Islanders' Mathew Barzal working his way back into form after injury-filled season

The moments were brief.

Glimpses. Flickers.

There was Mathew Barzal, a few strides inside the blue line with the puck on his stick, and Adam Pelech trailing. Suddenly, Barzal spun 180 degrees and dropped a pass for his longtime teammate at the far boards. Pelech skated to the top of the right circle and fired a shot into Marcus Hogberg’s midsection.

A few minutes later, Barzal corralled a loose puck above the circles in the offensive zone and darted left and right before whipping a backhander off the top of the crossbar that Kyle Palmieri eventually poked past Hogberg.

Though it could be said that these instances in a two-period scrimmage on the second day of training camp were mere flares, they represented something significant for Barzal and the Islanders.

“It felt good,” Barzal said after his White team beat the Blue team, 4-3, on Friday morning at Northwell Health Ice Center on the second full day of training camp. “It’s nice individually to get back on the ice in a setting with high compete and some physicality and five-on-five situations. It’s been a while.”

Barzal played in only 30 games in the 2024-25 season because of injuries. He suffered an upper-body injury in the Islanders’ 2-0 loss to the Blue Jackets on Oct. 30 that cost him 21 games. Barzal returned in mid-December, only to be lost for the season after blocking a shot in the Islanders’ 3-2 overtime win over the Lightning in Tampa on Feb. 1. He subsequently had right knee surgery.

“It’s going to take a good [amount] of time for [Barzal],” coach Patrick Roy said. “I mean, he played, what, 30 games? It was a tough injury, so I think it’s going to take him a little bit of time to feel more comfortable on the ice.”

Perhaps both physically and positionally.

With the offseason additions of Jonathan Drouin and Maxim Shabanov, Roy has decided to move Barzal back to his natural position of center. The 28-year-old is skating between Anders Lee and Smithtown’s Palmieri on the second line, and Bo Horvat is centering the top line with Drouin and Shabanov.

Barzal was reasonably effective when he played last season, recording 20 points (six goals and 14 assists) while skating as the right wing on Horvat’s line.

So for a team entering a new era, a healthy, productive Barzal could be the difference between the Islanders qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs or missing the tournament for the second straight season.

“He looked like himself,” Lee said. “He’s coming back from a serious thing in an important area of the body and I think he’s moving great. He’s always seeing the ice. His hands are there and the rest of it’s going to come.”

Still, Lee cautioned, the possibility exists that Barzal will experience some frustration as he works through the long period of inactivity. The captain would know, as a right ACL tear suffered late in the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened 2021 season cost him the ability to play in the Islanders’ run to the Eastern Conference Final.

“We’ve all dealt with injuries before. You take time away and it’s difficult,” Lee said. “It’s tough mentally and emotionally on top of the injury itself.

“But I think he’s done a great job and put in a lot of work this summer to get through that.”