WASHINGTON — The Islanders are supposed to be getting more healthy proper about now.
As a substitute, they’re coping with one other harm, as Jean-Gabriel Pageau was made a last-minute scratch because of a lower-body difficulty towards the Capitals on Black Friday.
Pageau, who is taken into account day-to-day, will get added to a listing of accidents that already consists of Mat Barzal (higher physique), Anthony Duclair (suspected groin), Adam Pelech (jaw) and Mike Reilly (coronary heart surgical procedure).
Simon Holmstrom skated in Pageau’s standard spot on the highest line.
The last-second nature of the harm — Patrick Roy stated 75 minutes earlier than gametime that the one lineup change can be Hudson Fasching drawing in for Matt Martin — is probably motive to assume the Islanders are performing out of mere warning.
However after the way in which issues have gone up to now this season, it could be a leap to make any form of constructive assumption about an harm.
Martin, by the way in which, ended up within the lineup in spite of everything as a result of Pageau didn’t characteristic.
For Fasching, it was his first time drawing in since a Nov. 5 shootout victory over the Penguins.
