RALEIGH, N.C. — The Islanders laid down a gauntlet on Thursday morning, making Mat Barzal a healthy scratch against the Hurricanes as punishment for being late to the rink.
“That’s the culture of our team,” coach Patrick Roy said. “And we made the decision not to play him tonight. And Barzy’s not happy, he doesn’t feel good about it. He respects the decision, he understands it. He was really good about it.
“Like I said to him, it happened to me when I was in Colorado. Different way, but [I] missed a practice, missed two games. That’s the culture of our team, we believe in it. But he’s good about it. He’s very good about it.”
Mathew Barzal #13 of the New York Islanders skates with the puck against Jonathan Aspirot #45 of the Boston Bruins during the second period on Oct. 28, 2025. NHLI via Getty Images
Barzal will be back in the lineup on Friday against the Capitals with a clean slate, Roy said. The Islanders’ handling of the situation mirrored the Tampa Bay Lightning — for whom general manager Mathieu Darche previously worked — healthy-scratched star center Brayden Point last season after he missed a team meeting.
Roy seemed to indicate the decision was Darche’s on Thursday when asked whether he was holding the team to his standard.
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“No, it’s not my standard,” he said. “It’s the organization’s standard.”
Though the Islanders have not made public any other incidents with Barzal’s tardiness, he was absent from a morning skate last Thursday before a win over the Red Wings.
The Isles said at the time that Barzal missed the skate with “load management” relating to his surgically-repaired knee, but that is the only time the team has used such language — “load management” is common practice for star players in the NBA, but almost unheard of in the NHL — regarding Barzal, or any other player for that matter.
Judging by Barzal’s start to the season, there has been little indication he is still dealing with the aftereffects of the kneecap injury that ended his 2024-25 season. He has eight points in nine games and has looked like his usual self.
New York Islanders center Mathew Barzal (13) skates with the puck against the San Jose Sharks during the second period at UBS Arena. Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Despite it being anticipated and reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman that Cal Ritchie would be called up to replace Barzal in the lineup, the Islanders ended up dressing 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
ESPN’s John Buccigross reported that Ritchie’s flight was canceled due to bad weather in New York. According to Raleigh/Durham airport’s arrivals log, a number of flights from New York to Raleigh after 2 p.m. were canceled, though a small handful did make it to North Carolina.
In any case, the Islanders were left holding the bag after embarking on this four-game trip without an extra forward on their roster. After saying publicly that Barzal wouldn’t be in, they couldn’t walk it back, leaving the team with no choice aside from playing seven defensemen, with Adam Boqvist rejoining the lineup after sitting out the last two games.
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Barzal, who participated in morning skate as usual, was not in the dressing room afterward and reporters were not informed he would be out of the lineup until moments before Roy’s press conference started.
Roy did not answer whether the policy of scratching a player for being late to the rink is new as of this season.
“I can’t go back to how things were in the past, but I know how things are today,” he said. “I think everybody knows now.”
He insisted, though, that the Islanders would put the incident behind them after Thursday’s game.
“No one here is mad at Barzy, it’s just a culture that we put in place,” Roy said. “We’re a team. We stick together. Compassion is a very important thing and we got a decision to make and we made the decision today.”