a goal with great meaning. Maybe because it's coming up, the Olympics—I would have loved to score Sid's goal in Vancouver, in Canada, to win Olympic gold for Canada. Either that or Brett Hull scoring a game-winning goal in overtime to win the Stanley Cup. Those are the kinds of goals I dream of scoring.

Uncle John:
I've been trying to convince [Young] John to pick up the puck on the blade of his stick and whip it around and bounce it in, like Robbie Schremp did. As a fan, that's what I'd like to see John do on a shootout shot. What's the percentage on scoring on a penalty shot or shootout—maybe 20 per cent? I'm surprised you don't do that.

Young John:
I do it in practice.

Uncle John:
Do you score?

Young John:
Yeah, sometimes.

Uncle John:
See, it's easy. I've seen high school kids do it. Easy. Do it.

Young John:
Now you sound like my dad. My dad can shoot right or left in hockey, both ways, and he always says to me, “Shoot both ways, it's easy.”

BM:
Most goals you've ever scored in one game?

Uncle John:
I think in junior, I once had 12 or 13. In pro, I think the most I ever had was seven. My manager in Buffalo told me that if I get a few goals early and the game is in hand, I really back off and don't try to score as much. He's probably right.

Young John:
Once in lacrosse, I had 13 or 14 points, but I don't recall how many goals. In minor hockey, I've scored six or seven goals. That would be the most for me in hockey.

BM:
Outside of your contract that pays you, did anyone—a family member—ever give you money to score a goal?

Uncle John:
Nope, never any money. Maybe a shot in the head if I didn't score. [
He laughs.
]

Young John:
My dad would just say, “If you don't get a hat trick, don't come home.” After the game, we'd pull up and he'd open the door a crack and peek out and say, “How many did you get? Okay, c'mon in, then.”

BM:
Let's talk celebrations. Do you guys have a go-to celebration?

Uncle John:
I don't celebrate goals too much. More in practice. I joke around that I'm going to jump up on the glass and really go crazy, and then I score and I just raise my arms. Honestly, excessive celebrating just stirs up the other team. Why would you want to do that?

Young John:
I go through stages. I don't mind celebrating a goal—nothing too crazy, though. I'll do the same thing for 20 or 30 games and then switch it up a bit.

BM:
I went through a lot of [Young John's] goals on video, and you're right: you stick with the basics, but there are little variations that you throw in there. You're mostly a two-arms-straight-in-the-air guy, but sometimes you'll throw in a little something extra—

Young John:
Fist pump, usually. I don't mind a little fist pump.