Even 2,400 miles away, Anders Lee’s emotions were palpable as he addressed the media after the New York Islanders 2-1 loss to Tampa Bay in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
It was the farthest Lee had gone in his career in the playoffs and it was the most significant step the franchise he captains has taken in 27 years. Ironic, when you think about, considering that it’s the same as the number on the back of his jersey.
“I can’t speak volumes more about this group and our guys,” an emotional Lee said. “The pride we take in going out there every night and playing.”
The Islanders captain paused several times when answer questions Thursday night, the pain still fresh from the elimination loss. It may take some time for Lee and the rest of the Islanders to move beyond the heartache of how close they came to a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.
However, the Islanders should take solace in what they were able to accomplish during roughly a month and a half inside the NHL’s playoff bubble. They battled through adversity and did something that many onlookers didn’t give them the slightest of chances doing, and that was to win.
Win in the Qualifying Round. Win in the First Round and Win in the Second Round.
Even in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Islanders weren’t expected to give Tampa Bay this much of a fight. In a Game 6 where Tampa dominated the first 40 minutes, the Islanders still forced them to go to overtime to get the job done.
“This is one of the most resilient teams I've coached & I've coached for a long time. I'm really proud of what we’ve done & the strides we’ve made, but we’re obviously very disappointed because this group felt it could represent the East & hopefully play for the Stanley Cup.” pic.twitter.com/s6VVMYZJ3f
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) September 18, 2020
“This is one of the most resilient teams I’ve coached and I’ve coached for a long time,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. “I’m real proud of what we’ve done and the strides we made. We’re obviously very disappointed as a group. This group felt it could represent the east and hopefully play for the Stanley Cup, but we just fell a little bit short.”
The Islanders battled through plenty during their playoff run. From heartbreaking losses to injuries to heart-attack inducing victories, Trotz, Lee and the Islanders saw just about everything.
Anthony Beauvillier went from every day forward to breakout star. He finished the playoffs tied for the team lead in goals with nine and had 14 points over 22 games.
Of course, the success of Brock Nelson will be felt even more going forward. Nelson had nine goals of his own and led the team in points with 18.
And for a team that didn’t score, according to its critics, seven different Islanders scored five or more goals in the postseason and nine players finished the with double-digit points. That shouldn’t be overlooked.
“Out of this we’ve learned to go the distance and the distance is hard,” Trotz said. “The growth for our group has been really good. We will see if we can build on that and take the next step. If you look at a number of teams, the team we played tonight they’ve got to this point a number of times and you don’t always do it your first crack at it.
“That’s why you have to go back. You have to do it again until you climb that mountain. We got fairly close, we could see the mountain top. But We never got to the mountain top.”
Even though the Islanders didn’t reach their ultimate goal, their run this season has done so much for the organization. The success has brought newfound respect from the hockey community and reinforced the notion that gone are the days of spending to the cap floor and mismanagement.
The Islanders owned the spotlight in New York for a bit. They graced the back pages of the New York tabloids and nightly newscasts.
They even earned praise from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was instrumental in helping them with their Belmont arena plan, and Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. Gov. Cuomo even wore a New York Islanders hat to a press briefing recently.
What follows now is the expectation to go further next year. As Trotz said, sometimes it takes a few attempts to raise hockey’s holiest of grails at the end of the season.
The bar has been raised, but if you ask the Islanders it was never that low to begin with.
“The bar has always been set high,” Scott Mayfield said. “This just shows other people how high we think it is. There have been up and downs. There have been some tough times, but with the staff we have here, the ownership we have here, it’s turned the corner. We showed that last year in the playoffs getting to the second round. Then this year getting to the conference finals.
“It hurts now, but I guess that is a silver lining if you want to look at it that way. It’s trending in the right direction.”
