For most of the thousands inside the Coliseum, Thursday night will be about the return of John Tavares.
For Barry Trotz and the Islanders, they insist it will be about a simpler, less emotional focus.
“Toronto’s probably rallying around John right now, knowing how important it is to John coming back here,” Trotz said Wednesday. “So they’re using that as a motivating factor. We’ve gotta make sure that our motivating factor is we need those two points.”
The showdown has long been circled on calendars all over Long Island, and likely for Tavares and his Maple Leafs teammates as well. But suddenly, with the Islanders (36-19-7) in a bit of a rut at 3-3-1 over their past seven games, there are important implications on the line.
Entering Thursday tied with the Capitals for first place in the Metropolitan Division, with two games in hand, the Islanders are trying to get their groove back with the season winding down. The schedule should help, with the club in the midst of a stretch when it plays eight of nine games at the Coliseum.
“We’ll make them prepared for [Thursday] and some of the emotion of that, but let’s make sure we’ve got our focus on getting two points,” Trotz said. “We’re in a playoff race right now, just trying to get in. We need to somehow, someway, get two points. If we’re able to do that [Thursday] night, then we got a big game the next night [against the Capitals]. We just gotta be prepared.”
That preparation began Wednesday, when the team made a last-minute decision to cancel practice.
Towels and water bottles lined the Islanders’ bench, ready to go, until an equipment staffer began removing them one by one and the freshly groomed ice remained untouched. Practice was scheduled for noon, but the team met beforehand and decided not to skate, with a back-to-back set for Thursday and Friday, and a busy schedule ahead.
“I thought it was mentally better for us to — let’s get focused on [Thursday],” Trotz said. “We went over some film and we were going to go on the ice for a short time, probably more exercise than anything. I don’t think we need the exercise, we need a little bit of the mental refocus. So that’s where we put our efforts in this morning to do. Hopefully that’ll sharpen us up in some areas.”