After the New York Islanders' 4-2 loss at home to the Carolina Hurricanes, coach Jack Capuano gave a more-spirited-than-usual briefing with media, expressing his disappointment that the team wasn't ready to grab two points in the Eastern Conference playoff race:
"We didn't really have any emotion, for whatever reason ... Two points out of a playoff spot, but no spirit, no emotion in the room. I could see it."
He acknowledged the Islanders didn't really deserve their 2-0 first-period lead, said they played the way they wanted in the second, but didn't maintain that through the third after the lead had been squandered.
"At some point, the room's gotta take over. We talked about taking ownership, our leaders, our guys, the coaches, we all gotta do better."
Capuano said he "saw way too many giveaways by our forwards and our D, you're not gonna be successful like that. If you want to be individualistic, play golf or play tennis."
Watch video of that and more from the official site:
Of note, he did take questions about the goaltending -- something he declined to do in Rick DiPietro's previous two starts. Capuano generally praised the play of Kevin Poulin, DiPietro's replacement.
Poulin's post-game follows:
Tuesday night, the Islanders are on NBC Sports to host the Boston Bruins, who are very good.