The injury news continues, almost as if the hockey gods are trying to tell us Lou something.
The New York Islanders are at a crossroads, one that has been screaming in their face since well before the seven-game win streak. Currently, they near the 4 Nations break with three more games against tough competition and a growing list of injuries. They’re close enough to the wild card bubble to retain goodwill “faith” in this roster for a while longer, but the injury situation and how they’ve performed through most of the season would indicate the need for trading expiring assets.
We’ll see.
Things resume tonight at Belmont against Vegas before they hit the road for a back-to-back in the upper Midwest.
Leave First Islanders Goal picks here.
Islanders News
- The injury news is not great. Mat Barzal is out “indefinitely,” Scott Mayfield “day to day.” [Isles | Post | Newsday]
- Previewing tonight. [Isles]
- The best part of this video is Arthur Staple in an Expos hat. The worst part is him describing how when the team was in Vegas, word around the league was Lou was focused on re-signing Brock Nelson, not on getting assets for Nelson, Kyle Palmieri or J-G Pageau. [Daily Faceoff YouTube]
- In a coincidence, the Islanders won all three of his starts and Ilya Sorokin was named first star of the week. [Isles]
- The Isles 13U girls team coached by Arron Asham went undefeated at an international tournament in Vancouver. (Ultimately they failed however by not bringing back Elias Pettersson.) [Isles]
Elsewhere
Was there a bowl game or something? Only one NHL game last night, the Senators beating up on the Predators.
- Two video reviews on the same non-goal in that one. [Sportsnet]
- Hoooo boy Ryan Hartman, a {Raising Arizona voice} repeat offender, gets a 10-game suspension. Nicely done — he’s been previously fined seven times and suspended four times, “meaning he’s been assessed supplementary discipline roughly every 60 games.” A regular Cooke douche, that guy. [NHL]
- But they adjust Stefan Noesen’s match penalty was punishment enough. [TSN]
- Oh no! Poor Columbus loses Kirill Marchenko to a broken jaw suffered while on the bench. [NHL]