The good news for the Islanders on Friday morning was that the upper-body injury that kept Anthony Duclair off the ice one day prior proved to be not so big a deal.
Duclair was not only back on the ice in the morning, but in the lineup for the evening’s 4-2 loss to the Devils, the first time he’s pulled on an Islanders sweater since his 2024-25 season came to an ignominious end with Patrick Roy essentially banishing him into summer two weeks early.
That leads us to the hard news. No matter how much Duclair, Roy and everyone else involved wishes they could wave that episode — and the season that led up to it — into oblivion, they cannot.
The benefit of the doubt here has been all used up. It is on Duclair to prove, and prove again, that he can be an effective player over the three years remaining on his contract with the Islanders.
That will be a process. Its first steps came Friday night, ahead of which Duclair described his motivation as “super high.”
“Obviously, new season, fresh start for everybody,” Duclair said. “You want to get off to a good start. That’s what I’m looking forward to do. Even though last year didn’t go the way I wanted, I always want to come back and be stronger. Learn from my mistakes and move forward.”
The notion of a fresh start, though, is closer to rhetoric than reality.
Duclair’s spot in the lineup Friday, skating next to Mathew Barzal, was an ironic reminder that last season those two were meant to form part of a supercharged top line on either side of Bo Horvat, playing just five games together before Duclair tore his groin.
Upon his return, the idea was abandoned, and the line the Islanders rolled out Friday of Duclair, Barzal and Marc Gatcomb came mostly as a result of preseason roster shuffling rather than a serious intent to experiment with the trio.
The results were decidedly mixed, with Duclair skating 17:07 and scoring a goal late in the match at six-on-five as the Islanders continued a preseason trend of struggling at five-on-five, as coach Patrick Roy acknowledged afterward.
“It’s always a nice feeling to score,” Duclair said. “Obviously as a group, I think we could’ve played a little better. But we’re still learning, still getting back in game shape.”
For most of camp, Duclair has been firmly planted in the bottom six instead, skating on the left side of the third line with Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Simon Holmstrom.
He has looked good skating in practice, but nobody knows how his groin will behave until he tests it inside the pressure cooker of an NHL schedule.
Expectations have been adjusted accordingly, and Duclair further downplayed them ahead of camp by noting his offseason was largely rehab-focused, going as far as to say, “I didn’t have the summer that I’d like to have.” Friday, he said his body has held up well and feels good through just over a week of training camp, his absence one day prior notwithstanding.
“I thought in the first [period] you could tell he was a little rusty,” Roy said. “But in the second and third, I thought he was playing better. He was competing well, scored that goal in front of the net, it was a nice move by him. I thought he was starting to play better and better.”
As recently as two seasons ago, Duclair scored 24 goals and slotted seamlessly into the lineup for a Cup-contending Lightning team after being dealt to Tampa at the deadline.
Friday felt a long way from there.
The Islanders were hoping it was an important step on the road back.
“It’s been a while,” Duclair said. “I feel good. Feeling good in practices and in the scrimmage that we played. Obviously, camp is real tough, the intensity is ramping up every single day. Feeling good, body’s reacting really good. We’ll see [Friday night].”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
