#Islanders have captured NHL’s spotlight during playoff run

If anything, the Islanders’ playoff run has given the hockey world an inside look into what’s been brewing on Long Island.

And that has been a major step toward building a consistent, championship-caliber franchise, according to Barry Trotz.

“Organizationally, I think it’s really important to see what’s happening on the Island,” the Islanders coach said on a Zoom call prior to a potentially season-ending Game 5 against the Lightning on Tuesday night. “The change, obviously with [general manager Lou Lamoriello] coming in, the facilities, what the Island is all about, obviously excitement of [UBS Arena], a permanent home for us, the type of character that represents the Islanders, just a lot of good things.

“Any time that you can go deep in the playoffs for any organization, what it does is there’s experiences of going deep for your organization that you can’t get any other way.”

From locking down the naming rights to their new arena, signing goaltending prodigy Ilya Sorokin — and using a playoff roster spot to begin integrating him into the team despite the fact that he’s ineligible to play — to the impact that Lamoriello’s trade-deadline acquisitions have had on their run to the Eastern Conference finals, the Islanders have certainly captured the NHL’s spotlight.

But more importantly than the heaps of attention the organization has received, the players have earned invaluable playoff experience that could serve them well in the future. To Trotz, it’s priceless experience that will particularly benefit the team’s younger players.

“For a number of our players, they have not been to a conference final ever before. They maybe got past the first round once or twice and that’s been about it,” Trotz said. “We’ve gone deeper and everybody thinks about the physical grind, I think the mental grind is a lot harder than the physical grind. The physical grind you get every game. You’re putting out effort and all that, but you’re getting banged up and every team is taking a piece of you every game.

“How you restore those pieces, how you focus on the next game, how you focus with success and more importantly, how you focus with defeat, how you pick yourself up after a tough loss or a game that doesn’t go your way individually or collectively. That’s what builds winners or champions.”

As one of the lone New York sports teams to succeed recently, the Islanders have seemingly drawn more and more interest as their playoff run has continued. But that interest can only build if the Isles keep winning, and Trotz noted how there’s never been a Cinderella story without some hardship.

“There’s very few teams in any sport that have put a group together and they’ve won a championship right away without maybe a little bit of failure on the way,” Trotz said. “You look at some of the great dynasties and you look at the dynasty of the Islanders when they won the four straight, there was a lot of hardship on the front end before they ran four in a row.

“There’s a lot of lessons on the way and understanding those lessons and being able to deal with them, those are invaluable for organizations and individuals in your organization.”