Some Capital punishment Isles coach not concerned about reaction to Lee hit
The Capitals are surely still thinking about Islanders captain Anders Lee and his hit on Nicklas Backstrom that knocked the Capitals star center out of the rest of Game 1, and officially out of Game 2 as well.
Less than three minutes into the Islanders’ eventual 4-2 win in Game 1 Wednesday, Lee laid a hard hit on Backstrom, whose head was turned at impact, while skating over the blue line and into the Islanders’ zone. The hit knocked Backstrom onto his side and prompted John Carlson to go after Lee, who received an interference penalty for it.
During postgame interviews, Capitals head coach Todd Reirden described Lee’s hit as “predatory,” and Carlson asserted it was “real dirty.” Lee said he “tried to throw the brakes on,” but ended up catching Backstrom, which he acknowledged led to having to fight Tom Wilson as a repercussion.
Islanders coach Barry Trotz was understanding of the Capitals’ reaction to Lee’s hit, but claimed that because Lee was coming laterally over the blue line, he was bound to hit traffic. Asked about his reaction to the Capitals’ strong words, Trotz wouldn’t elaborate much.
“Player safety looks at it, they’ve got good hockey people,” he said on a Zoom call Thursday. “Todd was doing what you expect a coach to do, [which] is defend his players. I don’t have anything on that reaction at all.”
But if the Capitals do come out with an extra oomph in their step to feed their added motivation, Trotz said the Islanders will not let it throw them off their game.
“We’re just going to stay the course,” Trotz said. “Whatever happens. We’re well equipped to play if they want to play physical, we’ll play physical, that’s not a problem. We’re just going to play our game, we know one way to play and we have to play it.”
Reirden announced Thursday that Backstrom would not play in Game 2 on Friday and that the Swede is in the concussion protocol.
➤ The Islanders’ power play went just 4-for-16 during the play-in series against the Panthers and its struggles have spilled over into the first round against the Capitals.
Going 0-for-3 on the power play Wednesday, the Islanders generated just five shots with the man-advantage.
“I think we had five chances on our power plays, we had a couple good looks, but obviously we didn’t get a goal,” Trotz said. “If you can get one every game, then you stand a good chance of winning a hockey game. I liked a lot of things that we did, but they have a good penalty kill.
“They haven’t been scored on, I don’t think, in a game since they’ve come back here and they’ve been strong all year in that area. We know that we’re up against it, we’re making a couple adjustments and seeing if we have any success.”
➤ The Islanders held a hefty advantage from the faceoff dot Wednesday, winning 64.7 percent.
“I thought we did well,” Casey Cizikas said. “I saw something online where I think I was the worst one, I had 50 percent. That’s what you want from your centerman, you want to win those draws, you want possession, you want to have the puck on your side.”
Brock Nelson led the Islanders, going 14-for-20 from the circle, while Mathew Barzal went 8-for-11. Evgeny Kuznetsov was 6-for-12 for the Capitals.