So John Tavares has a broken finger and will be out of the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup for the next few weeks. That sucks, a lot.
The Tavares line with Mitch Marner and Kasperi Kapanen (later Trevor Moore, later Ilya Mikheyev) struggled at the start of the season, producing only three goals for and nine against at 5v5. That’s not good, but the Leafs without Tavares are going to be way worse. It’s John freaking Tavares.
The two keys to the Leafs offense that are going to need to be replicated by the new lineup are having lines that can keep up with the competition they’re going to be facing, and providing the elite players support so they’re not working all on their own.