How the Isles Spent Their Breaks, Plus Notes From Their First Practice Back

The New York Islanders hit the ice for the first time in 12 days when they held practice at Northwell Health Ice Center on Tuesday afternoon.

Head Coach Patrick Roy explained that the practice was meant to be low intensity, but high energy as the guys got their feet moving and as they work their way back to the regular pace of practice.

“The plan was just to get them going today, work on their hands, and their skills, and enjoy the first day back,” Roy said. “Tomorrow we're going start working on different things. We want to take advantage of those practices and get ourselves ready for the first game in Montreal, and the remainder of the season. The key for the next week is to work a bit on our structure, a bit of conditioning in the beginning and see how it goes.”

ISLES SCRIMMAGE IN PRACTICE

The Islanders had some friendly competition with a scrimmage at the end of practice, as the Blue Team beat the White Team 3-2 with some fun cellies in the winning group.

“It felt good to play in a little scrimmage, first day back,” Kyle MacLean said. “For the Blue Squad, it was a good little skate out there. It was good to get back into a little competitiveness.”

For the White Team, it was still a lot of fun.

“Wasn’t on the winning team but that stuff’s all fun,” Matthew Schaefer said. “It’s always fun to play and skate with the guys and battle.”

DOZENS OF PUCKS ON THE ICE… AND A SOFTBALL

At the end of practice, MacLean and Cal Ritchie were around the net doing some stickhandling with a softball that one of the trainers had and threw on the ice.

“It was Ritchie’s idea, he said it makes your hands better,” MacLean said with a laugh. “He has some soft hands out there. It was a little trick he showed me.”

HOW THE ISLES SPENT THEIR BREAK

Overall, the Islanders enjoyed their break with families and spent time relaxing, but a lot of them took their down time together.

Anders Lee, JG Pageau and Adam Pelech went to Disney World in Florida with their families over the break. On the other hand, Mathew Barzal, Tony DeAngelo, Anthony Duclair, Marc Gatcomb and Ritchie went to Scottsdale, Arizona for the WM Phoenix Open.

“It was a lot of fun, the weather was great, we spent a lot of time in the pool and got some sun,” Ritchie said. “We had a great time.”

Schaefer took time during the break to go back home to Hamilton, Ontario to visit friends and family. He also took a turn behind the bench as a coach for the Brantford Bulldogs' U11 Local League.

It's his best friend's little brother's team and all the kids enjoyed sharing the ice with Schaefer.

"They got excited, it was a lot of fun," Schaefer said.

A PACKED SCHEDULE AFTER THE BREAK

Although games don’t resume until Feb. 26, the Islanders are making the most of the rest and practice days until then because they’ll head into a busy stretch with crucial games as they make a push for the playoffs.

The Islanders will play 24 games in the span of 48 days to finish off the regular season – that’s a game every other day on average. It’s a balance, getting rest in and using time to train, but catching up on sleep is important, according to Schaefer.

“When you’re at the rink, you’re working as hard as you can and when you’re back home you’re getting meals in and drinking lots of fluids,” Schaefer said. “And then just sleeping as much as we can. I know last night I got 10, close to 11 hours. The more you get run down when there’s games every other day, back to backs and all that, it’s important to catch up.”

CHEERING ON HORVAT AND PALAT

The Islanders might have gotten a break from hockey, but they were dialed into the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026, as Bo Horvat is representing Canada and Ondrej Palat is playing for Czechia. Follow them and catch up on all the action here.

“It’s really cool that he’s there and representing our team and our country,” Ritchie, a fellow Canadian, said. “It’s been a lot of fun watching.”

Horvat and Palat will face off against each other on Wednesday in the Quarterfinals, and the Islanders are excited to tune in.

“They’re both awesome players,” Schaefer said. “I knew they were going to be great as soon as they got there.”

Horvat has two goals in three games while Palat has an assist through four games.

“I texted [Horvat] about his goal, how nasty it was, well that's just my slang,” Schaefer said. "Meant how amazing it was.”