Isles Practice Notebook: Varlamov to LTIR, Duclair to Return Saturday?

EAST MEADOW, NY — After a 4-0 drubbing by the Carolina Hurricanes, the New York Islanders reconvened for practice on Thursday afternoon. Despite the ugly loss, the Islanders kept their spirits high, trying to find the positives in a game in which the team blew coverages and made too many mistakes, all while being unable to keep the puck out of their own net.

Said Adam Pelech: “I think we didn’t get the result in Carolina, but we did a lot of good things.”

Simon Holmstrom continued that line of thinking: “I thought we played a pretty solid game. I don’t think 4-0 was fair. Maybe fair isn’t the right word, but 4-0 isn’t how the game went. We had plenty of opportunities to put the puck in the net, but at the end of the day, you have to score to win. We’ve got  to keep working on that.”

They’re not totally wrong overall. While I felt the game exposed every flaw the Islanders had, they did compete at even strength.

Special Teams Work:

Head Coach Patrick Roy dedicated more than half of today’s practice to working on the power play and penalty kill simultaneously. To this point, the Islanders are on pace to have the worst statistical special teams in NHL history, with both currently sitting last in the league.

This is something the players involved know and are working on. Speaking with Holmstrom, who plays on both the power play and penalty kill, he discussed what could fix the ailing units:

“I think going back to the simple things, talking out there, going through video, whatever it might be, go back from the start and just go over and stay calm. We will figure it out eventually, but we’ve just got to have some energy to it.”

Pelech also discussed the penalty kill and how watching from the sidelines helped his perspective on it:

“It’s always important to get a new set of eyes on it, especially because we’ve had a hard time figuring it out for the past year. That’s kind of the biggest thing that we’re looking to fix on the back end here and I think that’s super important for us going forward.”

Scott Mayfield issued similar feelings toward the kill: “I don’t know if there’s exactly one play or one situation or something that, OK, we’re giving this up a lot, or whatever. It’s kind of different style goals. So you’re moving around, you’re trying to fix a bunch of different things. In the end, it’s work ethic, which I think we have.”

Finally, Roy spoke himself and took the blame for the special teams’ woes: “I feel like we should have maybe spent more time on the PK and on the power play in training camp… Yeah, I’ll take part of the blame on this because maybe I could have put more emphasis on the power play and PK during training camp.”

Varlamov to LTIR; Hutton Waived/Cleared; Duclair to Return?

Roy made some final news when he called Anthony Duclair a game-time decision for Saturday, but all but said he’s going to play. Duclair adds speed and a scoring punch this team desperately needs, and his return will help the power play.

The Islanders needed to clear one roster spot and make enough cap space for the returning Duclair. They placed Grant Hutton on waivers yesterday, and he cleared today. He did not skate at practice and will presumably be demoted to the Bridgeport Islanders. He can continue to be a veteran leader and stabilizing force for the 5-17-2 B-Isles.

The other transaction came when the Islanders announced that Semyon Varlamov had been transferred from IR to LTIR. This move cleared his cap hit from the books and opened up the cap space for Duclair to be activated.

Varlamov’s injury is retroactive to December 3 against the Canadiens, when he backed up Ilya Sorokin in Montreal. He can return in time for the Pittsburgh Penguins home-and-home games on December 28 and 29.