Isles Day to Day: Training Camp Day 5

After a day off on Thursday, the Islanders held their second scrimmage of training camp on Friday.
See below for teams, notes, video and player interviews.

Team Blue:
Forwards: Josh Bailey, Anthony Beauvillier, Casey Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck, Jordan Eberle, Anders Lee, Matt Martin, Brock Nelson and Jean-Gabriel Pageau
Defense:Sebastian Aho, Samuel Bolduc, Thomas Hickey, Grant Hutton, Bode Wilde and Parker Wotherspoon.
Goalies:Semyon Varlamov, Jakub Skarek
Team White:
Forwards: Kieffer Bellows, Austin Czarnik, Michael Dal Colle, AJ Greer, Ross Johnston, Andrew Ladd, Otto Koivula, Leo Komarov and Oliver Wahlstrom
Defense: Noah Dobson, Andy Greene, Nick Leddy, Scott Mayfield, Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock
Goalies:Ilya Sorokin, Cory Schneider
NOTES:
Team White won 4-0 in the 40-minute contest. Ilya Sorokin pitched a shutout as both he and Semyon Varlamov played the entire 40 minutes.
Trotz intentionally put more veteran forwards on the blue team and his probable top-six on the white team, setting up a head-to-head matchup.
"I wanted it to be competitive," Trotz said. "I didn't want it to be easy for one group vs the other and as you saw, the group that had more of the veteran crew on the back end, they were the team that won."

Trotz said he's fairly confident in his veteran group's ability to ramp up for the season and maintain the team's identity, citing their maturity as an older group. The Islanders' coach said he was more focused on watching his newer and younger players as they compete for spots. Trotz said that Oliver Wahlstrom, who scored in the scrimmage, and Kieffer Bellows had both taken steps in their game over the past year and had closed the gap to becoming regular NHL players. Trotz also highlighted strong days from Michael Dal Colle, Otto Koivula, veteran Andrew Ladd and newcomers AJ Greer and Austin Czarnik.
"I'm looking for separation, who can separate themselves from the group," Trotz said. "They've got to go through this camp and separate themselves and we're just seeing who can do that."
Czarnik Skates:
Austin Czarnik skated with the team for the first time during training camp and scored a goal during the team's scrimmage.
"Czarnik is a smaller player, but he's got that fiestiness of a Pageau, or Casey type of mentality," Trotz said. "He's got some good smarts and a little bit of experience, so his first day on the ice, he looked really strong. He had a bit of adrenaline going trying to catch up here. We'll see where he is tomorrow or the next day. Today he had a good first impression."

Islanders Diligent in COVID Precautions:
With news breaking of positive COVID-19 tests in the Dallas Stars organization, the coronavirus was again a topic of discussion during Islanders media availability. Six Stars players and two staff tested positive, causing the team to shut down its training facility in accordance with CDC and league policies. Dallas' season start date was also pushed back until at least Jan. 19. The Columbus Blue Jackets also held players out of practice as a precautionary measure.
"It's a fluid situation, every day is going to bring its challenges," Scott Mayfield said. "We went through that leading into the return to play, the bubble situation. I don't know if teams got hit as hard as they got hit today, but at the same time we know it's a possibility and can happen. It's tough, but it's part of it though, we know what we have to do, we have protocols in place, we get tested every day and try to contain it as best as possible in our locker room, wearing masks, distancing and all of that. Definitely not ideal what happened so early, but we know it was going to happen not being in a bubble."

Head Coach Barry Trotz said the Toronto and Edmonton bubbles over the summer were some of the safest and most hygenic environments on the continent, largely due to their insular nature. Being at home and travelling to road games adds more variables, as their families have their own daily contacts, such as schools and grocery stores. The coach's message was to continue to stay diligent, which the Islanders have done so far at camp.
"You have to stay diligent," Trotz said. "We wear masks on the ice and in our meeting rooms, we go to a large room for our meetings and are all socially distant. We're all traced and tested every day... You have to stay diligent and wear a mask and we're wearing a mask 10 hours a day right now from the minute we come in around 6/6:30 until we leave at night."
VIDEO:

(Nick Leddy's availability begins at 7:00)