Good Morning Islanders Country,
Wednesday brought insult to injury (or injury to insult) after the Islanders learned they’ll be without defenseman Ryan Pulock for an extended period of time.
The news means two of the long-tenured Islanders, Pulock and Josh Bailey (COVID-19), who has been from the Coliseum to Brooklyn and back will not be on the ice when the team opens UBS Arena on Saturday night vs. the Calgary Flames.
The Isles avoided a further blow to the blue-line as Scott Mayfield won’t be suspended for his knee-to-knee hit on Aleksander Barkov. Plus Matt Martin sits down with Buccigross, the Hall of Fame is on display, and an “intimidating sign” meant to deter tailgaters and honkers goes up.
Let’s dive in.
📰 NEWS
📺 HOW IT HAPPENED: The 27-year-old defenseman injured himself on this play, blocking a Mathieu Joseph shot in the 2nd period Monday in Tampa. He dropped to the ice in obvious pain and limped to the bench, but tried to tough it out, playing 2:28 in the third before sitting out on Tuesday and being reevaluated in New York.
The expectation is that Pulock will miss four to six weeks with a lower-body injury (right ankle/shin). This could push the needle for GM Lou Lamoriello to acquire a defenseman on an accelerated timeline than previously anticipated.
IT’S A HOLE: “Obviously, he's a pretty good defenseman for us," coach Barry Trotz said after the game on Tuesday. “That's an area where we have to correct a little bit. It's a hole, but we're going to have to find ways to fill that hole […] But we'll have to do it as a group of five guys on the ice and a goaltender and go from there.”
THE REPLACEMENTS: No one in-house will simply replace what Pulock contributes on the ice, however, the Islanders have a few internal options for the next four to six weeks. Sebastian Aho now has two games under his belt with mixed results, and if not Aho, the Isles could turn to rookie Robin Salo or veteran Thomas Hickey.
PULLED: Speaking of Salo, he did not play in the Bridgeport Islanders game last night. It’s a pretty good indication that we could be seeing the smooth-skating Fin practice later today at UBS Arena.
OPTIONS: In The Athletic, Arthur Staple provides five options for the team: 1) play the kids, 2) go big 3) go smaller 4) play the vets, or 5) punt.
👨⚖️ NO FURTHER DISCIPLINE: Mayfield won’t be receiving any further discipline from player safety after receiving a five-minute major and game misconduct on Tuesday night. Panther’s coach Andrew Brunette reported that Barkov doesn’t need surgery and is out week to week. Brunette added that he didn’t believe Mayfield threw a malicious hit on Barkov but instead was just a bit “reckless.”
UNINTENTIONAL: Trotz came to the defense of his defenseman stating that he knew there was “no intent” by Mayfield on the hit. Andrew Gross of Newsday added, “If you know Scott Mayfield at all, dirty play is not in his DNA.”
📌 THE POINT: Matt Martin joined John Buccigross on ESPN’s The Point to discuss the Islanders’ start to the season, UBS Arena reenacting that Coliseum sound and the difficulty of being away from his young daughter during the extended road-trip. When asked one word to describe the 13-game road trip, Martin answered “Disappointing.”
OUT OF SYNC: “This trip we never got to play in that regular-season rhythm we’ve been accustomed to. In saying that, it’s not an excuse. We need to be better. We had the 2-1 lead in Minnesota and things fell apart and never recovered. What’s done is done.” Martin describes the Isles chemistry on the road.
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS: “We’re excited to be home. It was long. We started to run out of energy there (on the end of the trip). Now we’ll have our fans behind us and hopefully, get back on track.” Martin expresses the teams excitement to start playing in front of their home crowd.
WINNY: “I woke up early this morning to see (Winny) and with a smile on her face. That made everything a little bit better.” Martin explains the advantages of finally being home.
⏭ NEXT UP: The Isles get two days to regroup before they can hopefully hit the reset button on the season with the grand opening of UBS Arena.
📊 STANDINGS:
📸 PHOTO ALBUM: As UBS Arena nears completion, each day we see new features inside the Isles’ new home. Neil Best of Newsday was touring the arena on Wednesday, with camera in hand, and snapped these shots of the Islanders Hall of Fame plaques, a jockey in blue and orange, and wall-art on the concourse.
👩🏫 SOUND SMART: No late nights watching the Islanders for a while. Per Eric Hornick, The Isles will not leave the Eastern Time Zone until January 4th in Seattle. Fifteen of their next 21 games will be at UBS Arena and the Islanders will not spend consecutive nights on the road at any point (playing consecutive road games only once – November 28th at The Garden and November 30th in Philadelphia).
🗓 ISLE REMEMBER: On November 17th, 1984, Islanders legend Mike Bossy recorded his 37th career hat-trick en route to a 10-4 victory over the New York Rangers. Here was Bossy’s second goal of the night 37 years ago:
🔗 ‘Fragile’ Islanders relieved to end ‘nightmare’ road trip, by Joe Pantorno, amNewYork: “The Islanders sit in dead-last in the Metropolitan Division at 5-6-2 (14 points), though six of the seven other teams in the standings above them have played more games than them.”
🔗 Off Scott Free: Mayfield Avoids Additional Punishment for Hit on Barkov, by Christian Arnold, NYIHockeyNow: “Scott Mayfield did not face any additional discipline from the NHL following his knee-on-knee hit on Aleksander Barkov in Tuesday’s loss to the Florida Panthers.”
🔗 Isles, UBS Arena choose NFT partner, by Adina Genn, Long Island Business News: “The New York Islanders and UBS Arena Partners have announced a multiyear NFT partnership with Los Angeles-based Orange Comet, a producer of blockchain experiences in sports, music, art and entertainment.”
🔗 Islanders have been through these road troubles before, by Michel Anderson, Eyes on Isles: “It's only 13 games into the year and they've yet to play a home game. It's hard to imagine they'll go 11-0-2 over their next 13 home games as they did in 2020-21. That's a 0.923 win percentage, by the way. But it's not hard to imagine that they'll be much better on home ice with the last change and the crowd behind them.”
And we leave you with this… “No Honking, No Tailgating” signs have begun to appear in the UBS Arena parking lot. Come Saturday, we’ll see how effective they are against a rowdy Islanders fanbase.
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