The New York Islanders announced on Apr. 10 that Matthew Schaefer, Max Shabanov, and Ilya Sorokin took maintenance days during Friday’s practice at UBS Arena. All three players are expected to be available for Saturday’s game against the Ottawa Senators.
While Schaefer and Shabanov did not participate in practice, Sorokin worked with goalie coaches before leaving the full-team session early. Head Coach Pete DeBoer said Sorokin is expected to start in goal against Ottawa and may also play again on Sunday.
“In a perfect world if we’re playing in the in November, in the regular season, that would be a split automatically for us,” DeBoer said. “I wouldn’t want to play our starter back to back, but we’re not in the middle of November, and it’s a different situation. All bets are off at this point in the year.”
The Islanders are currently one point behind the Philadelphia Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division after winning their last game and getting help from other teams’ results. “We woke up two days ago and we were three points out, and the standings looked almost insurmountable,” DeBoer said. “We won one game yesterday, and we wake up today and we feel pretty good. We’re right there.” He added: “That’s pro sports. You’ve got to take one game at a time [and have] that playoff mentality of flushing what happened yesterday, and be prepared to win tomorrow night. And if you keep doing that, you’ll keep waking up and feeling good about where you’re at.”
Saturday’s matchup with Ottawa is important for both teams as it could narrow or widen the gap between them for playoff positioning depending on who wins or loses in regulation time.
Mathew Barzal commented on how crucial these games have become late in the season: “Tomorrow’s obviously huge,” Barzal said. “The last two weeks, really, we’ve been playing these kind of games. So it seems like every game just means a little more than the next one…we’re right back in the fight.”
