Dave Poulin: Kyle Dubas shifted his Leafs game plan to try and beat the Lightning. And it just might work
Stamkos, the No. 1 pick in the 2008 draft and a product of the OHL, followed a year later by Tavares, the first choice of the New York Islanders out of the same junior league. One thousand-plus games later, they’re still battling. And for the second year in a row they will face off in the opening round.
Two years after the Stamkos dalliance, it was Tavares’s turn to be romanced and he accepted an offer from the team he, too, had been a boyhood fan of. If Stamkos becomes a Leaf, Tavares does not. Of course, Stamkos has gone on to win two Stanley Cups, and made the final again last season. Things have not gone as smoothly for Tavares, whose sole playoff series win came as an Islander in 2016. He is 0 for 4 with the Leafs, including against the Montreal Canadiens two seasons ago, when he suffered a series-ending injury early in Game 1.
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