{"id":547505,"date":"2026-04-08T14:28:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547505\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T14:28:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:28:30","slug":"kyle-palmieri-holding-out-hope-for-islanders-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547505\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Palmieri holding out hope for Islanders return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kyle Palmieri, over four months removed from tearing his ACL<\/a>, has plenty of perspective on those devastating yet encapsulatory few seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the worst moments,\u201d Palmieri said to a small group of beat writers including The Post in his first interview since the injury. \u201cBut also a pretty cool moment too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The occasion for his speaking was Palmieri\u2019s nomination by the Islanders\u2019 chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers\u2019 Association for the Masterton Trophy. The award, which is voted on by the PHWA membership, is given to the player who best exemplifies \u201cthe qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, yes, Palmieri\u2019s response \u2014 both in the moment and in the months that followed \u2014 to such an injury qualifies.<\/p>\n

\"KyleKyle Palmieri has missed most of the season with a torn ACL. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

There was the play itself, when Palmieri stole the puck away from Emil Andrae while limping off the ice, triggering a rush that led to an Islanders goal as his last act of the season.<\/p>\n

And then there was everything that came afterwards, out of public sight, as Palmieri has started to work his way back after surgery. He recently started skating on his own. And, while it is certainly a long shot, No. 21 did not rule out returning at some point in this year\u2019s playoffs, should the Islanders make it far enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting back on the ice was a big step a couple weeks ago,\u201d he said. \u201cAs long as I keep progressing, I\u2019m definitely not putting it out of my mind. It\u2019s just about working hard and finding ways to make sure each day is better than the next. Wherever the chips fall, they fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palmieri has dealt with injuries before, but not in some time and not anything like this.<\/p>\n

When he got hurt, it snapped a streak of 223 consecutive games played, which was the longest of anyone on the team at that time. At the moment it happened, Palmieri had no idea the injury was serious.<\/p>\n

There was pain, sure. But no pop. After he went back to the dressing room for an initial test, Palmieri didn\u2019t believe the doctor when given the initial diagnosis. Even after getting the MRI, he found it hard to digest.<\/p>\n

\"KyleKyle Palmieri (21) runs a drill during practice at the Northwell Health Ice Center, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025, in East Meadow, NY. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the initial pain, you kinda feel OK,\u201d Palmieri said. \u201cI was walking around, up and down stairs that night, and I couldn\u2019t really believe the diagnosis and the road that was ahead of me. But having Anders [Lee, who tore his ACL in 2021] to lean on and the staff here, guys that have gone through it, ex-teammates, whatever it may be, the ones I talked to leading up to surgery and then those first couple weeks after, it\u2019s tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it happens. It\u2019s sports. I just wanted to take it day by day and put myself in the best position to come back and be better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palmieri, in typical fashion, made sure to note that plenty of other Islanders could have been nominated for the honor, going out of his way to mention Semyon Varlamov, who has missed the entire season while recovering from two knee replacements.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing the guys that have won [the Masterton], who have been up for it, it\u2019s an honor to be mentioned in that same category,\u201d he said. \u201cI think looking across the room at a certain goaltender being on the day-to-day, watching Varly make his way back and the dedication that it takes to rehab as long as he has. Even though I miss him and now I\u2019m skating on my own, it\u2019s so cool to see him back and skating with the team, taking live shots, cause of how much I\u2019ve seen him and the work he\u2019s put in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long road. The comeback\u2019s not quite complete yet for me. Hopefully in the next couple weeks \u2014 we\u2019ll see how the season unfolds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for me, it\u2019s about getting things in a better spot and trying to get better every day. This is a really, really amazing honor for me to be up for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyle Palmieri, over four months removed from tearing his ACL, has plenty of perspective on those devastating yet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,776,3328,159,5190,5189,4,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-547505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-islanders","10":"tag-kyle-palmieri","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-islanders","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkislanders","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116369562562053322","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}