Barry Trotz downplays hitting 800-win milestone
Understandable that a personal record wasn’t the first thing Barry Trotz was thinking about.
But after everything, the Islanders coach was appreciative of the 5-4 shootout victory over the Senators on Tuesday night at the Coliseum that gave him career win No. 800, just the fourth coach in history to reach the milestone.
“That was the least [thing] on my mind,” Trotz said.
In his 20th year as a NHL head coach, Trotz joins Scotty Bowman (1,244), Joel Quenneville (890) and Ken Hitchcock (841) as the only coaches with 800 wins. It could have come as early as Friday against the Capitals, the team he coached to a Stanley Cup victory last season. But despite the delay, it was still a large accomplishment.
“It would have been special to get it against Washington, but 800 speaks volumes to his career,” forward Brock Nelson said. “He came in here and said he’s been around a long time. But he’s obviously won everywhere he’s been.”
The attendance of 11,445 was the smallest crowd of the 14 games at the Coliseum this season. This was the fifth game here in eight nights.
Both Matt Martin (upper body) and Cal Cluttebuck (head) were out. Martin missed his third straight game after the injury got to him at some point after this Thursday’s emotional 6-1 win over John Tavares and the Maple Leafs. Clutterbuck had gotten hit in the head with a puck while he was sitting on the bench during Sunday’s 4-1 loss to the Flyers.
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With the flu making a few forwards game-time decisions, the team also made two emergency call-ups from AHL Bridgeport on Tuesday morning, bringing forwards Michael Dal Colle and Josh Ho-Sang up from the Sound Tigers.
Dal Colle was the one that went straight into the lineup, collecting an assist in his 21st game of the season with the Islanders, his first since Feb. 12. He made a slick pass to Devon Toews on a two-on-one for a goal that gave the Isles a 2-1 lead.
The mercurial Ho-Sang was a healthy scratch, the super-talented 23-year-old still trying to figure out how to stick around in the NHL.
“To stay in the league — not only here, to stay in the league — is to be consistent in his game, and then produce,” Trotz said.
Defenseman Thomas Hickey was a healthy scratch for fourth straight game, having played only once, Feb. 26, since being cleared to play after a 10-week absence following a Dec. 17 concussion.