Jack Capuano had to correct himself. He didn’t want his compliment of John Tavares to belittle the captain’s excellence over the past few years, but the coach can’t help but be impressed by the all-world center’s recent play.
“Right now he’s playing the best hockey I’ve seen him play,” Capuano said Saturday. “I shouldn’t say that, he’s always played great hockey. He’s a little bit more mature now, and he wants to get to that next step.”
Tavares, in his third postseason, is doing all he can to take the next step and end the Islanders’ drought — 23 years without winning a playoff series — totaling two goals and two assists in the first two games of their first-round series against the Panthers.
“The experience of playing in a couple series heading into this one, the more and more you have an understanding of what you have to do to be successful,” Tavares said.
Capuano said he has seen the 25-year-old simplify his approach over the past few weeks, resulting in nine goals and 10 assists over Tavares’ past 12 games.
Tavares’ teammates are around him too much to be in awe by his incredible offensive performances, but have been inspired by how badly he wants to get past the first round.
“It’s not only him scoring, you see him being physical and getting involved in scrums,” Matt Martin said. “It’s contagious when your best player is getting in there and sticking up for guys. I think it makes the rest of the guys follow suit.”
Because of the struggles of the Islanders’ second line — Josh Bailey, Brock Nelson and Nikolay Kulemin — Capuano said he has thought about moving Frans Nielsen off the first line to return as center, but the coach is hesitant to break up the scorching Tavares-led line.
“There’s consideration about it, but it’s tough for me to do that because offensively and defensively they’re our top line,” Capuano said. “We need other guys to pick it up. You can’t sacrifice that line right now to get other guys going. … Just got to make sure some of our guys are more responsible when they get on the ice.”
After missing the final six games of the regular season with a knee injury, defenseman Travis Hamonic said he felt no issues after playing back-to-back games. … Florida’s third-leading goal scorer, Vincent Trocheck, hasn’t appeared in the series due to an ankle injury, but improved enough to skate Saturday in Florida. He could return for Game 4 on Wednesday.