Word surfaced that New York Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic joined Johnny Boychuk (pictured) on IR, and it doesn’t sound like it will be a short stay, either.
Islanders head coach Jack Capuano provided a vague-yet-pessimistic update on Hamonic and Boychuk, as he told New York Newsday that Hamonic and Boychuk won’t “be playing for a while here.”
(Unfortunately, there’s no slide rule for coach speak, so we’ll just have to keep an eye out for future updates.)
As yesterday’s post noted, fellow injured reserve defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky’s outlook seems more positive, while the team called up Ryan Pulock to adjust to the mounting injuries. First-rounder Griffin Reinhart also was elevated recently due to all of the sidelined blueliners, although he’s made more waves so far denying trade rumors off the ice than generating results on it.
This upheaval among the Islanders’ blueline corps could provide quite the test, especially as they host the St. Louis Blues in an afternoon game today. Jaroslav Halak’s work has already been impressive, but if he can keep it up with so many injuries pile up, then watch out.