Alexander Romanov could probably give Noah Dobson some good advice right about now.
This season has been played on two tracks for Romanov: one in which he’s further established himself as a top-pair defenseman for the Islanders and a pivotal piece of their future, regardless of which way the franchise goes; and another in which he’s missed games over four separate stints due to upper-body injuries and a one-game illness absence, getting back from the latest last Saturday.
The temporary good news that the Islanders had their top pair reunited was, of course, undercut by Dobson getting hurt one game later — a presumed right leg injury that the Islanders designated as week-to-week on Thursday, while clarifying that Dobson won’t need surgery.
“It’s probably the worst [thing] a player can have is injuries,” Romanov said following Thursday’s practice, reflecting on his own season. “You’re in shape, you play good, 10 or 11 games at the start of the season, then you get injured. The hardest part, to get injured in the first part of the season, after 10 games, when everyone is starting to roll up. Building team, building chemistry between pairs or lines and you get injured … and you jump back and you have to try to be in the same level as your team. So it’s like waves. You’re in great shape, and then you fall off.”
With the Islanders’ playoff hopes hanging by a thread, Romanov and Scott Mayfield — who will spell Dobson on the top pair — will be shouldering a huge burden starting with Friday’s match at UBS Arena against the Flyers.
Both players have put up strong seasons to this point — Mayfield’s resurgence after a brutal 2023-24 campaign is one of the more under-discussed topics around the Islanders — but the two last played together as a pair in the 2022-23 season, and as top pairs go, it will lack severely for offense. So will the Islanders’ back end as a whole. Without Dobson, Ryan Pulock is the club’s only defenseman who has double-digit points.
“The key for us right now is just making sure our guys play their way,” coach Patrick Roy said. “No one is here to replace Noah. Everybody has to play their own game and focus on what needs to be done.”
The good news — sort of — is that Romanov isn’t worried about a recurrence of his injury.
He clarified Thursday that what’s kept him out this season is not the same shoulder issue that required surgery during the summer of 2023 but an unspecified broken bone.
“It’s behind me, yeah,” he said. “For sure.”
Still, this figures to be a major test for Romanov and Mayfield.
For all the talk on social media criticizing Dobson this season, Romanov has been helped by Dobson just as much as vice versa.
As a pair, the two have a 53.14 expected goals rate while the Islanders have outscored the opposition 20-17 during their five-on-five minutes, per Natural Stat Trick.
In 200:21 of ice without Dobson, Romanov’s expected goals rate has dropped to 45.89.
As for Mayfield, he’s spent much of the season on the third pair, and 48.82 percent of his faceoffs have come in the offensive zone. He’s responded to that well, but his minutes are about to get much less sheltered.
All things considered, the Islanders, who have dealt with injuries to every other member of their top four this season, are relatively well-equipped to handle losing Dobson.
That doesn’t make it easy, nor does it help that they can’t afford to tread water in the standings. They need to make up ground. Now.
“Doesn’t matter who’s hurt,” Romanov said. “Dobby, of course, is a huge loss for the team and for me as well. But it’s not over, you know. We still keep playing and we still will do as much as we can to win.”
