RALEIGH, N.C. — Jean-Gabriel Pageau was missing from the Islanders’ lineup in Game 1 against the Hurricanes after suffering a lower-body injury in the final game of the season.
Though Isles coach Patrick Roy had said earlier in the day that Pageau would see how he felt after warm-ups, the center did not make it onto the PNC Arena ice pregame.
The unspecified injury came after Pageau took a first-period hip check from Reilly Smith on Wednesday against the Penguins.
“I think obviously he’s a huge part of our team, not only in the faceoff circle, but everywhere else,” Bo Horvat said pregame. “Penalty kill, he’s on the power play. Hopefully he’s gonna be in tonight. And if he’s not, guys are gonna have to step up and fill that void.”
Being without Pageau, the Islanders’ best option in the faceoff circle, represented a major hit to the team’s lineup depth in a series where that already looks like a disadvantage on paper.
“No one’s gonna pick it up for Pageau. It’s everybody,” Roy said. “It’s everyone that has to come in.”
In Pageau’s absence, Kyle MacLean moved up the lineup to play his spot on the third line and the Isles used a mishmash fourth line of Matt Martin, Cal Clutterbuck and Simon Holmstrom, with the Swede playing center.
“You watch the last two games, he’s been outstanding,” Roy said of MacLean. “Against Pittsburgh, against Jersey [on Monday] scored a big goal, made a great play on Simon’s goal. We’re gonna have to have that transition and play fast. If we play fast, we give ourselves a chance.”
Semyon Varlamov, as expected, got the start in goal for the Islanders. Frederik Andersen was in the opposite net for Carolina.
Saturday was Roy’s first playoff game behind an NHL bench in the playoffs since April 30, 2014, when the Wild beat the Avalanche, 5-4, in overtime of Game 7 to eliminate Colorado in the first round.
The Avalanche’s netminder in that series just happened to be a 25-year-old Varlamov, who posted a .913 save percentage and started all seven games.
“The key in that series is when we lost [defenseman] Tyson Barrie, that knee on him,” Roy recalled. “And we already had [Matt] Duchene out of the playoffs. We lost a lot of guys. Every team is well prepared and every team wants to win. Sometimes it comes to some little details and maybe there’s some things we could have done differently then. But obviously, the experience that came from this is, let’s focus on Game 1 and play the way we’ve been playing.”