{"id":548545,"date":"2026-04-09T06:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/548545\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T06:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:33:20","slug":"islanders-tony-deangelo-expected-to-return-from-lower-body-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/548545\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders&#8217; Tony DeAngelo expected to return from lower-body injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Islanders defenseman Tony DeAngelo was back at practice Wednesday and his new head coach is \u201cpositively optimistic\u201d he\u2019ll be active Thursday for <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/08\/sports\/islanders-turn-focus-to-final-playoff-push-with-pete-deboer-now-in-fold\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a virtual must-win matchup against the Maple Leafs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>DeAngelo has missed the last six games with a lower-body injury, but was able to skate Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>After DeAngelo got in a full practice Wednesday and slid back into the second defensive pairing, Pete DeBoer is putting him on the positive side of a game-time decision for Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTony looked good. \u2026 I would say I\u2019m optimistic, positively optimistic, that he would be an option for us [Thursday],\u201d DeBoer said.<\/p>\n<p>Without DeAngelo, the Islanders have gone just 2-4 with a goal differential of minus-6. <\/p>\n<p>They also lost to the Blackhawks 4-3 on March 24 \u2014 a game DeAngelo left early because of injury.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a good practice, good pace,\u201d DeAngelo said, echoing his coach\u2019s sentiment. \u201cIt felt good to get back on the ice with those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>DeAngelo\u2019s return seemingly bumped rookie Isaiah George into an extra spot.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.48837209;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39033405\" width=\"878\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Tony-DeAngelo.jpg\" alt=\"Islanders defenseman Tony DeAngelo, who has been battling a lower-body injury, is expected to return Thursday vs. the Maple Leafs.\" class=\"wp-image-39033405\"  \/>Islanders defenseman Tony DeAngelo, who has been battling a lower-body injury, is expected to return Thursday vs. the Maple Leafs. Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Also back on the ice for the Islanders was Casey Cizikas, who had been given \u201cmaintenance\u201d days the previous two practices by DeBoer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s ready to go,\u201d the coach said. \u201cHe\u2019s a warrior. He\u2019s an old veteran that he could have practiced probably yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ilya Sorokin made some eye-catching saves at Wednesday\u2019s practice, and his new coach gushed about the 6-foot-3 goaltender afterward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t realize how big a man he is. He\u2019s a big guy, like you see him from the other bench or on TV, and you don\u2019t realize how big a goaltender is,\u201d DeBoer said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOn the ice from Long Island\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s so athletic that you almost assume he\u2019s not as big as he is, but he\u2019s the whole package.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 2023 All-Star has a save percentage of 90.9 percent this year \u2014 tied for 10th in the league.<\/p>\n<p>DeBoer was also plenty positive when it came to his first impressions of captain Anders Lee, calling him \u201cexactly as advertised.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI watched him from the other bench for a decade. He\u2019s honest, he plays the right way. He\u2019s always one of those guys from the other bench you say, \u2018Boy, I wish I had that guy on my team.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Islanders defenseman Tony DeAngelo was back at practice Wednesday and his new head coach is \u201cpositively optimistic\u201d he\u2019ll&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,43,5891],"class_list":{"0":"post-548545","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-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-islanders","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkislanders","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tony-deangelo"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116373358384533713","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548545","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=548545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}