Injuries continue to plague the Islanders, but the severity of the latest could prove ruinous to their season.
Josh Bailey was injured during the first period of Friday night’s 4-0 Barclays Center blowout loss to the Penguins with a lower-body injury and did not return after being ruled out during the second period. Coach Doug Weight said he would have to “wait and see” but didn’t offer many words of encouragement.
“I don’t have a substantial report,” Weight said. “Obviously, he didn’t return so it’s not great. … I think he looks like I wouldn’t expect to see him, but maybe it’s a good time for a break.”
Bailey is tied for the most points on the Islanders with John Tavares (50). Along with being tied for second in the league with 38 assists, the 28-year-old was named the NHL’s second star for the month of December.
In addition, both Andrew Ladd and Ryan Pulock left during Friday’s third period. Weight wouldn’t provide an update on the pair.
The Islanders also recently lost defenseman Johnny Boychuk with a lower-body injury. He’s listed as week-to-week while fellow defender Calvin de Haan is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury. Nikolay Kulemin has been out with a shoulder injury since Nov. 7.
The Islanders struck out four times on the power play Friday night, but none was worse than their five-on-three advantage at the end of the second period.
“We had a couple looks,” Jordan Eberle said. “You can’t look at that as one of the moments where we lost it. Obviously, that would have created momentum if we would have scored, but there are little plays everywhere where things go wrong and things go right. Obviously, on the five-on-three, you’d like to get one but there are moments way before that that changed the game.”
At the time, the Islanders were down 3-0.
“We had four [power plays] tonight. … You tend to squeeze the stick when things aren’t going well for you,” Eberle said.
The Islanders have one game remaining (1 p.m. Sunday at home against the Devils) before their league-mandated five-day break begins.