Andrew Gross: It's OK for the Islanders to skip scoreboard watching
Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin reacts after Philadelphia Flyers right wing Owen Tippett scored in the first period of an NHL hockey game at UBS Arena on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It’s OK not to pay attention.
To clarify, it’s OK for the Islanders to not breathlessly watch the out-of-town scoreboard as they continued their postseason push against fellow playoff contender the Flyers on Friday night at UBS Arena.
One might have thought it would be the opposite for the Islanders, especially after receiving the gift of favorable results on Thursday night with the Penguins, Blue Jackets and Flyers all losing in regulation.
Tuesday was also a good night as the Blue Jackets, Flyers and Senators all lost in regulation though the Penguins, in second place in the Metropolitan Division, won to open a three-point lead on the third-place Islanders.
But it’s OK for the Islanders to not be glued to the out-of-town matches because time devoted to the scoreboard takes away from time needed to focus on themselves. Friday’s crucial mission was to snap a two-game losing streak that has come at the most inopportune time after getting blasted by the visiting Penguins on Monday night and dropping a 4-3 decision in Buffalo on Tuesday night.
So the Islanders’ task is actually a simple one: Don’t let the teams chasing them catch up.
“Of course we’re happy and it’s nice when you can get some help,” Mathew Barzal said. “After the Buffalo game, I was following along with the Columbus-Carolina game [on Thursday night] and it just felt, it just felt … ”
Barzal paused a couple of beats to make sure he phrased his thought correctly.
“It felt low to be like rooting for a team to lose when we’re in a position where, as long as we win, we’re good,” Barzal said. “So as much as we do want teams to give us some help, I think the right thing to do is just go out and win hockey games and get in on our own.”
That said . . .
“Trust me, I’m rooting for every team to lose,” Barzal said. “I wish there was no winner in any game other than us. But I think you’d just rather be in a position where you don’t have to root for that kind of stuff and you can go out and just win and create your own path.”
Each player follows along with the scoreboard to varying degrees. Many players have young children and simply don’t have the time to watch the out-of-town games. But just as many hockey players are also true fans of the sport and take great interest in what’s going on.
The point is, doing one or the other ultimately does not factor into deciding the Islanders’ fate.
“It doesn’t change anything,” coach Patrick Roy said. “You focus on tonight’s game. You know everybody’s watching every game. Everybody’s watching the standings, don’t get me wrong here. But, at the end of the day, it’s about what you do. There’s no need for us to get our mind anywhere else than tonight’s game. It’s a lot easier to keep your focus for 60 minutes.
“If you start thinking about what happens around and thinking about winning a game before winning the game, this is where problems start. You let your mind go in the wrong place and it’s easy to lose your focus, it’s easy to lose your momentum.”
So Roy probably didn’t study this projection from MoneyPuck.com in calculating the Islanders’ chances of qualifying for the playoffs after last season’s miss.
The website reported the Islanders’ chances of making it would increase by 13.5% to 75.3% if they beat the Flyers in regulation. Meanwhile, a regulation loss to the Flyers would drop their playoff chances by 21.6% to just 40.2%. Even an overtime/shootout win upped the Islanders’ chances 10.4% to 72.2% while an overtime/shootout loss would drop them 7.1% to 54.7%.
That’s great for fans to know so they can be extra tense. Those numbers matter none to the players.
“I didn’t look too much on it, to be honest,” Emil Heineman said when asked about the favorable scoreboard results. “We watched a little bit of the Dallas game and that was it and then I went to bed looking forward to this game. There’s a bunch of guys that keep track. I don’t want to worry about that too much. It changes all the time so I figured it would take more energy than it gives you.”
And that’s OK. As long as the Islanders win.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
