Cal Ritchie’s Islanders injury will keep him out through Olympic break

It’s going to be a while before the Islanders next see Cal Ritchie. 

Ritchie’s lower-body injury will keep him out through the Olympic break, coach Patrick Roy said Saturday before the Islanders faced the Predators at UBS Arena. 

Including Saturday’s match, the Islanders have just four games left before the three-week break, which will see them return to practice a little over a week before resuming the season in Montreal on Feb. 26. 

Roy said that Ritchie “tried” to skate on his own Friday but it did not go well, so for the time being, he will stay off the ice. 

It’s not clear when exactly Ritchie suffered the injury, as he played his last shift with under three minutes to go in last Saturday’s loss to the Sabres. 

For the time being, however, the injury is allowing the Islanders to punt on what will be a tough lineup decision once the rookie centerman returns. 

After adding Ondrej Palat via trade, and with Bo Horvat back healthy, it’s not entirely clear how the Islanders can make room for Ritchie in their lineup.

Max Shabanov, who had a spot for most of the season, has sat two of three games since the Isles traded for Palat, with his only playing time coming Thursday night when Casey Cizikas was out sick. 

Ritchie, who has generally centered the second or third line, would need to either shift to the wing or the Islanders would need to shift someone else to the wing in order to accommodate him. 

It’s not at all obvious which winger would sit either, at least as long as the fourth line of Marc Gatcomb, Cizikas and Kyle MacLean continues to play well.

Jonathan Drouin has gone a long period without scoring, but the Islanders clearly value the other aspects of his game enough that they are reluctant to make him a healthy scratch. 

Depending how circumstances shake out when Ritchie is ready to come back, it wouldn’t be a shock if the Islanders ended up sending him back to AHL Bridgeport to avoid a situation where the 21-year-old is not getting playing time. 

Cizikas was back in the lineup after missing Thursday’s win at the Rangers with illness.

Shabanov drew back out as a healthy scratch. 

Since Carson Soucy was traded to the Islanders, he’s taken the bulk of Matthew Schaefer’s penalty kill minutes.

Though the Islanders don’t have a hard target for Schaefer’s minutes, which average 24:02 per night, and Roy certainly has not hesitated to use him extensively, the head coach acknowledged that it would be a positive to lighten his workload on the PK. 

“He’s 18 years old, playing over 25, 27 minutes. At some point it might affect his play,” Roy said. “It’s nice for him to come straight to his five-on-five, the power play.”