"[We'll miss] everything about him," Weight said. "He's out there 21 minutes a game; his puck possession and skill and strength, his will, his power play, his penalty kill, he's in every situation, takes big faceoffs, he scores; he's our best player, it's no secret, but we've got to move on and we've got to win a game today. I'm comfortable with the lineup we have and guys are going to give it their all and play with confidence."
The Islanders are also dealing with injuries to defenseman Travis Hamonic (upper body), and forwards Nikolay Kulemin (upper body), Casey Cizikas (upper body) and Ryan Strome (upper body). New York recalled Connor Jones from Bridgeport of the American Hockey League on Saturday to take Tavares' spot in the lineup.
"With misfortune brings opportunity so we've got a lot of guys that we've went with and we need everybody to pull on that rope, as they say, and the key is the depth and that doesn't mean you're doing more, you're doing more smartly," Weight said. "I think that's why you see good teams can handle that for a while, for a distance, because they'll play harder, they play smarter. When you're playing against a team that has more skill, you've got to put the percentages and put the puck in and play harder. Regardless of our lineup without John, we've got to have a lot of guys step up."
