One bounce, one goal, one fleeting moment last summer and the game between the Islanders and Canadiens on Sunday at UBS Arena would have the air of a Stanley Cup Final rematch. How quaint that seems.
It was just last June 24 that the Canadiens beat the Golden Knights, to reach their first Cup final since 1993, on Saint-Jean Baptiste Day, a big French-Canadian holiday. That victory brought joy to a hockey-mad region and the Canadiens’ Phillip Danault later freely told reporters he and his wife conceived a child that night in celebration.
It was even more recently that the Islanders went into this season trying to avenge two straight losses in the Cup semifinals, the latest by one goal to the Lightning in a decisive Game 7 last season.
Had they managed to overcome Tampa Bay, the Islanders would have been overwhelming favorites in the finals against the Canadiens. The Lightning dispatched the Canadiens in five games. The Islanders might have closed down Nassau Coliseum with a Cup victory if they’d gotten a chance — and what a sight that would have been.
“Definitely we wanted to play Montreal last year,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau said. “We were so close.”
The two franchises, which reached such highs so recently, will meet for the second time this season in a game that will be watched by the diehards and few others. A midafternoon contest between teams of 18 and nine wins, respectively, does not tend to attract a neutral audience.
“Did I think we would be where we are at this point in the season?” Islanders coach Barry Trotz, who can at least say he’s coaching the group with 18 wins on Sunday, asked rhetorically. “No. And I’m sure the Canadiens feel the same way.”
The Islanders can at least point at external factors (a 13-game road trip to start the season, a schedule so affected by COVID-19 that it became laughable by Christmas) that have contributed to their hovering around .500. The Canadiens have no such recourse. They already have replaced their general manager and coach, and look to be on their way to a season of historic ineptitude.
In a note of some interest, former Ranger Martin St. Louis will coach his fifth game behind the bench for the Canadiens. He’s 1-3 in the first four which actually represents a slight improvement on Montreal’s season-long points percentage.
Trotz said he already has noticed some changes, namely the defensemen going forward more aggressively, under St. Louis’ leadership.
“He’s got a lot of the tools,” Trotz said. “We’ll see how it plays out. He’s in a tough market in Montreal, it’s never an easy market. But he’s going into a situation where he can put a stamp on it.”
While the Canadiens’ new triumvirate of leadership — St. Louis behind the bench, former Rangers GM Jeff Gorton running hockey operations and former agent Kent Hughes as the general manager — is raising some eyebrows, the Islanders can fall back on Trotz and GM Lou Lamoriello. Even in a bad year, good luck finding any voices around the league without faith in those two.
So the Islanders don’t have it quite as bad as their opponents — for now, they can at least cling to longshot playoff hopes — but really, these two teams have the same goal for the next 10 weeks: Try to put their best foot forward and get as much from a lost season as they can.
“There’s stuff that is in your control and there’s stuff that is not in your control and the combination of both of them at the same time can sometimes put us in the place we find ourselves today,” Trotz said. “All you can do is get up, dust yourself off and go forward.”
Oliver Wahlstrom is day-to-day with an upper body injury. … Josh Bailey practiced on Saturday and should be in the lineup on Sunday, Trotz said. … Semyon Varlamov remains in COVID-19 protocol, but has returned to Long Island.