The New York Islanders are dealing with injury issues to three key contributors in forwards Kyle Palmieri, Anthony Bauvillier, and defenseman Adam Pelech as they embark on a five-game road trip that begins Tuesday night in Boston against the Bruins.
On Monday morning at practice, both Beauvillier (undisclosed) and Palmier (upper body) participated and will travel with the team, head coach Lane Lambert revealed.
“We’ll just have to wait and see how they make out,” Lambert said.
Beauvillier suffered a knock in the Islanders’ 6-4 victory on Friday in New Jersey against the Devils which forced him out of Saturday’s 3-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
“I didn’t even go for warmups Saturday. I couldn’t do it,” Beauvillier said on Monday. “It’s a day-to-day thing. We’ll see how it goes [Tuesday] and hopefully, it’s positive.”
The right-winger has struggled to find consistency this season, including being a healthy scratch on a few occasions. He has five goals with six assists in 27 games.
Palmieri has been out since Nov. 21 (nine games) after suffering that upper-body injury against the Toronto Maple Leafs. He began skating last week, but Monday was his first time practicing with the team
As for Pelech, his status remains the same. He has not skated since suffering an upper-body injury against the St. Louis Blues last week when his head hit the boards after being knocked down by Robert Bortuzzo.
New York’s top-pairing defenseman will be re-evaluated after Tuesday’s game against Boston where Lambert hopes to see him join the Islanders on their road trip.
In the meantime, there has been no word on whether or not he will call up another defenseman to provide a seventh blue liner for insurance purposes on the road trip.
“We’ll have to see,” Lambert said. “I’m not really thinking about that at the moment. We’ll see how it happens and how it plays itself out.”
