In certain situations, it’s hard to differentiate between the feelings of guilt and loyalty.
But John Tavares cannot let guilt influence him one bit while making the biggest decision of his professional life in the next few months. Just because the Islanders have bent over backwards to try to accommodate their captain and keep him from reaching unrestricted free agency on July 1, he shouldn’t feel bad about that.
In no way did Tavares ever hold this franchise hostage, like so many other stars in his position have done.
Instead, he was handed the keys by those in charge and now he is driving the organization in the manner that he sees fit.