Islanders Return to Play This Week is in Jeopardy

Does anyone remember watching Islanders hockey? I don't. It feels like it's been forever since the last time New York took the ice. It's been eight days since the Isles last played and as of today, there's another four days to go before they hit the ice.

There's just one issue though, that seems to be in jeopardy now. The New Jersey Devils, who the Isles are supposed to play on Thursday, were forced to cancel their game on Monday due to COVID.

Yesterday, New Jersey added both Janne Juokkanen and Damon Severson to COVID protocol which is part of the reason why for the cancelation. The Devils now have seven players in protocol so we will have to keep an eye on that for Thursday's game against New Jersey.

How ironic would it be if the Islanders basically sat around for two weeks waiting to play hockey and then their first game back they can't even play because the opponent has COVID problems?

I mean what are we doing here? How is it possible that the league could have the Islanders, who were relatively healthy by the way, just sit tight for a couple of weeks and then potentially have another game cancelled. How many times is one team going to get screwed over by COVID in a season? Honestly.

They've had three stoppages now, a 13 game road trip to start the season, and for whatever reason when the Islanders had their COVID issues they had to suffer through it until double digit players were in protocol.

Somehow, someway, this 2021-2022 season has been chaotic than the 2019-2020 season and 2020-2021 season. In season three of COVID the league still doesn't have a good enough plan in place to deal with the virus. It's truly baffling.

Hopefully, the Devils are good to go on Thursday, but if they're not, well I guess just kick the can down the road and try again on Saturday.