Kieffer Bellows Becomes Latest Islander Sidelined by COVID; Beau Returns

The carousel of New York Islanders players in COVID-19 protocol took another turn on Sunday ahead of their meeting with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Kieffer Bellows became the latest player to go into protocol, while Anthony Beauvillier returned.

Bellows is the seventh Islanders player to go into protocol this week. Josh Bailey, Andy Greene Anders Lee, Adam Pelech and Ross Johnston all remain in protocol.

Kieffer Bellows had played in Saturday’s home opener at UBS Arena. He appeared in 14:30 of the 5-2 loss and had nearly four minutes of power play time.

The good news was that Beauvillier was able to return to the ice after it was revealed that he a false-positive test result, which prevented him from playing in Saturday’s game against the Calgary Flames.

Since Beauvillier returned, the New York Islanders did not have to call anyone up from AHL Bridgeport. The Bridgeport Islanders played Sunday afternoon and Anatolii Golyshev was not in their lineup.

The chaos that the Islanders have gone through this week has been a new experience for everyone, including general manager Lou Lamoriello. The Isles had largely avoided any COVID issues during the bubble and during last year’s shortened season.

“What you do is you make sure you stay calm through it,” Lamoriello said. “Look at all the options you possibly have and only deal with things you have control over. The NHL controls whether the game is played or not played, so we don’t think of that or get involved. We have to report to the league exactly what’s transpired with each and every test so they have a record of how many players we have. I trust them that they’ll make the right decision as far as the game being played or not played.”

The Islanders had entered Sunday’s game against Toronto having lost their last five games.