Islanders News: Home until the regular season
Palms with the ‘A.’ | Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
The preseason road trip ended. The New York Islanders will not play another road game until the regular season. They wrapped up their preseason road trip last night’s loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. Tonight, they host the New Jersey Devils, who will then head off to Europe for their season openers with the Buffalo Sabres—although I think most if not all of their regulars are in Prague already.
As for the game last night, and the Ranger game Tuesday night for that matter, I say who cares. They have looked good playing Patrick Roy’s system and haven’t dressed a full lineup. Marcus Hogberg looked pretty strong last night, which might end up being important. Preseason doesn’t matter, folks. Not unless you win.
Islanders News
Last night was basically a 1-0 game, and the Islanders dressed a goalie they plan to have in the AHL and not their top line, while the Flyers dressed their top players and a (barely) NHL-level goalie. Oh well; the Isles still fired 35 shots. [3 Takeaways]
Lineups aren’t available for tonight’s game just yet. [Islanders]
It seems like Simon Holmstrom is slated to be the left wing to Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri, which would likely mean starting Maxim Tsyplakov on the fourth line.
Asked Roy about trying Tsyplakov in a top-six role:"We're trying Simon with [Nelson and Palmieri] and we like our first line. Unfortunately...we might try him with others, and we'll go from there."#Isles— Stefen Rosner (@stefen_rosner) September 27, 2024
Calle Odelius was robbed of his second training camp last season, but he's making the most of this one; he played last night and looked solid. [Islanders]
If Ilya Sorokin isn’t 100% to start the season—and as of now, Roy doesn’t know if he’ll play in the preseason, but we’re quite a ways past missing just “the first couple of days”—he should wait until he is and let Hogberg back up Semyon Varlamov. [THN] And that just might be the case. [Newsday]
Nelson isn’t in a rush to sign a contract extension and would be willing to negotiate in-season. [NY Post]
On defense: Mike Reilly is more comfortable now [NY Post] and Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock are back together. [NY Post]
Elsewhere
Drew Doughty crashed very awkwardly into the boards on his second shift of the preseason; we know his ankle is broken, but we don’t know yet how much other damage there is. [NHL]
Rasmus Dahlin was named captain of the Sabres. [NHL]
John Gibson had an emergency appendectomy and will miss a few weeks at least. [NHL]
The Flyers are getting Alexei Kolosov after all. [ESPN]
Nick Robertson must really want out of Toronto if he’s injuring William Nylander! It was a pretty common play gone wrong, but Nylander might have been concussed in the aftermath. But then Robertson scored. Hmm. [Sportsnet]
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