Islanders Gameday News: Cizikas skates, pairs mixed, Iskhakov injured

The Islanders resume their road trip with the “stay up and be disappointed” California swing, starting tonight in Anaheim. They’ll likely have a different look from last game, whether with Casey Cizikas (hopefully) returning and/or the defensive pairs getting yet another shuffle.

Here is how they lined up at practice yesterday:

Lee-Nelson-Eberle
Ladd-Barzal-Bailey
Beauvillier-Filppula-Clutterbuck
Johnston-Cizikas-Komarov
Martin-Gionta-Kuhnhackl

Meanwhile, the D pairs:

Pulock-Leddy
Sbisa-Boychuk
Hickey-Mayfield
Pelech (extra)

Perhaps this morning or tonight yields yet another mix.

Gametime is 10 p.m. EDT. Leave your FIG picks here.

Trotz spoke of changes, the road trip, and such:

Islanders Reading

• About those likely line changes. [Newsday | Isles]
• Spizzwolf does a video breakdown of some Brock backchecking! and a cool slider comparison of good and bad trap positioning. [LHH]
• Dan and Mike talk to Arthur Staple about how things are different under Trotz. [Islanders Anxiety podcast]
• Must be in the water, because Bridgeport is toying with its D pairs too. [Soundin’ Off]
• Who’s a good dog? These guide dogs. [Isles]
• Bridgeport Report: Michael Dal Colle is your points (and shots) leader. [Isles]
• And further down the pipeline, here’s a thorough roundup of prospect updates with the NCAA season underway. [Isles]

Speaking of which, bad news last night for Islanders prospect Ruslan Iskhakov, who is diminutive but skates and moves like the wind and scored in his debut for NCAA UConn. Now last night he was taken out by a high-speed open-ice hit. Down and motionless on the ice for a long time.

Quinnipiac’s Brogan Rafferty, 23, received a charging major and game misconduct on the play. Iskhakov, 18, was taken to the hospital. [College Hockey News | ESPN Update]

Here is video, and it is ugly:

Elsewhere

Last night’s NHL scores included actual games, so that’s a good step. The Canucks beat the Penguins in overtime, for one.

• The Ducks have been without Ryan Getzlaf for four games but expect him back tonight. [Times]
• And, well they’ve been injury-riddled overall and have had many flaws in their play but they’re 4-1-1 so there. [Athletic]
• What’s a modern contract stalemate like William Nylander’s like, anyway? Those who’ve been through it share their experience. (Meanwhile, for CSKA Moscow pitching a player in such a situation, they just try to assure them “we don’t have bears in the streets.”) [Athletic]
• Hey guess what? The TSN Insiders also talk a lot about Nylander and Toronto generally. Also the Nick Ritchie impasse in Anaheim. [TSN]
• Why everyone hates the Leafs and Toronto media in general: They’re making Mark Scheifele explain why he thinks Auston Matthews isn’t as good as Connor McDavid. (This is why I’m glad hockey isn’t as popular here, by the way. Toronto hockey media is basically New York baseball and football media, except with only one sport and team to drama-bate over.) [Sportsnet]
• The Senators did a video tribute to the late Ray Emery (news of which now shocks me three months later...evidently I was on a Trans-Atlantic flight when it happened.) [Yahoo]
• Fight: Jamie Benn and Miles Wood conduct crowd-pleasing masculinity exercises. [Yahoo]
• NOT HOCKEY, but funny: Miami will move that carnival art thing out of the Marlins’ centerfield, at the request of Derek Jeter and probably most of humanity. Maybe there’s room for it at Barclays? [Miami Herald]