On Friday, the Islanders shared that Mathew Barzal has returned to New York to check out an upper-body injury.
The team is struggling in the Metropolitan Division, sitting at the bottom with a 3-5-2 record after losing three games in a row. While they have fewer games played than some rivals like the Flyers and Penguins, their offense is weak, scoring just 2.10 goals per game—the worst in the league. Without Barzal, things might get even tougher.
This season hasn’t been great for Barzal so far. Before his injury, he was playing lots of minutes—22:46 against the Blue Jackets—but only scored two goals and made three assists in ten games with a -3 rating . His performance has dropped compared to last year when he was scoring almost every game. He’s taking fewer shots on goal too, averaging 2.3 per game instead of last season’s 3.0.
Islanders’ Lineup Changes:
With Anthony Duclair sidelined due to a leg injury, Simon Holmström had been filling in as left wing alongside Barzal and Horvat on the top line but now needs another change with Barzal out too. Coach Simone Vagnozzi plans to shuffle players around by promoting Anders Lee and Jean-Gabriel Pageau from middle roles to support Horvat against the Sabres tonight while Oliver Wahlstrom returns after being benched for three matches straight.
Fans might wonder if these changes will help boost their team’s performance or if more struggles lie ahead.
Not all news is gloomy though; Alexander Romanov could soon rejoin after missing three games because of an upper-body issue himself! Coach Patrick Roy mentioned Romanov might be back for tonight’s matchup since he usually pairs up well with Noah Dobson—they control over half (51%) expected goals together according MoneyPuck stats—and before getting hurt had already contributed two assists across seven appearances this year.
So what do you think? Will these lineup tweaks make any difference for our beloved Isles?
