Some mystery surrounds the health of John Tavares as the ailing New York Islanders captain will miss his third consecutive game Tuesday against the New Jersey Devils.
Tavares still leads the club with 11 points in 10 games, but he hasn’t played since Oct. 29 and is a definite maybe for Thursday’s contest in Montreal.
The Islanders describe his illness as “flu-like symptoms.”
“He got hit hard and just couldn’t recover,” head coach Jack Capuano told reporters in New York. “To my knowledge, that’s what it was. We had some people check on him, he had more checkups, tests on him. Everything was good.”
Tavares was absent from Monday’s practice but did skate lightly Tuesday morning at Barclays Center with the extra players.
Without their No. 1 centre in the lineup, the hot-start Islanders lost to the Sabres in regulation and the Devils in overtime.
“He started to turn the corner last couple of days here,” Capuano said. “We wanted to get him out of bed, and get a little exercise, and we’ll see how he is moving forward.”
