Simply the best - Buffalo’s John Tavares
History was made tonight at HSBC Arena, as the greatest Bandit ever, John Tavares, reached his final statistical hurdle when he scored his fourth goal of the game and the 597th of his career. In doing so, he eclipses the record set by retired player Gary Gait, and takes his spot as the best player to ever have played the game.
The big moment came towards the end of third quarter, and after netting the historic marker, Tavares was mobbed by his teammates, and the game was stopped briefly as Tavares got an opportunity to salute the home crowd of 11,878.
The Bandits went on to win the game over the New York Titans, 17-13, to improve their record to 2-1 on the young season. Next weekend they travel to Philadelphia to take on the Wings at the Wachovia Center.
gaitfan Says:January 21st, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Andrew, really. Congratulations to Mr. Tavares but one record does not make a resume and until he can match Gait’s extraordinary career accomplishments, Gait will remain the only lacrosse player referred to as “legendary” by the press and will remain the best player ever to have played the game. For the record, Gait has has won every major collegiate, professional, and international championship in the sport during his career. In addition to his three NCAA championships with the SU Orange, Gait has won three NLL titles (1991, 1994-95), three MLL titles (2001-02, 2005), three Mann Cups (1991, 1997, 1999), which are awarded to the senior men’s lacrosse champions of Canada, the Heritage Cup (2004), which goes to the winner of the international box lacrosse tournament every two years, and the International Lacrosse Federation (ILF) World Championship (2006). As coach Gait has numerous championships NLL (2006), MLL (2002 and 2005), and he won seven NCAA women’s national titles while assisstant at Maryland (1995-2001).