NHL

Islanders’ Okposo dominating since daughter’s birth

The bit of insight came from Kyle Okposo’s mother-in-law, and it came on national television.

Seen during Wednesday night’s airing of “NHL Revealed” on NBC Sports Network, the cameras were with Okposo on the morning of Jan. 6, when his wife, Danielle, gave birth to their first child, a daughter named Elliana. In an interview with Danielle’s mother, she forewarned the league about Okposo’s pending elevation in game, saying the last time he had this good off-the-ice news, he played the best hockey of his life.

So she sure looked sage as Okposo has racked up 10 points in the past nine games, including a goal in Thursday night’s 6-4 loss to the Penguins at the Coliseum.

But that last time, the one that set this precedent?

“After the last game of the season,” Okposo told The Post Thursday morning, referring to final regular-season game of last year, a 2-1 shootout loss in Buffalo, after which the team flew home and Danielle said she was pregnant.

From there, the Islanders went on to their first postseason berth since 2007, a six-game, first-round series loss to these same elite Penguins, a time when Okposo played the most assertive hockey of his pro career, scoring three goals, adding an assist, and giving his team some hope with a gnarly fight with Matt Niskanen in Game 2.

“It was pretty cool,” Okposo said of that sequence of events. “It was pretty special.”

Okposo, though, does not want to make an association between life off the ice and success on it.

“When things are good at home, things are good at the rink,” he said, before adding, “But that’s not always the case.”

So again it was the Penguins, and again the focus was on Okposo, his team coming in having won 12 of the past 17 and gotten to within five points of a playoff position.

Before Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma could watch his team torch a beleaguered Islanders defense, he spent the better part of his pregame press meeting speaking not about his day-to-day job behind the bench of the best team in the Eastern Conference, but about his role as the coach of Team USA, which left the Minnesota-born Okposo off the final roster.

“The pool of talent is so much deeper than it has ever been in the past for Team USA, and Kyle was right there,” Bylsma said. “Kyle’s body of work, his best work, is this calendar year. This last two months is probably his best body of work.”

The Olympic announcement was made on New Year’s Day, after the Winter Classic, and the next day, Okposo scored the game-winner in overtime to beat the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks, the Coliseum crowd serenading him with chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A.”

Soon thereafter, a story was posted on ESPN.com that detailed an inside-access look at the selection process — and noted that Okposo hardly was ever in consideration even months before the deadline approached, his main deterrent being his skating ability on the bigger international ice surface.

That was something that Bylsma somewhat refuted on Thursday — “I don’t know who portrayed it that way, so I don’t know how to speak to that,” he said — yet the coach did note that performance in the whole of the previous four years, and not just the past calendar year, had to be part of the consideration process.

“He’s a good-skating power forward,” Bylsma said. “Maybe in previous years, he hadn’t really gotten to the net with that power and that shot. Now, it’s tough to go minutes without seeing him be that type of factor.”

What is especially tough to miss is the Islanders top line, where Okposo joined John Tavares and Thomas Vanek to form a trio that before Thursday night had combined for 46 even-strength goals — a number Bylsma knew off the top of his head — and a group that since Dec. 17 were the three highest point producers in the league, in the order of Tavares (25), Vanek (23), Okposo (22).

So it turns out both good and bad events have led to Okposo’s success. Maybe it’s just time to start thinking of Okposo as a good player.

“Obviously I was so excited to do both things, be a father and play in the playoffs for the first time,” Okposo said. “They are both lifelong dreams. So the playoffs was obviously awesome, a great experience, and now being a father, you can’t ask for anything better.”


Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky practiced without a non-contact jersey for the first time since being concussed on Oct. 19. Visnovsky participated in his first team practice on Sunday, and then took the morning skates before games Monday and Tuesday, before a team off day Wednesday.

“Conditioning [and] a few more practices,” is how coach Jack Capuano described what is holding him back from returning. “If things progress the way they’re going, he could be ready next week — I’m hoping.”

Capuano has had to rely on a very young and inexperience defensive corps in Visnovsky’s absence, and now through some serious growing pains, is readying for the veteran’s return.

“I’d like to get healthy,” said Capuano, who is also missing No. 1 defenseman Travis Hamonic to a presumed concussion. “As coaches, you always want to hold guys accountable for their play, we’ve done that at the forward position. We haven’t been healthy back there, so there aren’t a whole of lot changes we could make back there, with the roster that we have.”


Starting goalie Evgeni Nabokov partially participated in the morning skate, the first on-ice team activity he has done since injuring his quadriceps in the first period of a game against the Stars on Jan. 6.

He missed his ninth consecutive game, and Capuano said, “He still needs a little ways,” before he can return.
Kevin Poulin got his eighth start in those past nine games, while Anders Nilsson backed up.