The New York Islanders will be without forward Mat Barzal indefinitely after the 25 year old suffered a lower body injury against Boston on the weekend.
Barzal appeared to be in pain after taking a knee to knee hit from Bruins winger Craig Smith in his team’s 6-2 loss on Saturday. While the club has yet to offer an official recovery timeline, the centreman is considered “week to week” but should return to the ice at some point this season.
The Coquitlam, BC native is 2nd on the Islanders in scoring with 14G and 37A on the year. His 51pts trail only Brock Nelson’s 55 for the team lead as New York is currently in possession of the final wildcard spot in the East.
However Ottawa, Detroit, Buffalo, Florida and Washington are all within 5pts of New York with games in hand, meaning their lead is far from comfortable.
The Islanders made a big swing to acquire forward Bo Horvat from the Vancouver Canucks earlier this month in an effort to bolster their playoff chances. In the 7 games since he joined the team, Barzal began to break out of his early season scoring slump recording 2 goals and 6 assists in that span.
With their top centreman sidelined, New York will have to put their lines in a blender to come to a patchwork solution for the time being. Rookie Simon Holmstrom is a potential candidate to be moved to the top line in Barzal’s absence, joining Horvat and Anders Lee on the team’s 1st forward group.
New York is next in action against the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 7pm ET tilt.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Michael Miller. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.