Canadian Olympic gold medalist John Tavares of the New York Islanders was named the National Hockey League’s player of the week from October 23-29, 2017. The native of Mississauga, Ontario had six goals and one assist for seven points in three games.
A center, Tavares had two hat tricks during the week. The first came in a 5-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday, October 24 and the second came in a 6-2 win over the Nashville Predators on Saturday, October 28. Tavares also added an assist on a goal by Scott Mayfield in the Islanders win over the Coyotes.
In the three games, Tavares was a +3 with one power play goal, one game winning goal, nine shots on goal (for an amazing shooting percentage of .667) and 31 faceoff wins. Tavares continued his momentum on Monday as he scored twice to lead the Islanders to a 6-3 win over the Vegas Golden Knights.
On the season Tavares has 11 goals and four assists for 15 points in only 12 games. The four-time all-star is the heart and soul of the Islanders. He has 552 points in 599 National Hockey League regular season games with New York since being selected first overall by the Islanders in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.
In 2014, Tavares won a gold medal for Canada at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. However, in Canada’s quarterfinal win over Latvia, Tavares injured his knee and forced him to miss the rest of the NHL season. Tavares’s injury was one of the reasons why the NHL decided not to participate at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang.
