‘It Still Stings,’ Loss Drives Lee For Another Push

While the hockey world looks forward and waits to find out when or even if the 2020-21 season will start, New York Islanders captain Anders Lee took a moment to look back and reflect.

Lee and the Islanders are now just over a month removed from their season-ending loss in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals to Tampa Bay. It had been the deepest the Islanders had gone in the playoffs since 1993 and the run shocked much of the hockey world.

That’s aside from the fact that the 2019-20 NHL season and postseason were completed under the most unique circumstances due to COVID-19.

“It’s going to be a season you never going to really forget,” Anders Lee said during a Zoom call on Monday. “Taking 10 months to complete and all the things that everyone went through. From the shutdown, where we were as a team before that and then how we came out of it and the run that we went on. I think there’s always going to be that sting of not completing what we set out to do.”

The 2020 run to the Eastern Conference Finals will be a learning experience for the Islanders going forward. One that will drive the team, even more, to get back there and correct the mistakes from before.

“We learned a lot,” Lee said. “We did a lot. I think that sting and that disappointment will never leave you I don’t think, but I think it is something we can handle and grow from.”

However, when the Islanders will next be able to take the ice is up in the air. The NHL is targeting a Jan. 1 start for the 2020-21 season, but there has been some doubt cast on that by Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley. The Vegas owner told a local radio station that he didn’t expect the season to start until Feb. 1 and that teams needed to have fans in the building for them to survive financially.

Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk said in an interview last week he didn’t expect fans to be in NHL venues until February. And in an interview with Hockey Night in New York, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta said that the NHL was developing a plan for various start dates, which included several dates in January, February and March.

Still, the speculation doesn’t have Lee concerned that the NHL won’t be able to pull off a new season.

“I don’t have that level of concern,” Lee said. “There’s so much speculation going on it’s tough to even talk on it really. Not just in our return to play, so it’s not something that I can really get into. We’re just getting ready and looking forward to starting up when we do.”

Anders Lee is the Islanders Players Association rep and was part of the Return to Play committee earlier this year when the NHL and PA were trying to navigate a conclusion to last season. He has not been part of the group planning this upcoming year, but said he would help if needed.

The Islanders captain would like to be on the ice as soon as possible, but the circumstances have to be right. “It has to be right for the players, the league and our fans as well,” Lee said.

Whenever the season does start, there is a full understanding that returning to the conference finals won’t be easy. It’s unclear how the divisions will be impacted by COVID-19 restrictions at the United States/Canada border, but the Metropolitan Division has always been one of the tougher ones in the NHL.

The Islanders front office is also having to contend with a tight cap crunch as they try to free up some space to re-sign several restricted and unrestricted free agents. In an effort to acquire some assets to move a more expensive contract off the roster, the Islanders traded RFA defenseman Devon Toews to Colorado for a pair of second-round picks last week.

“Any time you see one of your friends and teammates traded it sucks,” Lee said. “It’s not fun, it’s part of our business. It’s that side of it. Devon is a great guy and a great player and you wish him nothing but the best in Colorado. Anytime you have that turnover in the offseason, that’s the stuff you don’t look forward to when this time comes, especially this year.”