The plane landed in New York around 3:30 a.m. Sunday as the Islanders finally completed their franchise-record nine-game road trip. Interim head coach Doug Weight gave the team the day off, but one of the few guys who wanted to come in was 21-year-old rookie forward Josh Ho-Sang.
Weight told his headline-grabbing talent with a history of waking up late and rubbing people the wrong way with his brimming confidence and sharp tongue he would be at the practice facility at 12:30 p.m. When Weight arrived, Ho-Sang was waiting at the door.
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“I think he’s always been a good kid in my mind,” Weight said of the team’s first-round pick (28th overall) in the 2014 draft, who is set to play in his seventh career NHL game when the Islanders finally return to Brooklyn for a matchup against the Hurricanes on Monday night.
“I think you make your own bed in this world, and he’s done some things in the past that people have a stigma on him and they leave it,” Weight said. “They say, ‘This kid’s a problem.’ There are different types of kids with different types of issues. Josh just had to grow up a little bit in certain areas. Drive for the game is there. He’s a wonderful kid, he’s bright, and he’s a good kid. Didn’t surprise me.”
But maybe what did surprise Weight was the fact Ho-Sang had not looked out of place on the NHL ice at all, showing the competitiveness to match his undeniable talent and skills.
“I think a lot of times when you see these guys come up — whatever their skill set may be — you can always see a little, ‘OK, this is the NHL.’ A little deer in headlights,” said Weight, himself a veteran of 1,238 NHL games. “It’s such a fast game that you would expect that even if they play well when they come up, that you would see a little, ‘Ohhh.’ And I haven’t seen that. He fits in physically — his skating ability, his skill. It looks like he’s been in this league for a long time.”
Ho-Sang is taking it all in with very wide eyes. He spoke about how at different times during this trip — during which the Islanders went 5-3-1, ridding themselves of previous road woes and keeping themselves in contention for the second wild-card spot — he was agape at some of his opponents. From the bench and from the ice, he stared at the likes of Tyler Seguin in Dallas and Patrick Kane in Chicago and tried to take it all in.
“They play the opposite wing of me, which is almost harder than lining up next to them because you look across the ice and you see their faces and you’re just like, ‘Oh my God,’ ” Ho-Sang said. “And that’s pretty surreal, but you got to get over it pretty fast or else they score on you.”
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Ho-Sang got his first NHL goal March 7 at Edmonton, but already has moved on from that in hopes of scoring many more. He credits the coaches at AHL Bridgeport for helping him prepare for this moment, even if head coach Brent Thompson had been hard at him at times, including several healthy scratches during his first season in the AHL.
But now playing for Weight, he knows there is an increased responsibility as the Islanders try to make a playoff push.
“I’m having lots of fun,” Ho-Sang said. “People keep asking me, ‘What’s the best part of the NHL?’ And I say, ‘This is the most fun I’ve had in my life.’ When you get the puck in open space and you skate up the ice, like, that’s crazy, you know? It blows my mind.
“This is what I’ve been dreaming about since I was a little kid. So as long as I’m bringing that compete level and Dougie is happy with me, then I’m the happiest person in the world right now.”