WASHINGTON – The end of Laurel Hollow’s Marshall Warren’s first callup with the Islanders was necessary for the start of Cal Ritchie’s first tenure with the team.
The Islanders announced on Friday morning prior to ending their four-game road trip against the Capitals at Capital One Arena they had re-assigned Warren, a 24-year-old defenseman, to their AHL affiliate in Bridgeport while recalling Ritchie, a 20-year-old center who was a key piece of the Brock Nelson deal at last season’s trade deadline.
Warren notched two assists in his memorable NHL debut in Saturday’s 4-3 shootout loss in Philadelphia and also played while Alexander Romanov recovered from an upper-body injury in Tuesday’s 5-2 loss in Boston. He was a healthy scratch for Thursday night’s 6-2 loss in Carolina as Romanov returned.
Of course, this transaction was supposed to happen before Thursday’s game.
Top-six center Mathew Barzal was disciplined by first-year general manager Mathieu Darche for being late to the team bus to the morning skate that day and held out of the lineup against the Hurricanes. Warren was taken off the ice just before the morning skate began in anticipation of him being returned to Bridgeport to create a roster spot for Ritchie.
However, Ritchie’s flight to Raleigh, North Carolina, was cancelled. That forced coach Patrick Roy to use a makeshift lineup that included defenseman Adam Boqvist taking shifts on the fourth line and fourth-line center Casey Cizikas skating between Barzal’s usual wings, Kyle Palmieri and Anthony Duclair.
Roy announced before Thursday’s match that Barzal would be back in the lineup against the Capitals.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.