BRANDON, Fla. — It was a schedule dictated by the captain, so the coach went along.
After the Islanders lost a second straight overtime game to the Lightning on Friday night in Brooklyn, putting them on the brink of elimination, they woke up at home on Saturday morning, flew to Florida, then had an almost-full practice on Saturday afternoon at a rink outside Tampa.
Normally teams would leave right after the game to get to their destination as early as possible, then have a light skate — if anything formal at all. This was an itinerary suggested by John Tavares a couple of days ago in hopes his team, trailing the best-of-seven series 3-1, will be ready to play in a must-win Game 5 on Sunday afternoon at Amalie Arena.