New York Islanders
Brock Nelson’s future with the Islanders is unclear, with the NHL Trade Deadline approaching and his contract expiring after this season.
But when asked if he took in the scene on Tuesday after what could possibly have been his last game with the Islanders, he said, “I don’t think I did that.”
“I think it was still just a game,” Nelson said. “I truly mean that and I know that there’s a lot more that goes into it and a lot of different things going on in terms of noise and scenarios and what not.”
Nelson, who has played all 901 of his career games for New York, is in the final year of a six-year contract. He has 43 points (20 goals, 23 assists) in 61 games this season and had a goal and an assist on Tuesday in a 3-2 win against the NHL-leading Winnipeg Jets.
“I know I’m still playing at a high level and I’m just worried about trying to help the team here and I wasn’t thinking too sentimental in terms of anything here and it was just another game,” Nelson said. “I had my kids here, they love coming. They came, saw some warmups. They loved it and I tried to just go about it like I have every other game.”
The win put the Islanders (28-26-7) five points back of the New York Rangers for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with four teams ahead of them.
“I have no idea what’s going to happen at this moment,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster. We win some, we lose some. There’s days you want to buy. There’s days you want to sell. But it’s up to (general manager) Lou (Lamoriello) to decide whatever he feels is the right decision for the franchise.”
NHL.com independent correspondent Stefen Rosner contributed to this report