The injury bug is already coming for the Islanders.
Captain Anders Lee will miss the next 1-2 weeks with an upper-body injury, the team announced Wednesday after Lee did not practice.
It’s not clear when Lee suffered the injury, but with opening night in just over two weeks, it appears to be a possibility that he misses some time in the regular season.
Max Tsyplakov also missed Wednesday’s practice, though that seems to be less serious. The Islanders said Tsyplakov had maintenance and skated on his own.
Emil Heineman took Lee’s spot on the left side of Mat Barzal in Wednesday’s practice, with Kyle MacLean and Marc Gatcomb on either side of Casey Cizikas on the fourth line, where Heineman and Tsyplakov had been prior.
This comes in addition to injuries that have kept Semyon Varlamov and Pierre Engvall from the ice for the duration of camp so far.
Engvall was projected to return to practice 2-3 weeks from the start of training camp, which would line up with the start of the regular season.
The Islanders have not announced a timeline for Varlamov, and it looks like a strong possibility that David Rittich will start the regular season as Ilya Sorokin’s backup.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
