New York Islanders
Islanders Sticking With What Worked, Schneider Starting vs. Columbus?
EAST MEADOW, NY– After their most dominating performance of the season, a 5-1 beatdown of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the New York Islanders went right back to work on Wednesday morning.
The New York Islanders did not get any relief on the injury front as Kyle Palmieri, Cal Clutterbuck, Adam Pelech, and Semyon Varlamov remained absent, as they have been.
Simon Holmstrom continued to miss practice, and Oliver Wahlstrom, who left after just one shift Tuesday night, did not skate.
Before practice, Ross Johnston and Robin Salo took shots on netminders Ilya Sorokin and Cory Schneider, usually signifying that they were the extras.
With Wahlstrom absent and no call-up yet to fill his hole, here are the lines the Islanders ran at practice:
Josh Bailey-Mat Barzal-Hudson Fasching
Anders Lee-Brock Nelson-Anthony Beauvillier
Zach Parise-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Casey Cizikas
Matt Martin-Aatu Räty-Ross Johnston
Parker Wotherspoon-Ryan Pulock
Alexander Romanov-Scott Mayfield
Sebastian Aho-Noah Dobson
Ilya Sorokin
Cory Schneider
Hudson Fasching joined the Mat Barzal line quickly following Wahlstrom’s injury. In 3:51 minutes, that line outshot the Penguins 5-0 and outscored them 2-0, per Natural Stat Trick.
“It’s a different type of game,” Fasching said when playing with Barzal. “He’s a really creative player and you have to adjust your game but still try to stay true to yourself at the same time.”
“So I think that’s kind of finding the balance of like, how can my game mesh with his. I’m just trying to get open for him. He holds on to the puck and creates plays by drawing guys into him, so, iyou’re trying to find those spots where he creates the other space behind them and try to use that.”
Casey Cizikas, in his first stint as a winger at the NHL level, said he enjoyed it.
“It was good. Both Parise and Pageau really made it very easy for me,” Casey Cizikas said. “They’re smart players with high IQs and they definitely made it a lot easier on me to play my game and make it where I can have an impact.”
“So we read really well off each other. We made a lot of plays. We had some really good chances and that’s something we’re going to build off of.”
On a different note, netminder Cory Schneider was the first goaltender off the ice at practice, as he could very well get the start against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.
He has yet to play for the Islanders this season but had a magical performance last season in a 4-3 win over the New Jersey Devils back on Apr 3.
“Hs a true pro. I mean, he’s he’s been around a long time and has a lot of great hockey under his belt and is a great goaltender,” New York Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “And that’s no different from than right now. He’s playing some some really good hockey and seeing the puck and he’s always hard to score on in practice.”
“So if he gets a look I’m excited for him and excited for him to show it.”
New York Islanders head coach Lane Lambert would not comment on if Schneider would play.
Lambert did provide updates on injured players, sharing that Semyon Varlamov (IR) skated Wednesday morning, along with Palmieri and Clutterbuck. Wahlstrom, Holmstrom and Pelech have not skated.