Devils overwhelmed by John Tavares and the Maple Leafs

The Leafs put on a show for the Devils, and ex-Islanders captain John Tavares provided the opening act.

In a 7-2 rout of the hosts Tuesday night at Prudential Center, Tavares got the scoring started 6:01 into the first period. He added an assist in the second period and seemed right at home in his first game back in the New York City area since leaving the Islanders to sign with his hometown team in the offseason.

“I think tonight we came out ready to play,” said Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner, who also scored a goal. “We know they’ve got a good team over there … so we knew coming in here was going to be a hard match and I think we came in, got the puck behind them which is what we needed to, and that’s why we were successful.”

It wasn’t much of a game after Tavares, Auston Matthews and Patrick Marleau scored in the opening 13:38.

Nazem Kadri matched his career high with three assists, Marner and Morgan Rielly added second-period goals and Tyler Ennis had two in the closing minutes as Toronto embarrassed the Devils for the second time this season. The win was their seventh in 11 games (7-2-2).

Sami Vatanen and Nico Hischier scored for the struggling Devils, who are 3-6-6 in their last 15 games. Keith Kinkaid gave up five goals on 21 shots before being lifted with New Jersey down 5-1 after 40 minutes.

“Our group in here, we can’t take nights off. Tonight was not our best,” Devils forward Taylor Hall said. “When we don’t play our best, unfortunately right now, we’re not going to get wins.”