Twenty-four hours after giving the Islanders a major jolt in the form of a late-season coaching change, Mathieu Darche left the door open to two more.
Alexander Romanov, who shed his noncontact jersey for the first time at Monday’s practice, could play in the last game or two of the season, Darche said. In the same answer, Darche kept the door open to calling up Victor Eklund, who has six points in four games with AHL Bridgeport since coming over from Sweden.
“We’re looking at everything for sure,” Darche said. “Eklund has done really well in Bridgeport. Obviously he’s put up points, there’s other aspects of the game. It’s his first adjustment [to North America]. What makes the adjustment maybe a little easier for him is he played against men this year in the [Swedish Hockey League].
“Romanov, there is a chance. In the playoffs, I’m pretty sure he’ll be there, but there is potentially a chance for the last game or two of the season that he might be back. This week is the first week he’s going to do full practice with no contact. Sometimes it takes a little while to get back at it, but we’re looking at options every day.”
Romanov, who required shoulder surgery after getting hurt in November on a Mikko Rantanen hit to the corner, has been projected for some time to join the Islanders in the playoffs, should they make it that far.
The last couple games of the regular season would only beat that timeline by a handful of days, but with the Islanders needing to win possibly every game to get in, it could make a huge difference.
“Guys like that have been battling for so long,” Matthew Schaefer said. “You just see the time and dedication and how bad he wants to come back.”
Calling up Eklund would constitute more of a risk given the 19-year-old has not had much time in the AHL. Nevertheless, he impressed all year in Sweden and has continued to do so since making the trip to North America.
Casey Cizikas, Simon Holmstrom and Ryan Pulock all missed practice with maintenance days. Ilya Sorokin had the day off from practice.
That made it something of a fool’s errand to try and read into line combinations, but DeBoer had Anders Lee, Bo Horvat and Anthony Duclair as the top line, with Cal Ritchie, Mat Barzal and Brayden Schenn as the second line. JG Pageau centered Max Shabanov and Emil Heineman on the third line; Kyle MacLean was in between Ondrej Palat and Marc Gatcomb on the fourth line.
The defense pairs rotated throughout practice.
Semyon Varlamov (two knee replacements) joined the team for the full practice for the first time since November 2024.