Josh Ho-Sang has never gone about things quietly. But now that the Islanders’ flashy young winger was called up from AHL Bridgeport on Sunday, it’s to be seen how he deals with his new situation.
It was very likely that was going to start with a healthy scratch Monday night, when the Isles went back to the Coliseum for their second game there this season, playing host to the Penguins. Having put up two goals and 22 points in 26 games with the Sound Tigers this season, the 22-year-old Ho-Sang was called up as insurance just in case one of the other Islanders’ forwards couldn’t play.
But putting in long work at an optional skate Monday morning showed Ho-Sang was not expected to play. And head coach Barry Trotz hardly feels any pressure to put him in the lineup for however long he is up with the big club.
“Zero. I have zero pressure to put him in the lineup,” Trotz said. “You can’t go in going, ‘I’ve got to get this guy in the lineup because, what? He’s got two goals in the AHL, or he’s a prospect or where he was drafted?’ We don’t work that way.”
Ho-Sang was taken by the Islanders with the 28th-overall pick in 2014, and then infamously overslept for his first training camp, with then-general manager Garth Snow making him run the stairs at the Coliseum before sending him back to his junior club. During the ensuing years, he has played 43 games in the NHL and shown flashes of brilliant on-ice talent while also having a penchant for speaking his mind — like he did with The Post a few weeks ago when he said he thought he wasn’t getting a fair shake from management or his AHL coaches.