Jack Capuano: 'There's no doubt I'm rooting for the Islanders'

Jack Capuano is now the associate coach for the Ottawa Senators but, during these playoffs, he’s still an Islanders fan.

“I’ve always had close relations with them,” the former Islanders coach told Newsday on Friday. “There’s nothing more I want to see than the Islanders win. I hold no grudges. Would I like to have been moving forward with the young core? Yeah, but that’s how sports is. When my wife and I watch the game, there’s no doubt I’m rooting for the Islanders. This is a perfect opportunity, if they can get by Tampa, they have a good chance to win the Stanley Cup.”

That, of course, is the tricky part as the Islanders entered Game 3 of their Eastern Conference finals against the Lightning on Friday night at Rogers Place in Edmonton. The Lightning took a 2-0 series lead with a 2-1 win in Wednesday night’s Game 2 on Nikita Kucherov’s goal with 8.8 seconds remaining in regulation.

Capuano, who coached the Islanders from 2010-17, had the second-longest tenure in team history behind Hall of Famer Al Arbour. It included three playoff berths and the team’s first series win since 1993. But after dispatching the Panthers in six games in 2016, the Islanders were eliminated by the Lightning in five games in the second round. That included two overtime losses in Brooklyn.

Much of the core from that Lightning team remains but Capuano said he has been impressed with the way the organization has built depth through the draft while overcoming the absence of captain Steven Stamkos, out since Feb. 25.

“They might have had maybe a little more size when we played them,” said Capuano, who served as the Florida Panthers associate coach from 2017-19. “They’ve always had the skill level and they’ve always had the pace. When you face Tampa Bay, people talk about their skill level but they can play any style, a physical brand. That goes unnoticed with Tampa Bay. There’s a lot of push-back with their game. You’re not going to bully them around.”

Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Anton Stralman, Jonathan Drouin, Vladislav Namestnikov and goalie Ben Bishop are among the familiar names gone for the Lightning squad that ousted Capuano’s Islanders.

Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who won the Vezina Trophy last season and is a finalist this season and has played every postseason game so far, split time with Bishop in 2016.

Plus, Brayden Point has evolved into a suitably dynamic replacement for Stamkos as the top-line center.

“I think it’s a credit to the organization and the coaching staff,” Capuano said. “The organization for creating the depth they need. The coaching staff, when they’re missing a player like Stamkos, to put players in position to succeed.”

The Lightning are in the conference finals for the fourth time in six years. They lost to Chicago in the 2015 Stanley Cup Final and are looking to return for the first time since.

“The expectations are high,” Capuano added. “There’s a lot of pressure on them every year. Their mental toughness, when they do face some adversity, is pretty strong for me.”

But Capuano believes the same is true for the Islanders, particularly with the way his former players have matured with experience.

“As guys get a couple of years under their belt, they get a belief and trust,” Capuano said. “Guys know how the salary cap is. There is a short opportunity of time to make it, some hard decisions to make. Johnny (Tavares) obviously left, that’s the new NHL. Maturity is the biggest thing. As players, you never know when this opportunity is going to come again.”

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

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.