Even the most ardent hater couldn’t have wanted this to happen, not like this.
Yet what seemed like an inevitability due to the awful ice surface at Barclays Center turned into the worst-case scenario, with Islanders captain John Tavares suffering a hamstring injury during his team’s 2-1 win over the Devils on Friday night.
Tavares’ status was described as “week-to-week,” meaning he is essentially done for the remaining five games of the regular season, with his team barely on the periphery of the race for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. They are four points behind the Bruins, who are set to play the Panthers on Saturday afternoon, with the Lightning and Hurricanes in between them, both set to play on Saturday night.
So when the Islanders take the ice in Buffalo on Sunday afternoon, they might be further away from playoffs, and in a depression because of Tavares’ absence.
And speaking of depressions, that’s exactly what might have caused Tavares’ injury. According to alternate captain Cal Clutterbuck, who has been the most outspoken detractor of the poor playing conditions in Brooklyn, Tavares caught his skate in a rut as he was coming around the net, which caused him to extend his leg and seemingly hurt his left hamstring.
“You see a guy’s heel dig in like that, it doesn’t happen other places,” Clutterbuck told Newsday after the game. “It’s something that doesn’t get addressed … It had been a little better the last few games, but not [Friday] night.”
Friday also happened to be the day that there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the revamped Coliseum on Long Island, where the Islanders had played for their first 43 years of existence. Having been put through a $165 million renovation by original Barclays Center developer Bruce Ratner, there were local politicians hollowly posturing about bringing the Islanders back.
The Islanders can opt out of their 25-year lease in Brooklyn after next season, and the arena management can opt out after the 2018-19 season. Neither party is happy with the current arrangement, now in its second year. And the team’s new majority owners, Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin, have been exploring other options for moving the team while staying in the New York area (preferably within the city limits).
But for now, their home remains the same, and their captain remains hurt. The team turned its season around after coach Jack Capuano was fired on Jan. 17, and they went on an immediate run of 15-6-3 under interim head coach Doug Weight. But this recent stretch of 4-6-1 has seemingly buried them, and the injury to Tavares has undercut any good feeling that could have still existed.