From kristen_shilton: Tavares' return met with vitriol, little help from teammates:
He knew New York Islanders fans who felt jilted and deserted by their former captain bolting for Toronto last summer wouldn’t embrace him wearing a Maple Leafs jersey in Thursday’s tilt between the clubs.
“I expected it was coming,” Tavares said of the hostility directed at him. “No one’s walked in my shoes, I know that. I just tried to be open and honest. No one has to like my decision, I just tried to explain my decision and how I got to that point. It is what it is, I’ve made my decision, I’ve moved forward.”
Tavares tried to salute the crowd with a brief skate at centre ice when the video ended, but the boos continued. That seemed to drain the Leafs of their momentum, which is at a premium on the second night of a back-to-back. The rest of their game was fraught with poor puck management, anemic defending and giving up too many odd-man rushes to rely on backup goaltender Garret Sparks to be able to stop.
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