Islanders defenseman Adam Boqvist will get a second cameo at ahead

The defenseman obtained one other shot taking part in up entrance on Monday with Hudson Fasching out with sickness, taking Fasching’s spot on the fitting facet of the third line.

Boqvist centered the fourth line for a recreation a pair weeks in the past in Anaheim when Kyle MacLean was sick.

Not solely that, however Boqvist put up a pair of assists because the Islanders misplaced 4-3 to the Blue Jackets in a shootout.

“Initially it was humorous as a result of he wished to see some clips,” coach Patrick Roy stated pregame. “So I really like that the gamers care. They wish to do nicely, doesn’t matter [where]. I feel you’re moving into a stretch, no matter you are able to do to assist the staff.

“I feel any defenseman, we ask them to play ahead, they might all say sure. I feel these guys all simply wish to try to make the playoffs. That’s all they need.”

With Matt Martin being the one further ahead, it seems the teaching workers would like to play Boqvist out of place, since he may also contribute on the facility play.

“I assumed he did nicely,” Roy stated afterward. “It’s not simple for a man — 10-minute follow, that’s all he had. I assume he did rather well.”

Monday was Boqvist’s first recreation within the lineup since he suffered a shoulder damage on March 11.

He and Alexander Romanov additionally got here down sick in between, and although it’s not clear MacLean, Boqvist, Romanov and Fasching all caught the identical sickness, the Islanders have been coping with an uncommon quantity of illness these days.

Roy used an unrelated query on Monday to make a degree concerning the Islanders penalty kill, saying it upsets him to see individuals overlook the unit’s dramatic enchancment because the new 12 months.

“It bothers me when persons are saying our PK sucks. Our PK doesn’t suck,” he stated. “Since January 1, we’re like eighth within the league in penalty killing at 81 p.c. Eighty-one p.c is fairly good.”

“So yeah, we had a tricky begin on PK, I’ll admit that, however since January 1, our PK is top-1 within the NHL so we gotta cease saying, ‘Once you have a look at [season-long] statistics, the Islanders are on the backside of the league’ — no. We’re not on the backside of the league. We’re within the prime of the league the best way we’ve been killing penalties.”