WINNIPEG, Manitoba — A few weeks ago, the Islanders team group chat lit up with a text from Anders Lee.
It said they were going to have a day at his house in Minnesota, and to bring an old jersey.
“I told the boys, you gotta wear your favorite jerseys from when you were a kid,” Lee said Monday, after the Islanders practiced in Winnipeg. “Pull one out that means something to you, you maybe won a tournament in or whatever it was. Guys brought jerseys from home, had guys shipping them, having parents ship them out, make sure they had them there for the day.”
Lee, the Islanders captain and a native of Edina, Minn., had bought a place in the area recently with a pond. The schedule aligned perfectly, with two days between the Islanders win on Saturday in Minnesota and their game Tuesday in Winnipeg. They were going to have an off-day anyway before flying north.
This was a rare opportunity in a busy NHL schedule, and one that was apropos for a team whose mantra all year has been playing with joy. The Islanders and a handful of support staff, all out on the pond, playing 17-on-17 hockey on a sun-soaked January day like they were children.
“It looked,” Jean-Gabriel Pageau said, “like one big family. Just skating together.”
It’s easy to fall into the trap of cliches about team-building on a road trip, especially a seven-game marathon like the Islanders are on. Truth be told, that aspect most — as in 95 percent or more — of NHL trips comes in getting a meal together, and maybe going shopping. If they’re in the right locale, some guys will play golf, but, as Pageau pointed out Monday, “not everyone’s golfing.”
One year when he was in Columbus, Adam Boqvist said, the schedule aligned for the team to take a one-day trip to the Masters. Otherwise, he’d done nothing like this over his seven seasons in the league.
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“I think it’s huge,” Boqvist told The Post. “Just being together. Otherwise you’re sitting in your room or you’re going for a walk. And when you’re at home, you’re with your family, wife, kids. When you’re on the road, we like to be with each other. We enjoy it, we have a great group of guys here. It’s a lot of fun.”
Even when the Islanders were at their lowest point a year ago, no one would have questioned that the dressing room was tightly knit. Still — and being 25-15-5 is a major help — the vibe is different this year. This was just the latest example.
“It was amazing. We had so much fun,” Pageau said. “It reminded, I think, everyone, of some good memories when you’re young and with your parents or your friends. I think a day like that together is very good for the team just to go out and have fun. You can see the amount of smiling we had. I think it just brings everyone together.”
The Islanders spent about six hours at Lee’s house, Boqvist said, though not all of it was on the ice. At some point, they retired indoors to watch football.
“We love getting together as a group, but depending on the schedule and what we do and where we are, it’s tough to find a good activity sometimes,” Lee said. “This was a perfect one to do where we can just be with each other, laugh a bunch all day, watch the games. Just spend time with each other in a relaxed setting.
“Guys are already on the road, guys are away from their families. Just gives them something great to do rather than walking around, going to lunch, going back to their hotel rooms.”
