The New York Islanders dwindling playoff chances, already on life support with the team four points out and just five games remaining, may have just received the final nail in the proverbial coffin. The team announced this morning that team captain John Tavares is week-to-week with a lower body injury. With just eight days remaining in the regular season, the injury would therefore have a good chance of prematurely ending the star center’s season.
Cal Clutterbuck told Brett Crygalis of the New York Post that Tavares appeared to have caught his skate in a rut in the Barclays Center ice, leading to the injury. The quality of the ice at Barclays Center has long been an issue and it seems to have led to the loss of the Islanders best player at a time they need him most.
Tavares leads the Islanders in scoring with 66 points, 14 ahead of second place Josh Bailey. He’s second on the club in goals with 28, just one behind Anders Lee.
Even with Tavares in the lineup, the Islanders were faced with a tall task trying to make it to the postseason. The team is four points behind the Bruins for the second wild card spot in the east with both Tampa Bay and Carolina, each of whom has a game in hand on the Isles, ahead of them in the standings. According to the Sports Club Stats website, the Islanders have just a 2.9% chance of making it to the postseason. Minus Tavares, those odds today are practically zero.
Assuming the Islanders do come up short in their pursuit of a postseason berth, the long term future of their franchise player will immediately take center stage in Brooklyn. Tavares will be an unrestricted free agent following the 2017-18 season and has expressed at every every opportunity his desire to remain with the team that drafted him first overall in 2009. However, if Tavares questions whether the Islanders have the means and wherewithal to challenge for a Stanley Cup, he may not wish to tie himself to the club through the balance of his prime seasons. Unless and until he inks an extension, Tavares will likely dominate the hockey hot stove headlines beginning in the summer of 2017.