Andrew Gross: Islanders' Mathew Barzal shouldn't play until he's ready . . . whenever that may be
Islanders center Mathew Barzal at UBS Arena last April. Credit: Brad Penner
Patience is a virtue and the opposite is true of impatience.
Impatience leads to trouble and wrong decisions.
In an athletic sense, impatience can lead to further injuries.
So no matter the outside perspective of when the Islanders’ Mathew Barzal should play or should have been back in the lineup, only Barzal can truly judge the health of his left knee.
Which means only Barzal can say when he feels comfortable participating in an NHL match. If anything, he deserves kudos for not rushing himself back, as he most surely would want.
And while it wasn’t necessarily a sign of an impending return to the lineup, the relief and joy felt by Barzal, his teammates and the Islanders’ brass when he stepped out to join his teammates for the first time since training camp opened during the first portion of Wednesday’s practice at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow was enormous.
He skated in a red, non-contact jersey, as did top-six forward Matias Maccelli (lower body) and defenseman Ryan Pulock (upper body).
The fact that it’s still unclear when Barzal will play does not diminish the positive vibes of the day. Nor should it. Quite frankly, the Islanders desperately need a healthy Barzal and this was the closest anyone has seen to that since last season ended.
“The timelines on all those guys are still the same,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “They’re in no-contact jerseys. But it’s nice to have them there.
“You know what [Barzal] brings to the group and how important he is. At the same time, you can’t waste time going there in your mind. You have to concentrate on the guys that are available to play [Thursday] night."
That would be against the Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes at UBS Arena as the Islanders continue a three-game homestand.
Pulock was injured early in the first period in Minnesota last Thursday and was also expected to miss two to four weeks. Maccelli had worked himself back onto Bo Horvat’s top line and was being used on the first power-play unit before being injured in Toronto on Oct. 17. He was expected to miss two to four weeks.
There hasn’t been and still isn’t a timeline for Barzal.
“Everybody looked great,” Horvat said. “It’s exciting to see that they’re getting closer and closer to coming back and we’re definitely going to need them.”
The Islanders are also without second-line center Cal Ritchie (lower body), who was also hurt on Oct. 17 and was expected to miss four to six weeks. He has not resumed skating.
Defenseman Alexander Romanov (right knee) was injured on Oct. 6 and will likely miss the rest of the regular season.
Barzal has been skating on his own, seemingly without limitations.
He initially hurt his left kneecap blocking a shot on Feb. 1, 2025, required surgery and missed the rest of that season. But he returned to play 81 games last season with a team-high 53 assists and 72 points before not passing his medical testing prior to training camp because of inflammation.
The open-ended nature of Barzal’s absence has led to plenty of speculation and non-expert diagnoses.
To wit, a longtime Islander fan approached the other day to opine that Barzal should have taken care of this during the offseason and been ready to start training camp.
But that both misses the point and makes it.
Only Barzal and the team doctors can say for sure what triggered the inflammation that sidelined him. Knowing Barzal and how much he yearns to be on the ice, if he could have taken care of this and been ready for training camp, he would have.
If Islanders’ fans are frustrated by the slow return, that frustration is multiplied for Barzal.
It’s no secret that maintenance on the knee was something that Barzal and the Islanders had to monitor throughout last season.
Former Islanders captain Anders Lee, who has been through his own ACL injury and the long recovery from it, lauded Barzal for having patience through this process.
“I know he’s feeling better,” Lee, who signed with the Utah Mammoth as a free agent, told Newsday on Oct. 4. “[Last season], he didn’t feel good at all. He grinded through it and still had a heck of a year.
“But I think at some point, too, you get to a point where you do need to also get it right and get it healthy, too. So I think that’s where he’s at. So I’m happy that he has the support from the team and the confidence in himself to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do this the right way.’”
Barzal will play when Barzal is ready. And that’s the only way it can be.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
