It was an easy question for Barry Trotz to answer: Do you want to see the Capitals-Hurricanes series go seven games?
“You do, you do,” the Islanders coach said after Saturday’s practice, as his team awaits the winner of that series following a first-round sweep of the Penguins completed on Tuesday. “Every game takes a little piece of you.”
Trotz recalled 2015, when he was coaching the Capitals and they were forced to go seven hard-fought games before beating the Islanders in the first round. When they moved on to face the Rangers in the second round, they felt the effects and lost in Game 7 when Derek Stepan scored 11:24 into overtime.
“We were exhausted,” Trotz said. “We actually won the first two games, and as they started getting their game together, we started falling apart a little bit.”
This Capitals team has already lost skilled winger T.J. Oshie for what likely will be the rest of the playoffs with an apparent shoulder injury, while the Islanders are resting and getting healthy.
Winger Cal Clutterbuck and defenseman Scott Mayfield missed practice for the second straight day for “maintenance” on undisclosed injuries, which are not expected to keep them out for the start of the second-round series. It’s possible Mayfield might return for practice Monday after the whole team gets Sunday off.
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Of course Islanders coach Barry Trotz was watching the Game…
“Right now, there’s nothing major,” Trotz said. “They’re irritant type of things that we can get a handle on it.”
Trotz put his team through a hard practice Saturday that lasted close to 90 minutes, trying to keep them in shape and engaged for what could end up being more than a weeklong break.
“We’re not going to let our competitive juices and our work ethic lessen,” Trotz said. “This group is not scared of work. There are groups in the past that maybe didn’t know that. This group doesn’t cut corners, they go at it pretty good. That’s why I’m not worried.”
Defenseman Thomas Hickey is more than likely coming in for the injured Johnny Boychuk, who will be out 3-4 weeks after an apparent left-leg/foot ailment suffered in Game 4 against Pittsburgh. It seems Hickey will return to his spot on the right side of the pair with Nick Leddy.
That would put lefty-shooting Hickey on his offside, but all the extra defensemen are lefty-shooters, so someone was going to have to move.