The tape-and-glue left side of the Islanders blue line was left with a predictable result Sunday.
Though Dennis Cholowski and Grant Hutton played well enough — putting in a mistake-free afternoon — Samuel Bolduc committed a killer error deep in his own zone, turning the puck over early in the second period on a play the Rangers quickly converted into a goal, with Reilly Smith feeding Vincent Trocheck.
That left Bolduc stapled to the bench for much of the remainder of the afternoon, as he played just three more shifts after the goal at 1:21 of the second in the eventual 5-2 loss to the Rangers.
It also caused coach Patrick Roy to issue a direct call-out of the 23-year-old, who has fallen from being seen as the next upcoming Islanders defense prospect only a year ago to struggling to hang onto his spot as the ninth defenseman in the organization.
“It’s sad,” Roy said when asked about the turnover. “But Sam needs to be better. If he wants to play in the NHL, he’s gonna have to understand and step up.
“He’s a good hockey player. He’s got all the tools. Now he just needs to figure it out. But he needs to be better if he wants to play for us.”
It came as a surprise that the Islanders needed Bolduc to be in the lineup Sunday after things looked positive for Alexander Romanov’s chances of playing just 24 hours prior.
But Romanov, who finished Friday night’s win over the Sabres while hurting through an upper-body injury, was deemed unready to take the ice at The Garden, leaving the Islanders without all three of their usual left-side defensemen.
If Romanov and Mike Reilly, who is also being called day-to-day after suffering what appeared to be a head injury on Jordan Greenway’s hit in the corner Friday night that caused him to temporarily lose consciousness, cannot go Tuesday against the Penguins, there is not much choice aside from keeping Bolduc in the lineup.
Unless Lou Lamoriello can complete a trade or waiver claim by then, the only other options would be to call up someone with zero NHL experience from AHL Bridgeport or to play Matt Martin, who has taken practice reps as a defenseman, as a 13th forward/pseudo-sixth defenseman.
Jimmy Vesey came off long-term injured reserve to make his season debut for the Rangers, skating 8:28 and recording a pair of shots on net.
“First game in some time. I thought our line was pretty good,” said Vesey, who skated with Sam Carrick and Adam Edstrom. “Had a lot of good looks and a goal by Eddy. Thought we did our job.”
