CALGARY, Alberta — Mathew Barzal was a shock scratch for Friday’s match in Calgary, taking warmups with the team before he was listed as out for Friday’s game against the Flames.
The Islanders announced that Barzal was day-to-day with a lower-body injury, an exclamation mark on the slew of injuries they’ve had over the past month. Barzal has arguably been the Islanders’ best player this season, with 41 points in 40 games going into Friday. To lose him for any time period would border on calamity for an Islanders team that’s within the midst of a dogfight for a postseason berth.
The Islanders had just been beginning to get healthy, with Cal Clutterbuck returning to the lineup on Thursday in Edmonton and Semyon Varlamov making his first start since Dec. 17 against the Flames. Kyle Palmieri, Adam Pelech, Oliver Wahlstrom and Simon Holmstrom are still on the shelf, with Palmieri being the one certainly one of the 4 who made the trip out to Western Canada.
Barzal showed no signs of injury in Thursday’s 4-2 loss to the Oilers, when he played 18:45, including 7:38 within the third period.
His final shift ended with 49 seconds to go in the sport, so it’s unclear when the injury occurred.