Islanders bench Mathew Barzal vs. Hurricanes for disciplinary reasons

RALEIGH, N.C. — Mathew Barzal missed the team bus in the morning. As a disciplinary measure, the Islanders opted to sit their top-six center on  Thursday night against the Hurricanes  at Lenovo Center.

“He was late this morning,” coach Patrick Roy said. “So that’s the culture of our team and we made the decision to not play him tonight. Barzy doesn’t feel good about it, but you respect the decision. He understands it. He was really good about it.”

Roy said Barzal will return to the lineup on Friday night when the Islanders    conclude this four-game road trip in Washington.  

What went further off-script for the Islanders, though, was their Plan B being scuttled because of poor weather in the Northeast, as numerous flights from New York to Raleigh were canceled. That included the one that was supposed to transport rookie center Cal Ritchie, a key part of the Brock Nelson deal at last season’s trade deadline, for his Islanders debut.

Instead, the Islanders had to go with a makeshift lineup that included defenseman Adam Boqvist playing on a fourth line with center Kyle MacLean and Max Tsyplakov and Casey Cizikas, usually the fourth-line center, being elevated to skate with Barzal’s usual wings, Anthony Duclair and Kyle Palmieri.

The Islanders also activated defenseman Alexander Romanov off injured reserve after he missed five games with an upper-body injury. Laurel Hollow’s Marshall Warren was a healthy scratch after playing in his first two NHL games.

The bigger issue, though, was Barzal’s tardiness.

“Absolutely no one here is mad at Barzy,” Roy said. “It’s just the culture that we put in place. We’re a team. We stick together.”

Barzal, in the third season of an eight-year, $73.2 million deal, has two goals and six assists in nine games and has been able to regain his skating speed despite season-ending knee surgery last season.

But before   the Islanders’ 7-2 win over the Red Wings at UBS Arena on Oct. 23,  Barzal was held out of the morning skate. The Islanders announced at the time that it was because of “load management,” a term most frequently associated with NBA teams resting their stars. It is not a common practice in the NHL, certainly not for morning skates.

If Barzal returns to the lineup against the Capitals, as Roy said he will, it would seem to be a missed opportunity for Ritchie, who stood out during training camp. He was not likely to make the opening-night roster because the Islanders wanted him to get playing time as Bridgeport’s No. 1 center, but he also suffered a lower-body injury in the preseason finale.

He has one goal and two assists in three games for Bridgeport.

Meanwhile, Romanov, off to a slow start without a point in four games and suspect defensively in the first season of an eight-year, $50 million deal, again was paired with two-time Hurricane Tony DeAngelo. Romanov said he had no lingering soreness and wanted to build off his last game, a 4-2 win over the visiting Oilers on Oct. 16, when he led the team with six hits in 19:47.

“I’m ready to go,” he said. “Just play the same way I played in the last game against the Oilers. I just want to start feeling the game.”

“When you’re missing a player like that, it plays a role,” defenseman Ryan Pulock said. “So it’s good to have him back and healthy and getting back to his game of playing hard defensively and finishing his hits.”

Warren skated with DeAngelo in his first two NHL games, notching two assists in Saturday’s 4-3 shootout loss in Philadelphia and taking a costly penalty that led to one of the Bruins’ two power-play goals in Tuesday’s 5-2 defeat.

Notes & quotes: No. 1 overall pick Matthew Schaefer played in his 10th NHL game, triggering the first season of his entry-level contract and virtually ensuring that he’ll remain with the Islanders for the whole season . . . Sound Beach’s Brandon Bussi, a 27-year-old undrafted free agent goalie, made his fourth NHL start for the Hurricanes. He became the second Long Island netminder to face the Islanders after Farmingville’s Keith Kinkaid, who played for five teams — including the Rangers and Devils — from 2012-23, according to team statistician Eric Hornick.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

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.