Just when the Islanders thought they were out, the injuries pulled them back in.
This time, it was Alexander Romanov, one among just two defensemen within the opening-night lineup who had yet to get hurt, who missed Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the Flames at UBS Arena, the Islanders citing a lower-body injury and calling him day-to-day.
Sebastian Aho drew into the lineup alongside Noah Dobson, skating 18:23 in his first game since before the All-Star break.
He was minus-1 because of being on the ice for MacKenzie Weegar’s goal at 15:16 of the second when Walker Duehr flubbed a shot and Weegar took advantage by one-timing the puck in.
“I believed he did OK,” coach Patrick Roy said of Aho. “But that third goal was simply bad luck for him.
“Could he be faster in that passing lane? Probably yes. But he was out of the lineup, back in, sometimes it’s not that easy. But he’s an excellent kid, works hard, showed plenty of work in our practice. We felt he deserved to be in that lineup facing Rommy.”
The final thing the Islanders needed, so soon after Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock returned, was Romanov or Dobson to go down. With all 4 of them within the lineup — something that has been rare this season — the Islanders have two top pairs they might be comfortable rolling out against any line. Without, there are gaps of their defense.
Semyon Varlamov hit a milestone Saturday together with his 600th profession appearance.
But he allowed three goals on 22 shots in his first start since Jan. 27, including Weegar’s wrist shot off the frenzy 3:47 into the sport, which must have been stopped.
“He just beat me far side,” Varlamov said. “Low blocker. I gotta watch the replay.”
Roy, who had over 1,000 appearances of his own in nets as a player, refused to throw blame on the netminder.
“You won’t ever hear me saying negative things about our goaltenders,” Roy said. “They’ve been so good for us all yr. And Varly made the saves that he needed to make in some unspecified time in the future. Would he wish to get the primary one back? It’s as much as him to come to a decision. But on my side, I’ll all the time be behind our goalies.”
Roy left open the potential of keeping Pierre Engvall on the highest line after trying him with Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal in the course of the third period.
“I would like to know and there’s things that I’m gonna try at times,” he said. “I believed that having Engvall with Bo and Barzy added a bit more speed to that line.”
