Tavares out for 2 weeks with knee injury, no timetable for concussion
John Tavares will miss at least two weeks with a knee injury sustained on the same play in which he suffered a concussion, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas said Saturday, according to TSN's Mark Masters.
The GM added Tavares had been cleared of all structural damage to his head, neck, and spine. However, there's no timetable for his recovery from the concussion.
Tavares was stretchered off early in Game 1 of Toronto's playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday after taking an inadvertent knee to the head from Corey Perry. The Maple Leafs captain was taken to hospital that night and discharged the next morning. He was ruled out indefinitely due to the concussion at the time.
Dubas also took the opportunity Saturday to criticize the Toronto Sun for its cover page showing the Leafs' medical staff attending to Tavares with the headline "Captain Crunched."
"I think that situations like that garner a significant amount of coverage, but as an organization, we felt (Friday) that the Toronto Sun cover of their newspaper crossed the line and we found the cover to be disgusting," Dubas said, according to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.
"We understand here that writers and columnists have no input into the covers of papers or headlines, but we just thought that it was extraordinarily insensitive on the part of the Sun with regards to the photo and the caption that accompanied the situation (Friday).
"Just a complete lack of compassion and respect on behalf of the Sun towards John and his family, especially for such an upstanding member of our organization and community, and his family that had to endure that."
The collision between Perry and Tavares happened in the first period of the Canadiens' 2-1 victory. Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.