As Islanders season ends, Tavares has a tough call
Star disappointed at again being on the outside looking in as the post-season begins
The New York Islanders are missing the playoffs for the second straight year and the sixth time in the nine-year career of John Tavares, their franchise cornerstone.
Tavares can become an unrestricted free agent in July, and though the Islanders’ majority owner, Jon Ledecky, and general manager Garth Snow have repeatedly said they want Tavares to remain an Islander, his future with the team is a swirling cloud over the organization before their home finale Thursday against the New York Rangers.
The outwardly unflappable Tavares this week continued to decline discussing his contract status before what could be his final home game as an Islander. But he did express acute disappointment at again being on the outside looking in as the postseason begins next week.
“Being where we are is tough; missing the playoffs is tough,” Tavares said Wednesday after practice. “We’re going to be watching again. It’s another missed opportunity.”
While the Rangers will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2010, they have made public pronouncements about their plan to rebuild, and already have made numerous moves to begin that process. The Islanders, by contrast, appear to be spinning their wheels.
Entering Thursday’s game, their defence had allowed a league-high 292 goals. And though the Islanders have received impressive production from 20-year-old centre Mathew Barzal, who leads all rookies with 82 points, and left wing Anders Lee, who has a career-best 39 goals, the team has lacked offensive depth and production after the top two lines.
Tavares, 27, has accrued his usual steady numbers, leading the Islanders with 83 points. But the relentless losing of the past three months has had him speaking with a hint of finality. He will sign a lucrative long-term contract this summer. The question is where.
“I said early in the season I would try to give everything I had to this group for as long as it goes,” said Tavares, the first overall pick by the Islanders in 2009. “I just try to handle myself the way I believe is right and be the best captain I can be. I worry about my own game and what I can control.”
Doug Weight, finishing his first full season behind the bench after replacing Jack Capuano midway through last season, acknowledged that the Islanders could be facing the end of an era if Tavares moves on, but he would not extend thoughts beyond this weekend, when the Islanders will close another disappointing season with Saturday’s game at Detroit.
“You think about it, but I don’t think anything will change for him,” Weight said of Tavares.
“As per usual he goes to work. I’m sure he will take it all in. You hope that’s not the scenario.”
Perhaps the most peculiar part of the Islanders’ season was how strongly they started at home only to falter in recent months. After an overtime victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Dec. 16, the Islanders were 10-2-2 in Brooklyn and 1812-3 overall. But steady defenceman Calvin de Haan injured his shoulder on the game’s winning play that night and has not played since.
Four days later, at Belmont Park, Tavares joined Ledecky, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman to announce a billion-dollar construction project that could have the Islanders skating in a new arena by the 2021-22 season.
But since that news became public, the Islanders have been terrible at home — with an 8-16-2 mark starting with a Dec. 19 loss to Detroit the night before the Belmont news conference.
Tavares maintained all season he did not want his contract situation to be a distraction. He watched his teammates Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsengo through the same process two years ago and emphasized again Wednesday that there would be ample time to mull his future after the season.