This was a situation that could have soured fast, and bitter resentment could have eaten away at the Islanders from the inside out.
But Evgeni Nabokov was not about to let that happen.
The veteran goaltender and presumptive No. 1 for coach Jack Capuano and the Islanders over the past two seasons sat and watched his third straight game on Thursday night at the Coliseum, a 3-2 loss to the Kings, sitting in favor of 23-year-old Kevin Poulin.
And after a hard morning skate, Nabokov settled right into the role of good teammate rather than disgruntled malcontent.
“The most important thing is the team winning,” the 38-year-old told The Post before the game. “I think that’s where we’re at right now. The team’s winning and [Poulin] played well, so I have no problem. I’m going to go back and work hard and get better.”
Poulin had played just two of the team’s first 13 games of the season, and neither start inspired confidence. Yet recently, as Nabokov has begun to show cracks, Poulin has played more — and played well.
That was also the case for the first two periods of Thursday, when it looked as if Poulin was solidifying his role as the team’s No. 1. That was, until the third period, until Poulin gave up three goals — two of them soft — and watched a 2-0 lead turn into a disheartening loss.
Yet Poulin came into the game with a 2.35 goals-against average (compared to Nabokov’s 3.24), and a sterling .920 save percentage (Nabokov’s being .894).
Nabokov, who played under Kings coach Darryl Sutter for two-plus seasons in San Jose, used an old coaching axiom to drive his point home.
“The guy [Sutter] we [played Thursday], his favorite thing was, when you play good and you lose, he would say it’s not good enough,” Nabokov said before the game. “So plain and simple, it wasn’t good enough to win and that’s where we’re at.”
Before Tuesday’s 3-1 win over the Predators, the Islanders had gone on a disastrous four-game road trip during which they couldn’t earn a single point. Yet Capuano made sure to point out his penalty-kill operated at a 53 percent success rate during that trip — anchoring it to the league cellar — which often left Nabokov hanging out to dry in his two starts.
“Nabby has played well, but Kevin is just in a position right now where the last few starts he’s looked pretty good and we’re going to ride him,” Capuano said before the game. “Nabby’s fine. The second half of last year, he got us into the playoffs. Nabby is going to continue to play, but right now we’ve decided to go with Kevin. That’s all.”
It’s also tough to ignore when Nabokov was first claimed by the Islanders in the middle of the 2010-11 season, he refused to report immediately. The team had to suspend him for the rest of that season, yet by 2011-12, he showed up and has played admirably over the past two years.
Last season, Nabokov helped the Islanders get to their first postseason appearance since 2007, and yet he faltered in the six-game, first-round loss to the Penguins, the result of what Capuano called the fatigue of his playing 41 games of the 48-game schedule. This year, Nabokov is working off a one-year, $3.25 million contract, and has very little job security.
“It’s a winning business, and in order to stay in business, you have to win hockey games,” Nabokov said. “That’s the bottom line. So next time I’m up, I have to win the hockey game.”