Good Morning, Islanders Country.
For the 16th consecutive year, our first look at the upcoming New York Islanders roster occurred on the golf course rather than the ice rink. It’s the unofficial start to the official start of Training Camp. Dressed in blue polos and black shorts, the team took the links with teammates old and new, giving us insight into the quality of their golf game and their early perspective on the upcoming season.
A hole-in-one (more on that later) was big news, but head coach Patrick Roy upstaged it, showing he’s not quite as good at keeping injury secrets as GM Lou Lamoriello. Plus, Anthony Duclair is excited to play Mathew Barzal, and early indications are he'll get the chance to do so right away.
Let’s dive in.
📰 NEWS: The biggest news of the morning came, we think, by mistake, as head coach Patrick Roy revealed that goaltender Ilya Sorokin underwent back surgery this summer. The unintentional leak provided specifics about what the “something” Sorokin was battling comes just days after GM Lou Lamoriello shared that he had suffered an upper-body injury this summer but downplayed concern, expecting him to be ready for the start of the season.
“So, the surgery that he had for his back, it's not the perfect thing, but I think he'll be fine, said Roy, as reported by NHL.com. "And I do believe that we have such a good medical staff that'll take care of him. They'll make sure that when he's ready, he'll help us."
Back surgeries vary considerably in severity. Depending on when it happened this summer, it is reasonable to understand why the Islanders believe Sorokin will be ready for the start of the season in about a month. Of course, surgery is still surgery, and there's nothing routine about it. Until we see Sorokin on the ice in game action, it will be hard to be fully assured that he is 100% healthy and ready to take on the same workload he had the previous two seasons.
“On the exit meeting with Ilya, he knows what he has to do,” Roy said. “He knows that I’m with him. He knows that I’m trusting him. And he knows that he’s going to be an important player on our team.”
First Things First
When the Islanders signed Anthony Duclair this summer, we knew they were adding a top-six scoring player, but we didn’t know whether they were also signing a top-line forward. We found on Monday, however, that this is exactly Roy’s intent heading into training camp. “We'll try him at the beginning with Bo [Horvat] and [Mat Barzal], see how it goes, and we'll go from there,” Roy said. “I think he can be a good addition to the team.”
The chemistry between Barzal and Horvat grew last season after only getting limited time together after Horvat was acquired from Vancouver due to the knee injury Barzal suffered a few weeks later. Any concerns about Barzal’s willingness or ability to play the wing were answered as the 27-year-old enjoyed his finest offensive season since his Calder Trophy-winning campaign in 2017-18.
The hope is that Duclair will find instant chemistry, allowing Roy to roll out the same line for most of the regular season.
◾️ FIT IN REALLY EASY: “I'm just really excited, first and foremost,” Duclair said. “Obviously going to free agency, I had a lot of decisions to make, and I just felt looking at this lineup, I can fit in really easy.”
◾️ BE DANGEROUS: “He can fly up the ice, so off transition and fast breaks with that speed, we could be dangerous,” Barzal said. “I don't know what we're going to do with the lines just yet, but anyone who plays with him will be lucky.”
Moul-In-One
Isles alum, former three-time 30-goal scorer (and recent inspiration for a Children’s book) Matt Moulson sank a hole-in-one, becoming the first to ever do so during the Charity outing and winning the BMW Hole-In-One Contest.
📚 SOUND SMART: Moulson’s family and extended family are all hockey names from past and present. John Tavares is the godfather of Moulson's daughter, Mila, and Kyle Okposo is the godfather of Moulson's son, George, who is also believed to be named after his wife's godfather, George McPhee, who is President of Hockey OPS for the Vegas Golden Knights. Plus, New York Rangers goaltender Jonathan Quick is his brother-in-law through marriage.
🎥 ISLES REWIND: On September 14, 1972, the Islanders opened their first-ever training camp in Peterborough, Ontario (h/t Vintage Hockey Showcase).
🎧 The Double Chili Islanders Podcast: The "Double Chili Islanders Podcast" at the Islanders Children's Foundation Golf Outing. Anthony Duclair, Mat Barzal, Brock Nelson and Patrick Roy all spoke to the media at the golf outing. This is the unofficial start of Islanders training camp which gets underway on Thursday.
🔗 Islanders' Ilya Sorokin had offseason back surgery, Patrick Roy says by Andrew Gross, Newsday “Patrick Roy understands the urgency Ilya Sorokin feels to play better this season. The Islanders coach is just not sure when he’ll have his franchise goalie available after revealing on Monday that Sorokin had offseason back surgery.”
🔗 One question for every Islanders forward, from Barzal’s point total to Martin’s future by Arthur Staple, The Athletic “This time next week, the New York Islanders will be on Day 3 of Patrick Roy’s first training camp. With a still relatively new coach and GM Lou Lamoriello’s well-known leak-proof structure, there still could be a surprise or two when the Isles assemble.”
And we leave you with this…O, say, can you sing? The Islanders are holding auditions to become the team’s next Anthem singer next Monday, September 23rd. Apply HERE
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