Thomas Vanek didn’t sleep a wink on Sunday night.
Instead, he stayed awake waiting for his 7 a.m. flight out of Buffalo on Monday morning, kissing goodbye to his young family and heading out for his new home, on Long Island. He landed, went to the doctor’s office in New Hyde Park for a physical, then came to the Coliseum, put on the same white sweater as his new linemates, John Tavares and Kyle Okposo, and headed out to the ice.
“It’s a shock,” said Vanek after the practice, having been obtained in a trade with the Sabres in exchange for Matt Moulson, a first-round pick in 2014 and a second-round pick in 2015.
“Not surprised, I knew it was gong to happen sooner or later with the situation in Buffalo. I was excited to come here, great young team, up-tempo style. I’m looking forward to it.”
Vanek is an unrestricted free agent after this season, as is Moulson. The big question that will hover over the trade is whether Vanek will re-sign with the Islanders. His agent and Islanders general manager Garth Snow have not begun those discussions in earnest yet, as the feeling-out process has just commenced.
“I haven’t gotten that far,” said Vanek, 29, who will be coming off a deal that carried an annual salary-cap hit of $7.14 million. “I’m going to catch some sleep first, get to know these guys, and figure the rest out later.”
The one thing that was made very clear with this deal is Snow was not happy with his team’s 4-4-3 start, and that he wasn’t going to continue to watch his team’s inconsistent performance without doing something.
“Probably a pretty good time, if any, with some of the guy’s work ethic, to let them know that the boss isn’t happy,” said coach Jack Capuano. “And as coaches, we’re not happy too with some of the guys.”
The team got the message loud and clear, and will hope to start implementing it with Tuesday’s game against the Rangers at the Coliseum.
“I think if things were going the way we wanted them to, there wouldn’t be too many changes,” Tavares said. “Just goes to show that we have to be better. There’s no waiting around for it.”
Added Okposo, “Our rebuild is no more.”
And Snow, who just engineered arguably the biggest trade this team has made since sending Taylor Pyatt and Tim Connolly to Buffalo for Michael Peca in 2001, reiterated the Islanders are no longer playing nice.
“We haven’t been good enough,” Snow said. “We’re .500 and our expectations are to be higher in the standings than we are. I think the message, with or without this trade, is that we have to more consistent. We need to take that next step, and feel that Thomas can help us get there.”
Defensemen Lubomir Visnovsky (concussion) and Brian Strait (upper-body) both didn’t practice on Monday. It’s doubtful either will be available for Tuesday.