Leafs dedicate Game 2 win to injured Tavares: ‘This one’s for him’

Toronto Maple Leafs captain John Tavares was on his teammates' minds during their Game 2 win against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.

"This one's for (Tavares), obviously. He's our guy, he's our captain," Leafs star Auston Matthews told Sportsnet's Kyle Bukauskas following the 5-1 win.

He added: "When a big piece of your team goes down like that, everybody's got to respond. Guys that come in have got to respond, and I think we did a really good job tonight."

Tavares was stretchered off early in Game 1 on Thursday after taking a knee to the head from Corey Perry. He suffered a knee injury and concussion on the play and will be sidelined for at least two weeks.

Leafs veteran Jason Spezza acknowledged that the club will need to have a relatively deep run if Tavares is going to rejoin his teammates this postseason.

"The only way we can see John (again) is to win hockey games," Spezza said, according to TSN's Kristen Shilton. "We want to do well for him, so we're going to try and win as many games as we can and get him back in the lineup."

"He's so selfless," Spezza added, according to The Athletic's James Mirtle. "He's trying to calm us down, even the night it happened ... That's why he's a leader."

The Leafs and Canadiens will play back-to-back contests on Monday and Tuesday in Montreal.

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Bobrovsky starts Game 4 after replacing Driedger in Game 3

The Florida Panthers are going back to Sergei Bobrovsky in Game 4 against the Tampa Bay Lightning after starting Chris Driedger in goal for the previous two contests.

Bobrovsky is in the Panthers' crease Saturday opposite Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy.

Bobrovsky stopped all nine shots he faced after relieving Driedger to begin the third period of Florida's 6-5 overtime win in Game 3 on Thursday.

Driedger allowed five goals on 12 shots in the second period of the victory and faced 22 shots over 40 minutes. Bobrovsky gave up five goals on 40 shots in Game 1 of the first-round series, which the Panthers lost 5-4. Driedger then started Game 2, surrendering a pair of goals on 28 shots in a 3-1 defeat.

Meanwhile, Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle was scratched for the second straight game Saturday. His ironman streak remains unaffected because these are playoff contests. Yandle is a healthy scratch, according to The Hockey News' Erin Brown.

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