When the dust settled on Monday’s NHL trade deadline, the New York Islanders had gotten all their business ahead of time, so the day’s headlines went to their rivals.
Sunday night after the Islanders’ overtime win over the Rangers, they announced the strictly depth acquisition of defenseman Braydon Coburn. At Monday afternoon’s presser (video below), Lou Lamoriello touched on that and his acquisition of Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac five days prior. Safe to say, he was already “comfortable” with what he’d done prior to Monday.
But his earlier moves provide an interesting wrinkle for the Eastern Division playoff race, in the context of the primary moves by the Boston Bruins (Taylor Hall), Washington Capitals (Anthony Mantha) and Pittsburgh Penguins (Jeff Carter): Those players will go through various travel and protocol transitions, while the Islanders have already gotten the awkward transition over with.