TAMPA, Fla. — Coach Lane Lambert’s reaction after his Islanders were outskated in a blowout home loss to the Devils on Thursday extended beyond holding an intense practice the following day.
Lambert made multiple lineup changes for what became a 5-3 loss to the Lightning on Saturday night. He benched wing Josh Bailey for Nikita Soshnikov, activated defenseman Sebastian Aho off injured reserve and sent Robin Salo to AHL Bridgeport.
“We just needed to get a spark, and it was a good opportunity to put Soshnikov in the lineup,” Lambert said, explaining the move to send Bailey, just a few nights away from what was scheduled to be his 1,000th game, to the press box.
Coming into Saturday, Bailey was the only Islanders forward to have played in each of the first four games without recording a point. If he gets back into the lineup on Sunday against the Panthers, Bailey will have a chance to play game No. 1,000 on Friday at Carolina.
Islanders coach Lane Lambert Corey Sipkin
Soshnikov, who played in his stead, skated for 10:26 Saturday and recorded three hits and three missed shots. Lambert said that Bailey’s play didn’t have anything to do with the move.
The speed added by Soshnikov was something the Islanders identified as an issue following the loss to the Devils. They said they were caught out by how fast the Devils played. Evidently, that was on Lambert’s mind against the Lightning, another team that can play fast.
Aho, whom Salo beat for a lineup spot out of camp, was paired with Mayfield on Saturday and got minutes on the second power-play unit, totaling 14:18.“I liked his skating,” Lambert said. “I thought he played a very good game. He moved the puck. He drew a penalty. I thought he was very solid tonight.”
Lambert declined to say whether Aho would be in the lineup on Sunday against the Panthers, but confirmed that Salo would travel with the team instead of going straight to Bridgeport. He did not have to go through waivers to be assigned there.
“I think it’s the same thing [as] with Soshnikov,” Lambert said. “It’s an opportunity to get Aho into the lineup. We made a couple of changes, tonight was a good night to do that. I thought we played better.”
Lambert shuffled his defensive pairs around midway through the match, putting Adam Pelech with Noah Dobson and Alexander Romanov with Ryan Pulock. He said afterward that the move had to do with matchups, with the Lightning holding last change on the road.
