Islanders suffer devastating injury blows with brutal Mat Barzal, Adam Pelech updates

The Islanders sorted through the injury wreckage and won’t like what they found.The laundry list of injuries for the team, which comes into Sunday’s clash with the Rangers at Madison Square Garden at 4-5-2, looks all the worse after getting some clarity on the timeline for the players hurt on their trip to Columbus and Buffalo.Mat Barzal was officially placed on LTIR Saturday with a timeline of four to six weeks, the team announced.Adam Pelech, who appeared to suffer a jaw injury when a puck caught him in the face while blocking a shot Friday night, is also out four to six weeks and was placed on injured reserve.In slightly better — but still bad — news, Mike Reilly was declared day-to-day with an upper-body injury after a scary hit from Jordan Greenway ended his night early on Friday.

Alexander Romanov, who left Friday’s game but quickly returned and finished the win over the Sabres, also did not skate at Saturday’s practice and was called day-to-day with an upper-body injury.Samuel Bolduc and Grant Hutton were both recalled from AHL Bridgeport and could be in the lineup against the Rangers.Putting Barzal on LTIR gives the Islanders some extra cap flexibility — his $9.15 million cap hit can now be used elsewhere — but requires that he miss 10 games and 24 days at a minimum.Pelech will be eligible to return after just seven days, but that is, obviously, not the plan.So, in one fell swoop, the Islanders are down as many as three defensemen and their best scorer — and might not be healthy until the holidays.It is nothing short of a devastating package of news on multiple levels, ranging from the Islanders’ chances of making the playoffs to Barzal’s personal chances of participating at February’s Four Nations Tournament for Team Canada — which, with rosters due at the start of December, suddenly appear slim.

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