Leafs captain being heavily criticized for making a huge mistake against Nashville

While a lot of eyes will be on Tavares in tonight's game against the Islanders, there are some who have not yet moved past Saturday's game against Nashville. The captain is riding a 3-game point streak, but has not scored a goal in his last 8 games. He has had his fair share of opportunities, putting 26 shots on goal over his last 8 games, but has been, for the lack of a better term, snake-bitten.

During the late stages of the first period of Saturday's game against Nashville, with the game deadlocked at 0-0, Tavares had a golden opportunity to get himself back in the goals column. However, he made the rookie mistake of not keeping his stick on the ice and his head in the game following a play in which linemate Tyler Bertuzzi had been tripped. What fans have taken exception to was that Bertuzzi, after being tripped, sent a beautiful feed straight out to the top of Kevin Lankinen's crease that sailed right past Tavares, who had his hands up, looking at the official for a call.

Obviously, nobody's perfect - not even someone as robotic as Tavares. Even veterans are susceptible to the odd rookie mistake. However, at that stage of the game, with the Leafs having a golden opportunity to take an early lead, some fans were very frustrated with the Leafs' captain for dropping the ball the way he did. Of course, it didn't end up coming back to bite his team, as the Leafs went on to secure the 4-0 victory. But, had they lost another 1-goal game, I'm sure this would have been a much bigger deal.