CALGARY, Alberta – Mathew Barzal took part in the warm-up and line tackles with the Islanders on Friday night before being a shocking scrape and spending their 4-1 loss to the Flames in the press box.
The Islanders have announced that Barzal is coping with a lower body injury on a every day basis, an exclamation mark amongst the many injuries they’ve suffered over the past month. Barzal was arguably the Islanders’ best player this season, scoring 41 points in 40 games. Losing him for any length of time can be bordering on disaster for a team that’s in a dogfight for a post-season berth.
“There was a small fix [Thursday] coach Lane Lambert said after the game. “He tried it in the warm-up and couldn’t go.”
When asked if the injury might be described as minor, Lambert stuck to only “overnight.”
Zach Parise said the Islanders came upon at the same time as everyone else that Barzal wouldn’t be playing.
“We didn’t know that either,” he said. “We had a really tough injury stretch and we had the guys complementing and doing a good job of filling in. And today was no different. You form of must be ready for anything. … We would really like to get back to a healthy lineup as soon as possible.”
The islanders were just starting to recuperate. Cal Clutterbuck returned to the lineup on Thursday in Edmonton, while Semyon Varlamov made his first start since December 17 in Vegas on Friday. Kyle Palmieri, Adam Pelech, Oliver Wahlstrom and Simon Holmstrom are still on the shelf, with Palmieri being the only considered one of the 4 to make the trip to Western Canada.
Barzal showed no signs of injury on Thursday in the 4-2 loss to the Oilers when he played 18:45, including 7:38 in the third period.
His last substitution ended with 49 seconds left in the game, so it’s unclear when the injury occurred.
“After all he’s a big player and a vital figure,” Noah Dobson told The Post. “It sucks while you miss him [but] as a whole, as a group, it is not distracting in any respect.”
Varlamov began after missing eight games with a groin injury and struggled, stopping 17 of 21 shots.
Lambert said after the game that “several” injured players skated on Long Island, indicating that Pelech (head) can have done in order he had previously been described as near skating.
Aatu Raty sat outside the rope incursions, which indicated he was imagined to be a healthy scratch before tying for Barzal and skating 8:31. It was Raty’s seventh NHL game of the season; if he reaches 10, it’ll count as a 12 months in his entry-level contract.
The Islanders won 7-2 in the first periods of this four-game trip.