Good Morning, Islanders Country.
The Islanders invade the Rock tonight, hoping to evade losing for the fourth time in five games.
These aren’t your older brother’s New Jersey Devils. These aren’t Lou Lamoriello’s New Jersey Devils, either. As mentioned yesterday, they are just the sixth team in league history to win 21 times in their first 26 games. Led by Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, they average 3.7 G/GP, fourth in the league. That they can score isn’t a surprise, but they keep the puck out of the net too.
In October, after the Devils’ 4-1 win over the Isles, I posed a question “Would you swap rosters with the Devils if you could?” Most replies from Islanders fans were a no, and the reason for that was the goaltending. The Isles had Ilya Sorokin, and the Devils did not. Well, that’s true, but they have Vitek Vanecek. NJ traded for the 26-year-old from Washington during the off-season, and he’s been outstanding, boasting a 12-2-1 record and 2.10 GAA.
The Isles have their work cut out for them tonight, but if they’re able to find a win, it could serve as a big confidence boost as they confront the schedule ahead.
Coming up, Robin Salo needs to step up with Pelech out and the story behind the Fisherman’s revival. Plus, Thomas Hickey is becoming a TV star, the time Zdeno Chara showed he can still throw down, and Justin Bourne wrote a book with an important message.
Let’s dive in.
📰 NEWS: As expected, Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech wasn’t on the ice at Thursday’s practice and was announced as “day-to-day” with an upper-body injury following the hit sustained during Tuesday’s loss vs. the St. Louis Blues. Bortuzzo did not face supplemental discipline from the NHL, and head coach Lane Lambert did not appear to be annoyed at that outcome. “I think it happened pretty fast,” Lambert said. “[Pelech] was a little bit off balance. From that standpoint, that’s really all that happened.”
◾️ For The Hockey Writers, Mike Fink writes how, depending on how long Pelech is out, it has a chance to derail the Islanders’ season after a strong start.
◾️ Cal Clutterbuck was back on the ice with his usual fourth-line mates Matt Martin and Casey Cizikas, while Kyle Palmieri (on IR) continues to be out. Ilya Sorokin, who surrendered five goals on Tuesday night is expected to start against the high-powered Devils this evening at Prudential Center.
With Pelech expected out of the lineup, 24-year-old D Robin Salo will earn a spot back in the lineup for the first time since Oct. 20. Salo started the season as the team’s sixth defenseman out of training camp but was supplanted by Sebastian Aho and has been a healthy scratch since. “What we want from [Salo] is a good first pass, good breakouts,” Lambert said. “Make sure to maintain his gaps and play strong defensively.”
While he could go in another direction, in order to limit the disruption to the other pairs, it’s expected that Salo would play Ryan Pulock to start on Friday. night. As it is with any new partner, especially younger ones, the pair will need to communicate more vocally on the ice.
◾️ TALK IT OUT: “We have to talk it out,” said Pulock. Where with Pelly, we kind of know each other’s tendencies and know what we have to do, and we don’t have to talk as much. So we just have to simplify things by talking more and not complicating things as much.”
◾️AN HONOR AND OPPORTUNITY: “I’ve tried to be ready for a long time. We’ll wait and see what happens, but I’ll be ready if I get my chance,” said Salo. “[Pulock] is a great D-man,” he added. “He’ll do a great job helping me out there. If I play with him, it’s an honor.”
🌊 Are you ready? In Newsday, Andrew Gross has an insightful story on how the return of the Fisherman came to be. The Isles beat writer caught up with adidas Hockey design director Matty Merrill, who talked about how the company had watched the demand for the logo recently and worked with members of the Islanders organization throughout the process to get it right.
◾️ THE WHITE WHALE: “(The Fisherman) still had this demand,” said Merrill. “The NHL, the team and adidas all knew that we wanted to try and get this one done. We literally called it the white whale. We’re going to go Ahab on this.”
◾️ THE PROCESS IS SACRED: “I think it’s fair to say, they were one of the very last ones we finalized. One of the most iterations (of designs). Because the process is sacred. What hockey players wear on the ice is important to Islanders’ leadership. It’s important to everybody. But this leadership is well known for that and we appreciate that level of rigor. At the end of the day we got there and we got there with something we think they’re super proud of.”
The Islanders will wear the adidas Reverse Retro 2.0 sweaters for the first time on Saturday, Dec. 10, versus the Carolina Hurricanes at UBS Arena. But on Thursday, the team started to wear some of the gear at practice.
⏭ NEXT UP: The Islanders ‘invade the Rock’ tonight as they battle the first-place New Jersey Devils in Newark. Face-off is set for 7:00 PM ET.
📊 STANDINGS
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📺 VIDEO KILLED THE HOCKEY STAR: It didn’t take long for Thomas Hickey’s natural ability as an analyst to be discovered.
The MSG Networks broadcaster is expanding his portfolio and can now also be found on the studio desk at the NHL Network. We wish Thomas the very best, but we hope he doesn’t miss many Islanders games as a result!
📚 SOUND SMART: Is it better to shoot or be outshot? Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, for the Isles, it’s the latter. The Islanders are 6-5-0 when they outshoot their opponents and 10-6-0 when they are outshot. The record is better, however, when the team scores the opening goal. On the year, the Isles are 11-2-0 when scoring first and are 5-8-0 when allowing the opening goal.
🗓 THIS DATE IN ISLANDERS HISTORY: The game didn’t end well, but one year ago, on Dec. 9, 2021, Zdeno Chara showed that he still could throw down with the best of them. In a bout with Yakov Trenin, the then-44-year-old pulled Trenin’s sweater over his head and left him bloodied. However, Trenin would return to score the game-tying goal in the third period. Eeli Tolvanen scored with 11.5 seconds to cap the Predators’ rally in a 4-3 win.
🎧 Islanders Anxiety - Episode 222 - Talked on to the Ledge with Dan Saraceni and Michael Leeboff “Mike and Dan look at three losses and one win that have them both encouraged and scared about the Islanders, who have some tough upcoming games.”
🔗 Adam Pelech injury update: Islanders D-man considered ‘day-to-day’, Robin Salo set to step in by Joe Pantorno, amNew York “New York Islanders head coach Lane Lambert said that defenseman Adam Pelech is “day-to-day” with an upper-body injury Thursday morning after leaving Tuesday’s loss against the St. Louis Blues early.”
And we leave you with this… Sportsnet analyst Justin Bourne, the son of Bob Bourne and the son-in-law of the late Clark Gillies, announced on Tuesday that he’s written a book, but more importantly, came out publicly about his battle with alcoholism.
You can read more about the book HERE. The book is available for pre-order and due out in February.
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.....there used to be a SAYING when I still commented on Lighthouse Hockey: 'Because.....ISLANDERS' - and, can ONLY defer TO it when doing so about this league's RANK hypocrisy; Zeeker gets 1 game and fined when there is absolutely NO way POSSIBLE for him to MINIMIZE his UNAVOIDABLE impact with Chicago's goaltender, while an UNDISPUTED thug in BORTUZZO receives not even a BOARDING penalty - these Fisherman revivals ESPECIALLY are still HIDEOUS (Adidas designer's got a SERIOUS problem with evaluating COHERENT color distributions, motifs) and New Jersey, Bruins COULD send their season to HELL.....yeah, how VERY 'Islanders'.....