Another devastating blow to the New York Islanders With Mat Barzal’s injury

New York Islanders top scorer Mathew Barzal has left the club’s road trip as the club gets set to take on the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night.

According to the team, Barzal has returned to Long Island for an evaluation for what the team is calling an upper-body injury.

There is no word on what the precise nature of the injury is. Moreover, it’s not clear when he sustained the injury. There’s a chance Barzal suffered the injury earlier this season and has been playing through it.

Barzal has played on the Islanders’ top line with Bo Horvat this season. Free-agent signing Anthony Duclair was expected to round out the number-one unit. However, Duclair went down earlier this season with a lower-body injury. Duclair is expected to be out for at least another four weeks.

The devastating blow to the scoring-challenged Islanders will mean that the remaining players will need to pick up the slack. Without true goal scorers, the New York Islanders will face an increasingly tough situation without Barzal.

New-look lines for Friday night against Sabres

Andrew Gross of Newsday Tweeted the Islanders’ lines at Friday’s practice. The most notable absence was Barzal. That situation prompted Isles’ coach Patrick Roy to place captain Anders Lee on the top line with Hovat and JG Pageau.

Meanwhile, the second line stays the same with Pierre Engvall drawing into the lineup alongside Casey Cizikas and Simon Holmstrom. Hudson Fasching, Kyle MacLean, and Oliver Wahlstrom will skate on the fourth line. Matt Martin is expected to be a healthy scratch.

On the plus side, Alexander Romanov skated with Noah Dobson on the top D pairing. Ilya Sorokin should get the call against Buffalo.