After his team fell apart in the third period of Saturday night’s loss, Islanders head coach Scott Gordon said that he hadn’t really thought about being without Rick DiPietro for 4-6 weeks following knee surgery on Friday.
The coach’s mindset hadn’t changes much yesterday, but he did admit what everyone already knows: It’s going to hurt.
“Any team that loses its number one goaltender, obviously it’s a huge loss,” Gordon said of DiPietro’s prolonged absence. The goalie has played in just three games this season and will continue to be replaced by Joey MacDonald. “We’re no different than the New Jersey Devils losing Marty Brodeur. There are very few teams that have two top guys.”
But with his team having lost six in a row and floundering at the bottom of the league, the rookie head coach knows he can’t afford to be down as it heads into tonight’s game against Columbus at Nassau Coliseum. (7:00; MSG+, WMJC).
“It’s a hurdle for us,” Gordon said after the team practiced yesterday. “Sometimes, when that happens, it elevates the awareness of the rest of the team: ‘If what we need to do is be perfect, that’s what we need to do.’ And then when you come back from the injuries, you’re better.”
Perhaps that’s what will happen. If it doesn’t, things could get ugly on the Island.
In the meantime, Gordon continues to fiddle with his personnel, moving Kyle Okposo to the top line, where he’ll play with Bill Guerin and Doug Weight in place of Sean Bergenheim, who moves to the second line.
“I wanted to give him the opportunity to play on an offensive line,” Gordon said of the switch of the two young players. “Kyle’s gonna be an offensive player in the NHL. His skill level, strength, skating, passing and shooting ability is a good package.”
The move is fine with Okposo, who hasn’t gotten off to the start the team had hoped for.
“They read well off each other,” Okposo said of his new veteran linemates. “You get a feel for how they work together. If you go to the net, they’ll hit you.”
The rest will be up to him.