\u201cGetting the kids settled was priority No. 1. I think for us as parents, we knew we\u2019d be fine no matter where we went. We could handle all that stuff; you just worry about your kids and want to make sure that they\u2019re settled.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s soothing for Lee, who turned 36 on July 3 and departed fifth all-time in Islanders history in games played (923), fourth in goals (308) and 10th in points (549). His new team has been with him every step of the way to get the entire family acclimated, and he and Trocheck — and their families — have been able to adjust together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s been a treat, honestly,\u201d said Trocheck, who also visited the NHL offices Monday. \u201cWe actually talked about it, but doing this whole change, this big life change, going all the way out west and having families that have to make this big change, it goes a long way having somebody going through the same thing with you. We’ve hung out together quite a bit. Our families, we both have kids, he’s got three kids, I have two kids, and they’re around the same age, and it’s good. For them it’s been huge — they have instant friends. \u2026 Anders is just a great guy, so it’s been great to get to know him. His wife’s awesome; my wife’s a big fan. So, it’s been huge in helping us adjust.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026 I have a couple buddies on the island, so they told me about Anders beforehand and they all raved about him. I had multiple guys reach out and be like, ‘You’re going to love this guy.’ So instantly, I kind of just gravitated towards him, just knowing the comfortability of my former teammates and friends (being) friends with this guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the ice, Lee already has scored his first goal with Utah, doing so in his third game, a 6-0 win against the Chicago\u00a0Blackhawks on Oct. 1. He had an assist during a 4-2 loss to the Rangers for his second point, quickly finding chemistry with new, younger linemates Logan Cooley<\/a>, 22, and Dylan Guenther<\/a>, 23.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was incredible that we signed a captain. He calms our group,\u201d Mammoth general manager Bill Armstrong said Monday. \u201cHe\u2019s a calm guy, and you can see that. There\u2019s no panic in his game. He gives us a lot of leadership. I think he\u2019s going to help our group.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got a great captain in (Clayton) Keller and (Lawson) Crouse and \u2018Schmaltzy\u2019 (Nick Schmaltz) and those guys, and they\u2019ve done a good job. I feel like now it\u2019s Anders\u2019 turn to kind of push that group and help them become better leaders. He\u2019s going to have a huge impact on our leadership group, being in those meetings, helping them and guiding them and being a mentor to them. It\u2019s going to really help our group.<\/p>\n \u201cHe is exactly what we needed as a player. We have a lot of skill, so when you put him with Cooley and Guenther, he anchors the net, he gets first to the forecheck, he does the dirty work in the corners. We needed that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Mammoth are in the New York area during a five-game road trip that continues at the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; Utah16, MSGSN), but Lee won\u2019t see the Islanders just yet. Utah hosts them Dec. 15, exactly two months before Lee makes his return to UBS Arena.\u00a0<\/p>\n “There\u2019s going to be a lot of emotions for sure,” Lee said. \u201cWe play the day before too (at the Washington Capitals on Feb. 14). I\u2019d love to have been able to catch the boys. Even when they come to town, we\u2019re on the road (at Colorado on Dec. 14), we have a back-to-back. Nothing you can do about the schedule, but it\u2019s going to be an emotional game for sure.<\/p>\n “I feel like guys never even really play well in that game because there\u2019s just too much on your mind. You\u2019re just trying to get through it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cGetting the kids settled was priority No. 1. I think for us as parents, we knew we\u2019d be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-872177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}