TORONTO — Zoom in, focus only on Saturday’s outcome and the Islanders gave an excellent accounting of themselves.
They overcame two first-period injuries, played most of the night with 10 forwards, locked things down and retained the lead throughout on the road to take a 4-1 win over the Maple Leafs and three of four available points on a two-game trip through Ontario.
Big picture, though, those two injuries to Calum Ritchie and Matias Maccelli overshadow the game itself and then some.
The Islanders have already lost Alexander Romanov for the year with a torn ACL. They are already without Mat Barzal, or a timeline for his return, due to lingering issues around his kneecap.
Coach Pete DeBoer reminded everyone Saturday morning that “We don’t have a [Connor] McDavid and [Leon] Draisaitl” — in fact, the Islanders forward group is quite thin on offensive firepower, even at full strength.
But that was before Ritchie left the game after his first shift with an apparent left leg issue after a Nick Blankenburg hit along the neutral zone boards. And it was before Maccelli’s left knee bent the wrong way after Darren Raddysh’s stick got caught in his skate and he had to be helped down the tunnel.
To their credit, the Islanders — who had gone up 1-0 on Anthony Duclair’s goal prior to Maccelli’s injury — played airtight hockey in a rough situation to come away with two points.
Bo Horvat put away Kyle Palmieri’s rebound at 18:33 of the second to add a much-needed second goal, but this was mainly a defensive effort.
They needed everything from their defense and goaltender alike in a third period that started with consecutive penalty kills before Troy Stecher cut the lead in half by putting one through traffic from the right point.
The Leafs had a golden chance to tie it on the power play after Matthew Schaefer took a delay-of-game penalty halfway through the third, but the Islanders made it a perfect 3-for-3 on the penalty kill. Shortly afterward, Bo Horvat found Simon Holmstrom in the slot to extend the lead to 3-1. Holmstrom tacked on an empty-netter to seal it.
The Islanders didn’t just end the game with 10 forwards, but the two they were missing represented one-third of their top six, and Maccelli had come into the night tied as their second-leading point-getter.
The Finnish winger was the Islanders’ only free agent signing of the summer to make the roster — they added Logan Stanley after training camp — and had played well above expectations. He’d earned his way onto the top line and impressed everyone with his skill and tenacity.
Ritchie had gotten off to a slower start, but the 21-year-old is one of the players the Islanders have staked their future on. Throwing an injury into the mix is the opposite of what anyone needed.
The lack of forward depth in the organization now becomes a problem too. Kyle MacLean, a healthy scratch in all eight games this season, can come into the lineup without an issue, but if the Islanders need to call up two forwards, they aren’t flush with options.
Liam Foudy and Pierre Engvall both have plenty of NHL experience but neither did much at training camp or grabbed onto opportunities with the Isles in the past. Mitchell Chaffee does too, and could play as a grinder in the bottom six, but is unlikely to fill an offensive hole.
Cole Eiserman is tempting in that sense, but if the Islanders believed he was ready, the Boston University prospect would have made the team out of camp.
With two days left before facing Anaheim on Long Island, the Islanders can hope that at least one of the injuries proves not to be as bad as it looked Saturday.
Otherwise, their season just got that much harder.
