New York Islanders captain Anders Lee may no longer be a $7 million player. But that doesn't mean Lee isn't the leader he's always been.
With under nine minutes to play in the third period, New York Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock couldn't connect with forward Kyle Palmieri along the half-wall as the puck went the length of the ice.
Given the score, up 5-1 over the elite Boston Bruins, icing the puck wasn't anything close to a big deal.
However, icing it was not as Islanders captain Anders Lee put on the jets, beating out former Islander defensemen Parker Wotherspoon and Long Island native Charlie McAvoy to negate the icing and create a scoring chance:
"That was a heck of a play he made when he forechecks and then beat those guys up the icing and kept the play alive," Islanders head coach Patrick Roy said. "Our captain had another strong night."
First-year alternate captain Brock Nelson acknowledges his captain's work ethic.
"Good on him to just continue to play hard," Nelson said. "The biggest thing for us today was a quick start, and with the quick start, I think everybody stayed aggressive. That's a prime example of that, where that's an undercover play in a tight game, where you're probably hauling it a bit more, but I think guys were still acknowledging it."
Lee has been a prime suspect in the issues that plagued the team for the majority of the season.
The 32-year-old's slow start had a portion of the fan base begging for a buyout.
The postgame cliches after losses didn't sit well with the Islanders faithful, with many screaming for his "C" to be stripped off his sweater, thinking his leadership was the cause of the inconsistencies.
What fans forget is that he is the captain of the Islanders for a reason, and it's because his teammates continue to look up to him.
"He's our leader. He does the right things on and off the ice, and there's a reason he wears that letter," Kyle Palmieri said following Saturday's win. "We look up to him as teammates. "For him to show that in a 5-1 game -- Casey had a big block on the penalty kill -- we have a lot of character guys in this room. I think those guys have all stepped up, and today was a good night."
Lee's leadership on and off the ice got him the "C" after Barry Trotz arrived in 2018.
"When I first got here, I didn't know very many of the Islander players at all, other than coaching against them," Trotz said. "And I called every one of them when I got here. You know, try to get a little bit of background on each player. And I usually finished with one of my last questions: If you had to have a captain because John Tavares was the captain of the Islanders for so many years, who would your vote be?
"And it was almost unanimous that Anders would be the guy, so that tells you all you need to know as a coach or a fan or anybody in hockey that there's a lot of respect there for the way he plays, the way he handles himself, and the way he takes care of himself."
If you really want to know just how much the team appreciates their captain five years later, look no further than this past Jam Kancer in the Kan event, which he hosted a few days before the start of training camp.
His teammates could have been resting up, but instead, they all showed up, including Julien Gauthier, who had found out about the event the day before.
"Honestly, the biggest thing for me is how gracious the guys are with their time," Lee said during the event. "We got a lot going on here the last few days of the offseason, and for them to come out. It really means a lot to me."
For all the hardships of this season, Lee will likely reach the 20-goal mark for a third-straight season, with 16 goals and nine assists in 60 games.
It doesn't help his case that he carries a cap hit of $7 million a year through 2025-26 and is no longer a $7 million player.
But that doesn't mean Lee isn't the leader he's always been.