CALGARY, Alberta — The Islanders lastly took the primary massive step towards getting complete once more Tuesday as Alexander Romanov returned from an upper-body damage to play his first recreation in additional than two weeks towards the Flames.
Romanov had been constructing towards a return from an upper-body damage all through this five-game journey, becoming a member of the crew for observe in Edmonton final week in a non-contact jersey and shedding it in current days.
Whereas the Islanders are nonetheless ready for Mat Barzal, Anthony Duclair, Adam Pelech and Mike Reilly — none of whom have begun skating as but — Romanov, who rejoined the highest defensive pair with Noah Dobson, is arguably an important piece of the group.
The Russian skated 21:04 within the 2-1 shootout loss to the Flames, recording a team-high eight hits together with a pair of pictures on internet.
“He looked great,” Dobson mentioned. “Did well. It’s not easy being out for an extended period of time. Coming back, I thought he looked good, made plays. It was nice to have him back.”
As a domino impact of Romanov coming again in, Isaiah George was bumped all the way down to the second pair with Ryan Pulock. Scott Mayfield went to the third pair with Dennis Cholowski, whereas Grant Hutton got here out of the lineup as a wholesome scratch.
Previous to lacking 10 of 11 video games heading into Tuesday, Romanov had taken up the mantle because the Islanders’ greatest defensive defenseman, averaging 21:37 of ice and displaying continued development after a robust 2023-24 marketing campaign.
Whereas George’s emergence modified the equation on the Islanders blue line, getting again a minutes-eater in Romanov — who can be on the highest penalty-kill unit — is a sigh of aid for a crew that spent greater than two weeks holding its protection corps along with duct tape and glue.
Calgary’s Matt Coronato, a local of Greenlawn, N.Y., mentioned the sport towards the Islanders was circled on the calendar after he grew up rooting for the crew.
“My favorite [player] was Nick Leddy, actually,” the 22-year-old Coronato mentioned, making everybody else within the room really feel fairly previous. “Used to play D when I was little, so I always loved his skating.”
Coronato has performed lately on the Flames prime line together with Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman, scoring 5 targets with two assists to date this season.
“He still has a lot of swagger offensively with the puck, but I think now with where we’re using him, he can impact things within the game,” Flames coach Ryan Huska mentioned. “Key times of the game, Mikael and Blake or on the ice, so that means he’s out there, but it’s not just, ‘He’s on that line, let’s keep him there.’ He’s out there because he’s done a good job and he’s earned that extra bit of ice time.”
Roy mentioned that “everything went well” with Reilly’s coronary heart process. The defenseman is out indefinitely after a coronary heart difficulty was found throughout concussion testing.
