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New York Islanders

Forecasting the Roster Fallout After the Mayfield, Barzal Injuries

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(AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)

The New York Islanders won their seventh straight game last night in Tampa Bay, taking down the Lightning 3-2 in overtime. However, the cost of the win might just set back the Islanders even further in their quest to hunt down a playoff spot.



Scott Mayfield and Mathew Barzal exited the game with injuries that left both hobbling. Mayfield played 50 of the first 51 games. However, Luke Glendening threw Mayfield awkwardly into the boards. Mayfield appeared to hurt his knee and struggled off the ice. He tried to test it out but ultimately did not return.

Barzal exited during the game’s waning moments as he sacrificed his body to block an absolute rocket from Nikita Kucherov’s stick. The shot immediately knocked Barzal down, and he struggled to get up. When he did, he limped off the ice. The hope is it’s just a major stinger that left him unable to skate for overtime and nothing more sinister. Barzal already missed 21 games this season.

The Islanders are back in action tonight in Sunrise, FLA, against the Florida Panthers. Yesterday afternoon, the Cats cruised to an easy victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. If both Mayfield and Barzal can’t go, the lineup for the Islanders contains a few potential mysteries.

First, How’d the Defense Get to this Point?

The Islanders lined up for a game on January 20 against the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the right side of their defense stacked up like this: Noah Dobson, Ryan Pulock, and Scott Mayfield.

13 days later, the right side is expected to look something like this tonight: Anthony DeAngelo, Scott Perunovich, and Adam Boqvist. It’s a cruel twist of fate that, for the second time this season, the Islanders lost an entire side of their defense within a week. Last time, it happened in one game—Buffalo, where Pelech, Mike Reilly, and Alexander Romanov all suffered injuries.

The placements then all came internally. Isaiah George, Grant Hutton, and Samuel Bolduc all played.

This time, the replacements have all been external. Injuries hammered the entire right side. Within eight days, the Islanders brought in three defenders- all of whom cost the organization a conditional fifth-round pick.

DeAngelo scored the winner last night and has played some heavy, important minutes for the Islanders. Ditto for Perunovich, with two assists and Adam Pelech’s latest partner. Boqvist scored in his debut last night and now looks for revenge against the team that waived him days ago.

Regardless of those additions, now Mayfield went down. The defensemen brought in thus far have addressed puck mobility. The question remains of who replaces Mayfield’s defense-first minutes. Last night, Mayfield played on his offhand to skate with the righty Boqvist.

Who Can Replace Mayfield?

That leaves the Islanders with three options.

Option 1- Recall nobody and insert Dennis Cholowski. Cholowski has only played once during this seven-game win streak, and it came against the Philadelphia Flyers on January 24. He’s like the other defenders- focused on offense. So he isn’t a stylistic replacement, but he’s already the man with the team.

Option 2- Bring Back Isaiah George. The team demoted George on Friday after his play nosedived and he didn’t play in the final 33 minutes against the Flyers in Philadelphia. It seems rather unlikely they’d bring him back so soon after his struggles, but it could be the simplest option if Mayfield is placed on injured reserve.

Option 3- Grant Hutton (or Travis Mitchell). Last night, the Bridgeport Islanders played in Hershey against the Bears. Travis Mitchell, a shutdown defenseman who was called up during the Western Canada trip but did not play, lined up to the right of Isaiah George. He’s a penalty killer and a lefty, and his handedness could be the reason he’s called up. If it’s not him, the always-steady Hutton has proven before he can fill in defensively in a pinch. Both are not ideal options, but they’re more than okay stop-gaps through the Four Nation’s Face-Off and, stylistically, are the two best repayments for Mayfield.

What about the forwards? Who replaces Barzal?

If Barzal is injured and cannot play, the Islanders have the forward depth they need to fill out the roster for tonight. It’s far from ideal, especially with how Barzal has been playing. His skating and abilities with the puck cannot be replaced in-house, but from a lineup standpoint, the Islanders have a couple of options.

The first option is simple. Barzal slides out of the lineup, and Anthony Duclair plugs into his place after missing last night’s game with an illness. The rest of the forward lines stay the same, leaving Maxim Tsyplakov on line two and Pierre Engvall on line four.

Another option is sliding Tsyplakov to the top line with Bo Horvat and Anders Lee and returning Duclair to the wing of Brock Nelson, where he spent the first six games of the winning streak. Again, that leaves the bottom six perfectly in tact while tinkering with the top six due to the injuries.

The final option is elevating Simon Holmstrom to the top line. Holmstrom’s been a man possessed lately. He has three goals and five points in the last three games and started overtime last night with Horvat. That alone shows the faith Roy has in him. In a broader picture, Holmstrom has 27 points in his last 34 games of hockey. That stat that places him ahead of Nelson and Kyle Palmieri during that same sample.

Elevating Holmstrom likely causes a ripple effect for the top three lines. Duclair did not mesh well with Casey Cizikas and Jean-Gabriel Pageau, so he’d likely return to Nelson’s line instead. Tsyplakov would then slide back to that line and skate with Pageau and Cizikas, giving the Islanders a totally different look offensively.

Holmstrom earned the chance for an expanded role, but it’s hard to dispute how well he’s worked with Pageau. It’s extremely difficult to break that duo up.

Head coach Patrick Roy meets with the media at 4:45. Perhaps he will let us in on his plan then. The puck drop is scheduled for just after 6 this evening in Florida.

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Michael Galligan

We will have to wait and see what Lou and Patrick does !!!! But I have complet confidence in our NY Islanders!!!! Let’s go Islanders!!!!

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