John Tavares acknowledges that he deserves blame for the New York Islanders' shortcomings during his tenure, and wishes the team had accomplished more, but he's at peace with his contributions.
The Toronto Maple Leafs forward expressed as much when asked if he was surprised by Islanders president of hockey operations Lou Lamoriello's comments from earlier this week in which the former Leafs GM said there was "no aftermath" in the wake of Tavares' departure, and that it would be different if the Isles had won championships.
"In the nine years (I was there) we made the playoffs three times and got past the first round once, so we obviously fell short of where we wanted to get to and we didn't have as much consistent success as we (would have liked)," Tavares said to reporters, including TSN's Mark Masters, on Saturday.
"Being the captain there as long as I was, I should shoulder a lot of that responsibility in not doing a good enough job and leading that team," he added. "I wish I could have done a better job, but I know I gave it everything I had, and looking back, I have no regrets in the way I performed ... I just obviously wish we'd had more success and done a better job."
Tavares departed the Islanders ranking fifth on the club's all-time points list and seventh all time in goals, despite sitting outside the top 10 in games played.
He signed a seven-year, $77-million contract with the Maple Leafs as a free agent on July 1.
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