The Toronto Maple Leafs will look to steady the ship on Tuesday night against the Nashville Predators, after dropping consecutive games to the Detroit Red Wings over the long weekend.

Ahead of Tuesday’s contest, John Tavares spoke to the media about how the team is looking to get themselves on track. A seasoned veteran, Tavares shared they’re focused on taking the good and the bad to try and get their offence going.

“Definitely a lot of areas to get better at, but still some good things,” he said. “Haven’t generated as many high-end looks as we can sometimes, but sometimes that’s just that’s what the game is. You gotta grind and work through it.”

As it goes in Toronto, there’s always talk about needing their star forwards to step up when the team hits a rough patch. After Monday’s loss, it was William Nylander catching heat from Craig Berube, with the coach saying he needs to see more shots from the Swedish winger. Excluding empty-net points, Nylander has two assists on the season and has yet to beat a goalie. That’s meant a notable lack of offence from Toronto’s second line, but Tavares said he has full faith in Nylander to bounce right back.

“I’ve always said that’s why I think Willy does tremendously well in this market,” the second line centreman said. “More than anyone, he’ll look at himself in the mirror and know that he can do more and he can play better. He’s obviously one of the best in the league, we’re very lucky to have him. We know what he’s capable of in his ability to respond.”

A lot was made of Toronto’s depth contributions over the summer, but to start off the year it’s clear they need more from their top six as well. That being said, Tavares has seen a lot in his many years in the NHL, and the 35-year-old is keen to not let a couple bad games get in their heads.

“It’s easy to get really narrow sighted on three games, but I think throughout the course of 82 games there’s always gonna be a few nights where you didn’t generate as much as you’d like,” Tavares said. “I think there’s certainly been opportunities to score, so you just stay with it. You don’t try to overthink things or try to do too much. You just stick to playing well and put yourself on the right side of it.”

Tavares and the Maple Leafs will look to find that offensive spark once again tonight against a Predators team that has so far been tight defensively.