Tavares has plastic snakes thrown at him during return to Long Island

Former New York Islanders captain John Tavares makes his long awaited return to Nassau Coliseum tonight when the Isles host Tavares’ Toronto Maple Leafs this evening.

Islanders fans have had tonight’s game circled on the calendars since the moment Tavares turned his back on the franchise elected to sign with his hometown Leafs. In the lead up to tonight’s game, Isles fans have run the gamut of emotions from anger to just plain cringe-inducing weirdness, as evidenced by this awful “Dear, John” video:

John Tavares brokes #Isles fans hearts when he left for Toronto in July. Thursday he’ll face those fans on LI for the first time. It won’t be a warm reception. Watch #DearJohn today on @News12. @eyesonislesFS @Offside_Tavern @Section_329 @IslesGirl3 @islesfanrico @gothambatman14 pic.twitter.com/8mzvxzaDw9
— Kevin Maher (@KMaherNews12) February 26, 2019

And if you expected Tavares to receive a rude reception tonight… well you’re right and it sure didn’t take long. During warmups Tavares had plastic snakes thrown at him… what? For real.

Check it out:

John Tavares gets plastic snakes thrown at him in his return to New York pic.twitter.com/HKKHVskZ79
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) February 28, 2019