TEMPE, Ariz. — Kyle Palmieri and Anthony Beauvillier each drew back into the Islanders’ lineup on Friday after being out with injuries, but Palmieri barely made it to the top of the 5-4 loss to the Coyotes.
Arizona’s Nick Ritchie ran Palmieri into the boards at 10:29 of the third, sending him right down to the ice and drawing a penalty for interference. Palmieri, who had been out since Nov. 21, was checked out within the locker room and eventually returned to the sport for the ultimate 17 seconds.
“I finished the sport,” he said afterwards, confirming that he felt OK. “So not much to say concerning the hit.”
Islanders coach Lane Lambert said he didn’t see the moment live, and players were cautious about calling it dirty.
“Saw a puck was at his feet after which, I don’t know if he even saw Ritchie coming,” Zach Parise said. “I don’t know. We’ll must see. I just saw Kyle’s head snap back. That’s what I saw on the replay.”
Beauvillier, who had been out since Dec. 9, got on the scoresheet for the sixth time this season with what was ultimately a consolation goal to make it 5-4 at 18:21. Palmieri, who finished with 10:46 of ice time, was a significant a part of the shift that led to Noah Dobson’s goal to tie the sport at three at the top of the second period.
Hudson Fasching and Simon Holmstrom became the Islanders’ healthy scratches because the team carried just six defensemen, with Adam Pelech happening injured reserve. There was a scary moment in that regard, when Alexander Romanov took a puck to the groin on Clayton Keller’s third period goal and got attention from trainers, but Romanov was ultimately effective.
“Well you simply use six [defensemen] in a game,” Lambert said before the sport. “So up until this point, we’re effective.”
Lambert was pleased with what he saw from the 2 injury returnees as well.
“I believed they were effective,” he said. “There wasn’t any real rust or anything like that from being out that long, so I believed they were OK.”
The Islanders have settled right into a trend of not holding morning skates on gamedays, including Friday. Lambert connected that to the team’s improved starts to games.
“I believe we’ve had some good starts, higher starts. We talked about that earlier within the 12 months about our starts,” he said pregame. “We have now loads of games coming up in the subsequent eight days with some travel involved, so it just is sensible.”