Gotta See It: First glimpse of John Tavares skating with Auston Matthews

Former Maple Leafs captain Rick Vaive calls into The Starting Lineup and explains why John Tavares should be named Toronto’s next captain.

In the immediate aftermath of the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ signing of John Tavares, there was speculation that young star Auston Matthews might somehow resent getting the chance to play with another really good player.

It’s a pretty silly notion when you consider adding Tavares brings Matthews that much closer to potentially winning a Stanley Cup — the goal of all NHL hockey players — but it was an idea that was put out there, for better or worse.

With that said, if a five-second clip in a one-minute video can be taken as evidence of any kind, then it looks like the Tavares-Matthews dynamic is already off to a flying start.

As seen beginning at the 0:25 mark of a Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Sport Development video posted Monday evening, you can get your first glimpse of Tavares skating around in the Leafs blue and white and, more importantly, seemingly yucking it up with Matthews in what looks to be their first time on ice together as teammates.

Twitter user David Nestico turned the brief sighting of the two together in the video into GIF format for a clearer view.

So while the small peek at Tavares and Matthews could’ve been taken out of context for the purpose of the video, those look like pretty genuine smiles to us.

The Leafs kick off their pre-season on Sept. 19 against the Ottawa Senators and play their regular-season opener at the newly-monikered Scotiabank Arena vs. the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 3.

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