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Freak injury gone wrong: Isles goalie Kevin Poulin out for the season

Toronto Maple Leafs v New York Islanders

of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the New York Islanders on February 8, 2011 at Nassau Colsium in Uniondale, New York.

Lou Capozzola

Last night’s freakish injury on Long Island featuring rookie goalie Kevin Poulin going down during warmups leading to Mikko Koskinen’s first NHL start and an Islanders 5-3 loss to Toronto came with a poor outcome for Poulin. The Islanders announced today that Poulin’s injury is a dislocated left kneecap which will require surgery and put him out for the season.

Poulin was starting last night because Rick DiPietro is out for a few weeks with facial fractures and a swollen knee thanks to getting punched out by Brent Johnson. Koskinen was called up to be Poulin’s backup and now the team has called up Joel Martin to join Koskinen in the ever-vacating Islanders goal.

The Islanders do still hold the rights to Evgeni Nabokov but Nabokov continues to sit at home rather than join the Islanders. We know the Isles aren’t a likely playoff team, but Nabokov could do a lot of good will for himself and the team by showing up and trying to avoid the injury boogeyman in Long Island for the rest of the season. That doesn’t appear likely at this time. Instead, the team will sweat it out waiting for Nathan Lawson to get back to health and give the Isles a slightly better rookie option in goal while DiPietro is out.