Barry Trotz was talking about the identity the Islanders had established under his watch in his first year behind the bench. Beyond the “Tough to play against” tag and “five-man structure,” the coach talked about how his team has “to go with a four-line mentality because we’re not loaded with top-end talent.”
Matt Barzal and perhaps Anders Lee aside, there is truth in that statement. But what makes it so intriguing is that Trotz had the ultimate top-end talent in his last gig in Washington with Alex Ovechkin. Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov weren’t too shabby, either.
The coach believed in five-man structure there, too, but Trotz rode his horses in DC to the NHL’s best record in 2015-16 and 2016-17 before winning the Cup and bouncing to the Island in a Johnny Keane-like scenario.