Isles Day to Day: Training Camp Opens

New year, new hockey season.
The New York Islanders hit the ice for their first day of training camp on Monday, as they
prepare for a condensed 56-game season
, beginning on Jan. 14.
A shortened season calls for a truncated training camp, as the Islanders will have 10 days of on-ice sessions to ramp up for their season opener vs the New York Rangers. As a result, this year's camp is smaller, with
38 players total players invited
, about half the usual amount. There will not be any exhibition games around the NHL ahead of this season.
The 38-players are vying for spots on the Islanders' 23-man roster, though there will be an additional four-to-six man taxi squad, as the NHL is giving teams some flexibility due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Check newyorkislanders.com for daily groups, notes, photos, videos and media availabilities from this year's training camp.

GROUP 1:
Forwards: Casey Cizikas, Cal Clutterbuck, Jordan Eberle, AJ Greer, Otto Koivula, Andrew Ladd, Anders Lee, Dmytro Timashov and Oliver Wahlstrom
Defensemen: Noah Dobson, Andy Greene, Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock, Bode Wilde and Parker Wotherspoon
Goalies: Jakub Skarek and Semyon Varlamov
Group 1 provided the Isles first look at AJ Greer, who was acquired for Kyle Burroughs in October, as well as Dmytro Timashov, who was acquired from Detroit in December.
Oliver Wahlstrom, Otto Koivula and Jakub Skarek are all back from their European loans. Group 1 featured some familar duos in Lee and Eberle, Cizikas and Clutterbuck and Pelech and Pulock, as well as some small-area games.

GROUP 2:
Forwards:Josh Bailey, Anthony Beauvillier, Kieffer Bellows, Michael Dal Colle, Ross Johnston, Leo Komarov, Matt Martin, Brock Nelson and JG Pageau
Defense:Sebastian Aho, Samuel Bolduc, Thomas Hickey, Grant Hutton, Nick Leddy, Scott Mayfield
Goalies: Cory Schneider and Ilya Sorokin
All nine forwards in Group 2 played at least one NHL game in the 2019-20 regular season and eight of the nine suiting up in at least one playoff game.
Group 2 also featured Cory Schneider's Islanders practice debut, as the veteran goalie had agreed to terms with the club. He was joined by Ilya Sorokin, who had practiced with the Islanders in the Toronto bubble after agreeing to a contract extension in the spring. Sorokin's presence was highly-anticipated by the media, who got their first look at the Russian goalie prospect on Islanders ice since a 2016 mini camp appearance.
The on-ice session concluded with a small-area game and conditioning drills.

NOTES:
Trotz Happy with Fitness on Day 1:
Head Coach Barry Trotz said the first few days of camp will be more conditioning and foundation focused, as the Islanders get a refresher in the team's systems and find their legs.
"What we found was that our group played pretty deep obviously and they have the foundations down for the most part, this is more of a refresher course for them," Trotz said. "We're trying to take certain things we found during the playoffs that we had to correct a bit, that wasn't instinctive, we've gone over those, those were the biggest emphasis."
Captain Anders Lee echoed the sentiment, saying "legs and lungs" were the main focus of the first day. The captain underscored the importance of the on-ice sessions, as there are no exhibition games to get ramped up.
"It places that much more importance on the attention to detail," Lee said. "There are no preseason games to work things out, there are no split-squad scrimmages, you don't even have those opportunities to work out the kinks... The importance of having that extra little bit of focus and dialing that in from day one forces us a little bit."

Trotz said not to read too much into lines for the first three days, but that he wanted to pair young guy with veteran players in the beginning period. The Islanders' coach praised his veterans for coming to camp focused and prepared, as a short camp put the onus on players to arrive ready.
"I thought we had a real good day, I thought we got a lot out of it," Trotz said. "Kudos to our veterans, I thought our veterans led the way today and the young guys continue to get better and better and push the older guys."
Trotz noted that the players who skated in Europe - Koivula, Wahlstrom and Skarek - looked sharp in more game-play situations, but that his older players were in good shape and there wasn't much disparity.
Clutterbuck's Dog Joins Zoom:
Cal Clutterbuck had a guest with him during Monday's availability with reporters, as his dog briefly joined the video conference.

Trotz and Coaching Staff Wear Masks on Ice:
The Islanders coaching staff is taking their COVID-19 precautions seriously, all sporting masks on the ice during both sessions.
Trotz said initially the mask was fogging up his glasses - a super-relatable moment for anyone with spectacles - but that he adapted as the on-ice sessions went on, switching his mask at the break. The Islanders coach said he might switch over to contact lenses if he felt that fogging up glasses became a personal hazard.

VIDEO: