New York Islanders defenseman Alex Romanov requires surgery on his right shoulder and will be out for five to six months, the team announced on Sunday before their game against the Seattle Kraken at UBS Arena. Romanov was injured in the final minute of a 3-2 win over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday after being dangerously hit into the boards by forward Mikko Rantanen. “He’s not happy,” head coach Patrick Roy said of Romanov. “We didn’t agree with the league’s view of the hit, but we have to move forward. You can’t replace a player like him, but you hope the guys coming in will fit in.”
Although Rantanen avoided punishment from player safety for the hit, he was suspended for one game after a similar boarding penalty on Calgary Flames forward Matt Coronato on Saturday night, marking the second incident in three games. Romanov is expected to return by the end of the regular season at best.
“When the play happened, I didn’t have the perfect view, but when I saw him going down, I thought he had a much more serious injury,” Roy said. “It’s a serious one because his season is over, but I thought it was a broken neck or something like that.”
Veteran blue liner Adam Boqvist will fill in for Romanov and has already played in eight games this season. “Hopefully [Boqvist] will play like he’s been playing,” Roy said. “It’s an opportunity for him, and he needs to take advantage of it.”
Minutes before the face-off on Sunday, the Islanders announced that veteran center Jean-Gabriel Pageau is out on a “week-to-week” basis due to an upper-body injury. The timing of the 33-year-old’s injury is unclear, as he played 15:58 during Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues without noticeable incident. Pageau has six goals and six assists in 22 games this season, serving as a crucial face-off man and penalty-killer.
Roy moved rookie center Calum Ritchie from the fourth line to Pageau’s spot on the third line, shifted Casey Cizikas from wing to center, and called on Max Tsyplakov to complete that line.
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