TAMPA, Fla. — They may not have a wealth of playoff experience, but this group of Islanders certainly knows what it takes to stay alive in a series.
“We just want to keep playing, we want to win the Stanley Cup. We have to just get a win tomorrow,” John Tavares said. “Don’t want to make it much bigger than that.”
Down 3-1 to the the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Islanders’ incentive is clear: Win Game 5 on Sunday afternoon here against the defending Eastern Conference champs or see their deepest playoff run in 23 years end.
And that’s not all that would end with a loss Sunday. Kyle Okposo, Tavares’ longtime linemate and teammate, becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, so this season’s last game could be Okposo’s last game as an Islander after nine seasons and 552 total games in the orange and blue.
The same is true for Frans Nielsen and Matt Martin, two other long-serving Isles. Travis Hamonic made his trade request prior to the season and that will be front and center once more if the Isles cannot rally from the 3-1 deficit they face after dropping two overtime games at Barclays Center earlier this week.
The Game 4 loss, 2-1 on Friday on Jason Garrison’s OT winner at 1:34, was a dagger. The Isles were in full control for much of the game, allowing the tying goal to Nikita Kucherov at 7:49 of the third as one of just five Lightning shots in the final period.
“There’s never been any complacency in our team,” coach Jack Capuano said after the Islanders practiced in nearby Brandon on Saturday afternoon. “Safe, conservative, complacency — these aren’t even words in our dictionary. I want to see us push the pace.”
The series has been a coin flip the past two games after the Islanders chased Ben Bishop in Game 1 and the Lightning made the Isles chase it around in Game 2. The evenness of this series has the Islanders feeling good about themselves heading into Sunday, despite all the implications should their season come to an end.
“We’ve been through a lot all year,” Tavares said. “We want to keep it going, we’ve come this far, a lot of sacrifices have been made, a lot of hard work and we have to take advantage of the opportunity to keep it going.”
The Islanders captain doesn’t have a point in the past three games after posting 11 in his first seven playoff games this spring. He clanked a shot off the post in the first period on Friday, a golden chance that would have given the Isles a much-needed two-goal lead.
That they couldn’t pull away when ahead by one in either Game 3 or Game 4 proved costly.
“The game that we won (here), we were able to build a little bit of a lead, if we have the opportunities, we have to bury them, make it a little tough on them, just got to stay positive and keep working,” Tavares said. “This team’s got the right mindset. There’s a lot of character in here.”
And the players want to keep it that way for at least a little while longer. Okposo, Nielsen, Martin and Hamonic have a combined 1,968 games with the Isles, as much a part of the team’s core as Tavares.
“We’ve never brought up contract situations, except at the start of the year,” Capuano said. “I think guys know. It’s a special group, there’s a good bond.”
Those bonds are straining against their toughest test on Sunday.
Notes & quotes: Okposo and Cal Clutterbuck both sat out Saturday’s practice for maintenance, according to Capuano. Clutterbuck missed several minutes in the second period on Friday with an undisclosed injury but returned for the third and overtime.
..... - Newsday