The Toronto Maple Leafs won their third-straight game on Thursday night, defeating the New York Rangers 4-3 to maintain a tie for first place in the Atlantic Division with the Florida Panthers.

John Tavares was the star-du-jour, scoring two goals and adding an assist to help him reach the 1100-point plateau for his career. Despite never having more than 90 points in a single season, Tavares has been remarkably consistent throughout his career, hitting the 80-point plateau in five of seven full 82-game seasons, and reaching the 25-goal mark in a whopping 14 of 16 seasons in the NHL.

In addition to all of this, Tavares is also one of the more humble players in the league that you’ll talk to, so it was no surprise that he largely credited his teammates for helping him reach the milestone.

“You don’t take it for granted,” Tavares said about his accomplishment. “It’s been a great journey, a lot of hard work, obviously I’ve played with two great organizations and a lot of great teammates that have been a big part of that, helping me out a lot of the time and making me look good.”

As humble as he is, he knows that it’s not all because of his teammates.

“I’m obviously very proud of the commitment I try to make, the passion I have for the game,” Tavares continued. “I just try to go out there and execute, play well, and obviously be counted on offensively.”

The Maple Leafs’ second line of Tavares, William Nylander, and Bobby McMann carried the team on Thursday night, combining for three goals and seven points. It’s been a much more inspiring stretch of hockey for the Leafs, who thumped the Calgary Flames 6-2 on Monday night and edged the Colorado Avalanche in a 2-1 victory to give them two straight heading into their tilt in Manhattan. Tavares said that the wins have come as a result of total team efforts from start to finish.

“Yeah we’ve been through a lot, travel-wise, we had some games certainly late that didn’t go our way that easily could have…but it was a great start to the week,” Tavares said. “A lot of different guys leading the way over the last few nights, and it’s been a really good night so far. So, we get a chance to regroup tomorrow, make it an incredible week of four games, earn another two points, and it should be a great atmosphere and a really good game in Nashville.”

Despite the team feeling great about their recent stretch and acknowledging that the travel didn’t help things, Tavares and the rest of the players know that keeping an open dialogue and routinely discussing how to be better, even when they’re winning, is going to be a crucial part of any success they might have.

“I don’t want to say there was any frustration, but I think we talked a little bit, realizing we weren’t up to standard and certain things were creeping in, results started to reflect that a little bit,” Tavares said. “I think it was a great job internally, along with the coaching staff in the locker room, just identifying that, talking about it, and most importantly, addressing that and get back to work.

With 13 games remaining in the season, the Leafs and their fans are at a point where eyes will be kept on the standings at all times. The Panthers have the exact same record through the exact same amount of games, and the Tampa Bay Lightning are only two points behind both teams. There will be less and less room for error as the season comes to an end and the calendar flips to the playoffs, and Tavares says that if the Leafs want to maintain the pace they’re on, staying focused and not getting too overwhelmed by the moment will be pivotal to how their season ends.

“It’s a long season, there’s a lot of ebbs and flows. So, it’s good to just stay level-headed, stay poised, and understand that when you’re not playing up to standards, you gotta just get right back to it.”