Isles Preparing for Different Start Times in Return to Play

Barry Trotz was faced with an interesting question during
Monday's Zoom call with reporters
.
With the NHL's
Return to Play Plan
calling for up to three games per day at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto and Rogers Place in Edmonton, how would the Islanders would handle a delayed start time?

It's a reasonable scenario, if either the noon, 4 p.m. or both qualifying round games go to overtime. (Round-robin games will have regular season OT rules.) Seventeen games went to overtime in the 2019 playoffs, with four going to double-OT. If the noon games go to an extended OT, that would have a ripple effect through the late games.
Luckily, the Islanders have the benefit of
noon starts in two of their first three games
against the Florida Panthers, but a coach as detail-oriented as Trotz has already started thinking about what he'd do.
"Anybody who has been at a tournament in minor hockey, that's sort of like that,"
Trotz said on Monday
. "We really can't prepare for it, it's just having the mental attitude that instead of throwing your arms up and going 'oh this is going to throw my game off,' embrace it. Find ways to make sure you're mentally ready to go at any time they tell us. That's all you can do. It's the same for everybody, the same for your opposition."
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Trotz said if that scenario occurs, it'll be a learning experience. NHL players have deep-seeded routines that are designed to get them to peak performance for puck drop that involve carefully timed meals, warmups, stretching, and other idiosyncrasies. A double-overtime game could throw it into flux and Trotz said going back to the hotel wouldn't be a viable option if his team was already at the rink.
"We'll have to be a bit creative at times and keep their minds focused,"
Trotz said on Monday
. "If the start time goes from 8 to who knows, 10 o clock, it might be a two-hour difference. What do you do? You have to stay active, but you can't stay too active or you won't have anything left. And players usually get ramped up and then crash a bit, so you have to get recharged. We're going to have to talk about that a bit, that mental startup you'll have to have."
Cal Clutterbuck doesn't think a delayed start would derail the Islanders preparation. He said most players need 30-40 minutes to go through their pre-game routines, which he figures is about the amount of time it would take to clear the ice after an OT winner, flood the rink and get set up again.
"I'm not too worried about that. If there's a game that goes nine overtimes, that might be a problem," Clutterbuck said on a Wednesday Zoom call. "I think we'll be fine. It might lead to a little bit of sitting around, but like I said, there are a lot of things that are going to be wait and see, so I don't know if it'll derail any of us. It'll just be another one of those things that we're going to have to learn to live with. That's just a part of what's going on right now and everyone can relate to that."
Trotz is doing what he can. The Islanders coach said his practices are always meant to have a purpose and this training camp is no different, as he works to prepare the Islanders for the unusual game schedule. With back-to-back noon starts on Aug 4 and 5, Trotz ran his players through back-to-back afternoon scrimmages over the weekend to get acclimated. The Islanders coach wasn't necessarily thrilled with his team's scrimmage on the second day, but said that it should help in the preparation and he was impressed with how his group responded on Monday.
"We turned way more pucks over [Sunday] than I like to see," Trotz said. "That's not necessarily physical, that's mental. We weren't hard to play against yesterday against each other. It's not running people over, it's not the physical aspect, but it's the detail and the structure that makes it difficult for teams to have success against you. I thought it was easy [Sunday] for us to have success against ourselves. I was much more encouraged [Monday] with their focus. That's a really important piece in having success in these early back to back games."

Under Trotz, the Islanders are 17-2-2 on the second day of back-to-backs, so he's confident his group will be able to handle it.
"I pride ourselves as an organization in the past couple of years in back to back games," Trotz said. "We have a strong group that way and can get them focused on what's needed. They've been very focused on that during the regular season and we'll have to be focused on that in this play-in round."
While Clutterbuck acknowledged that the chance for weirdness is high with all the variables in the NHL's Return to Play Plan (such as sharing hotels with their opponents, or a delayed start), he feels the Islanders will be one of the most prepared teams when the puck drops.
"We're just trying to put everything we have into the preparation," Clutterbuck said. "Everyone is in the same boat, it'll be different, it'll be different for everybody, but that being said if the focus is in the right place and the preparation, we're not going to allow anyone to out-prepare us. When it comes time to step on the ice, whatever that looks like, we'll be prepared for that."