Now he's claiming it was a joke, but my point remains and I'll collect the downvotes for speaking truth to power:

Stop. BG is important and worthy of recognition. JT left and it was a mess. But we as a fandom need to stop gaslighting ourselves about Tavares's importance. Before he left, I don't think you can find any proof of an argument for retiring 91 that wasn't almost exclusively focused on JT's contributions and JT's importance to the franchise.

BG as an Islander - 6 years, 332 games, 87 goals, 108 assists, 195 points.

JT as an Islander - 9 years, 669 games, 272 goals, 349 assists, 621 points.

The number's now toxic, and we're all better with it out of the conversation, but we need to stop pretending JT wasn't as important as he was. BG's impact after retirement should be part of the conversation, but I hope we can all understand why JT won't be coming back here to call games.