The Islanders may have to keep waiting on Mathew Barzal.
New York heads into its home opener against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night, but Barzal is still not skating and won’t be back on the ice for a few more days. That leaves the team without one of its most important offensive pieces at the start of the season.
After dropping their opener 2-1 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on the road, the Islanders are already tinkering with their lines. Head coach Peter DeBoer shuffled things during the game, and Anthony Duclair and Victor Eklund stood out as New York’s two best skaters.
Both were rewarded for it. Eklund is moving up to the second line, while Duclair has been bumped to the third.
The bigger concern remains Barzal’s timeline.
Andrew Gross of Newsday reported that Barzal won’t skate until either October 8th or 9th for now. That lines up with the Islanders’ own update, which said: “#Isles say Mathew Barzal is progressing. Plan is for him to resume skating on Thursday or Friday.”
With an 84-game season just getting started, there’s no real reason to force the issue. Barzal is one of the team’s top offensive players, and if the Islanders are going to be a contender this year, they need him healthy more than they need him rushed.
If the current plan holds, Barzal could miss the first five games of the season. The Islanders don’t play the Tampa Bay Lightning until Saturday, October 10th, and then they’re back home against the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday, the 13th. If Barzal starts skating on the 8th or 9th, that would give him four or five days to work his legs back under him before the Canucks game.
That matchup would be the sixth game of the season and a home date, which makes it a natural one to watch for a possible return.
Barzal led the Islanders with 72 points last season, finishing with 19 goals and 53 assists. New York needs that kind of production back in the lineup, and soon.
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