Tavares, who is serving as captain, recorded a point in his first game for Canada at the tournament.

There are no shortage of Toronto Maple Leafs centers at the 2024 IIHF World Hockey Championship.

After flying to Czechia as a late addition to Team Canada, Maple Leafs captain John Tavares took part in his first game for Canada. Serving as the team's captain, Tavares picked up an assist in a 5-1 win over Denmark.

Tavares lead Canada with seven shots on goal. 

'It Just Made Sense For A Lot Of Reasons'

Following the game, Tavares spoke with TSN's Lindsay Hamilton to talk about tournament debut and why he chose to come over for the tournament.

"There was a lot of factors. It was really difficult ending back home in a week. And, you know, you're kind of-- everything's kind of over, and you're trying to process that," Tavares said. "You get the call,  it was about 48 hours after, and it just made a lot of sense for a lot of reasons."

With a lot of speculation surrounding Tavares' future with the Leafs, following another disappointing early Maple Leafs playoff exit,  the Worlds allows him to get away from the noise. Not seen as a favourite to grab a spot on the Canadian Olympic roster, showing up for the tournament could certainly help his cause with Hockey Canada.

They were clearly happy to have Tavares, who was named captain.

"I got here and Rick Nash (Canada GM) told me as I was coming in, the hotel was kind of blown away," Tavares said of the captaincy. "I was extremely jet-lagged, really out of it, and, you know, took me by surprise. So, an extremely huge honour. Excited about it."

Holmberg's Big Debut

Maple Leafs center Pontus Holmberg is presenting Sweden at the Worlds for the very first time and picked up two assists in the team's 5-2 tournament-opening win on Saturday against Team USA.

Like Tavares, Holmberg also has Olympics experience. He represented Sweden during the 2022 games in China, although NHLers were not participating that year. Holmberg also represented Sweden at the 2019 World Juniors.

Kampf's Two-Point Performance on Home Ice

Like Holmberg, David Kampf also had two assists in his first game. He helped his Czechia squad defeat Norway 6-3.

Kampf twice represented Czechia at the 2014 and 2015 World Juniors.

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