Islanders Gameday News: Dal Colle and Greene made the trip to St. Louis

I have yet to write an article since the trade deadline passed, and while I’ve commented a little bit since, I’ve yet to publish real reaction.

For Bits that day, I said I didn’t know what to expect as far as trades went and I hoped for at least one impact forward. They nearly had two before the Zach Parise trade fell through, and that would’ve been helpful for the offense right now, even if the cap situation would’ve been horrendous in a few years. But, more pertinently, I was very happy when they acquired and signed J-G Pageau from the Senators.

And that was before his debut against the Rangers, in which he was an assist shy of a Gordie Howe hat trick while turning the third line into an asset rather than a liability. I love this guy already.

Honestly, though, I already loved him after he did this back in the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs:

Tonight’s his first road game as a member of his new team: the Islanders are in St. Louis to face the defending champion Blues. The last time they met was back in October at the Coliseum, when St. Louis looked to be handing the Islanders a demoralizing shutout loss in a day game before a furious comeback in the final minutes of regulation sent it to overtime, where the Islanders stole the extra point. It was Oliver Wahlstrom’s NHL debut and the second game of their 10-game win streak and 17-game point streak. My, how things have changed.

I like to call an Islanders-Blues game “Dom’s Dilemma,” though he’d probably tell you it’s quite the opposite—that either way, he wins. If they ever met in the Stanley Cup Final, though, that would be quite the quandary for him.

Leave your FIG picks here. I remembered this time! Puck drop is at 8:00 p.m.

Islanders News

• Let’s preview tonight’s game, shall we? [Islanders]
• Some good news for the stretch run: Michael Dal Colle and Andy Greene, who both left the Rangers game with injuries, are day-to-day and made the trip to St. Louis. [Isles Day-to-Day]
• Barry Trotz was impressed with the way his team played against their most-hated rivals, despite trailing most of the game and ultimately conceding a point. Also, it’s the Dads Trip! [Newsday]
• Hear what else he had to say at practice yesterday:

• While the Islanders didn’t see the extra point in their favor Tuesday night, they did get to catch a glimpse of what Pageau is going to bring to them over the next six-plus years.
• In short, he was the biggest bright spot in a night with many, final score notwithstanding. [NY Post]
• Pageau’s the new guy, but he’s known Derick Brassard since childhood and they played together in Ottawa. Pageau also roomed with Josh Bailey at the 2018 World Championships, where he played with Bailey, Mathew Barzal, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Pulock, and fellow French-Canadian Anthony Beauvillier. So he had some familiarity with the guys already. [Islanders]
• It’s times like these I feel old and out of touch: the Islanders hosted Leo Kelly, the Shirley Temple King, Tuesday night at the Coliseum. They also prepared three Shirley Temple-inspired drinks for him to critique. Perhaps those of you with kids know who he is? Either way, good for him. That Shirley Temple milkshake looks delicious. [Islanders]
• LISTEN: The Isles Buzz podcast discusses Pageau and the Ranger game, especially the questionable officiating. [LHH]
• LISTEN: Andrew Gross discusses similar topics on the Island Ice podcast and also interviews Ken Morrow and John Tonelli. [Newsday] You can also watch Gross review Tuesday’s game here.
• Elliotte Friedman tried to make sense of how the Parise deal fell apart in the end and notes again that he believes the Islanders were interested in Mikko Koivu before decided to enforce his NTC. [31 Thoughts]
• Before Tuesday night’s game at Barclays Center against the Canadiens, the Islanders are hosting the NYI x Women in Sports Event. Your ticket purchase includes a panel of guest speakers, a networking event, and a seat at the game that evening.

Elsewhere

Last night’s NHL scores include the Penguins losing in regulation to the Kings, somehow, and the Sabres, who were buyers at the deadline for some reason, losing in regulation to the Avalanche. Splendid!

• We’ve discussed the potential Parise deal quite a bit from the Islanders point of view. For the Wild, though, it represented moving on from the unfruitful plan to win a Cup laid out eight years ago.
• Parise, himself, says he was stressed since Minnesota GM Bill Guerin had approached him about a week before the deadline about “something involving another team.”
• Though this was the busiest trade deadline on record, DGB says it was only the ninth-best deadline out of 15 salary cap era deadlines. No. 1 was back in 2008. [The Athletic]
• Anyway, now that the deadline is done, what are the numbers saying about everyone’s Cup chances? Dom Luszczyszyn cautions teams will have to play some games with their new guys before we know the true impacts they’ll have. [The Athletic]
• Deadline acquisition Andreas Athanasiou left the Oilers’ shutout loss to the Golden Knights in the third period with a lower body injury and no one really knows how it happened or how bad it is:

• Some other injury news: the Maple Leafs will be without Jake Muzzin for four weeks after he broke his hand. [NHL]
• Canucks starting goalie Jacob Markstrom had a procedure done and will be re-evaluated in two weeks. [NHL]
• And Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester is done for the year after his scary cardiac episode earlier this month; his future beyond this season remains unclear. [NHL]
• Vancouver’s rookie defenseman Quinn Hughes is chasing history this season. [Nucks Misconduct]
• LISTEN: It’s the debut episode of the Too Many Men podcast, featuring The Athletic’s Sara Civian, Shayna Goldman, and Alison Lukan.