The New York Islanders returned home early Friday morning from a physical - and some would say lucky - 4-3 overtime win in Winnipeg just hours earlier. They had just finished a brutal road trip through three time zones across Canada and despite a 5-1 record to that point on the trip, had clearly not played their best. Not to mention, Nick Leddy, Matt Martin and, as we would learn Saturday, Calvin de Haan, would all be banged up to varying degrees.
Martin and Leddy would be well enough to return to practice on Saturday in preparation for a huge ‘four-point swing’ game against the rival New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, an arena that, unbelievably, the Islanders had yet to visit this season but don’t mind at all.
“It’s one of those games, almost like a home game when you come back. I think being in this building against a rival certainly helps the players get up for it after a long trip, but it’s also another game that we have to work on the things that we need to work on. We watched and showed the players some video of some of the hiccups we had on the road trip and hopefully, we can get back on track and play with some speed and pace” head coach Jack Capuano told us prior to yesterday’s late afternoon meeting with the rival New York Rangers. …show more content…
The Islanders came out flying against the home team yesterday, who had no immediate answer, seeming almost surprised at the pace the visitors were employing. Johnny Boychuk, Brock Nelson and Kyle Okposo would score in the game’s first five minutes that had Alain Vingeault practically waving a white flag on the bench, forcing him to call timeout. There was only one issue with the tremendous start that the Islanders had enjoyed to that point - they forgot to
Martin and Leddy would be well enough to return to practice on Saturday in preparation for a huge ‘four-point swing’ game against the rival New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden, an arena that, unbelievably, the Islanders had yet to visit this season but don’t mind at all.
“It’s one of those games, almost like a home game when you come back. I think being in this building against a rival certainly helps the players get up for it after a long trip, but it’s also another game that we have to work on the things that we need to work on. We watched and showed the players some video of some of the hiccups we had on the road trip and hopefully, we can get back on track and play with some speed and pace” head coach Jack Capuano told us prior to yesterday’s late afternoon meeting with the rival New York Rangers. …show more content…
The Islanders came out flying against the home team yesterday, who had no immediate answer, seeming almost surprised at the pace the visitors were employing. Johnny Boychuk, Brock Nelson and Kyle Okposo would score in the game’s first five minutes that had Alain Vingeault practically waving a white flag on the bench, forcing him to call timeout. There was only one issue with the tremendous start that the Islanders had enjoyed to that point - they forgot to