Islanders head coach Barry Trotz speaks with the media at Northwell Health Ice Center on May 6. Photo Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Now it can be told: Around this time late last summer, before he had coached a single game with the Islanders, Barry Trotz was not sure he was up to the task.
“I wouldn’t tell you last year, but right before the season started, I was exhausted,” he said on Thursday as the Islanders reported for training camp. “I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can make it.’”
This was during a whirlwind that included winning a Stanley Cup with the Capitals, leaving the Caps, getting hired by the Islanders, moving to Long Island and attending his daughter’s wedding somewhere in the middle of it all.