Scott Mayfield, Islanders teammates prepare for the mental grind of being away from family
Scott Mayfield of the Islanders skates during summer training camp at Northwell Health Ice Center on Friday, July 24, 2020. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Saturday was supposed to be when Scott Mayfield married his long-time girlfriend, Emily Bayless, in a ceremony in Colorado. Instead, the engaged couple will spend one last day together on Long Island before the defenseman departs with his teammates on Sunday for Toronto for what the Islanders hope will be more than two months away for the NHL playoffs.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which put the NHL season on pause on March 12, has changed plenty of plans. And the hardest part about the league’s imminent return-to-play format will be the mental challenge of living in a quarantined arena/hotel bubble in a hub city.
“I think guys are excited, it seems that way at the rink,” Mayfield said after Friday’s practice at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow as Islanders’ Training Camp 2.0 nears its conclusion. “It’s going to be like a mental grind. The playoffs are always a physical grind. I think there’s a mental grind, too, being away from your family, not being able to go home, being in a hotel bed. I think that’s going to throw a little wrench in there for certain guys and certain teams.”
The Islanders, seeded seventh in the Eastern Conference, will face the 10th-seeded Panthers in a best-of-five qualifying series that begins on Aug. 1. They will also face the rival Rangers in an exhibition game at Toronto on Wednesday.
The Stanley Cup Final will likely end the first week of October in Edmonton.
“There have been a lot of emotions,” said captain Anders Lee, whose wife, Grace, gave birth to their first child, Ruby, on March 2. “We have all been feeling them. A lot of guys have already been separate from their families during camp. The guys that have been in town with families have to do the same thing. We’re not looking forward to being separate but, hopefully we’ll be separated for quite some time.”
But Lee said there will also be a strength in being together as a team.
As captain, he is trying to plan for some in-bubble team activities. A “Family Feud” competition is on the docket.
“There’s that uncertainty, we’ve never been through something like this before,” Lee said. “We’ve done tournaments and stuff like that, but not in the NHL, obviously. The beauty of all this is we’re going to have each other. The common room will be a place for us to hang out when we’re not at the rink. We’re all going to be going through this together. Homesickness, the basic challenges that come with playing hockey and doing your best to play well, the team aspect is going to be stronger than ever.”
As for the Mayfield-Bayless marriage, it’s been pushed back to mid-August, 2021.
“She’s done really well with it,” Mayfield said. “Everyone’s dealing with different issues and that’s just another thing that came up. Everyone is in a different spot and that’s where the mental aspect is going to take a toll. You’ve got to make sure you’re concentrating on what you can do on the ice.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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