WASHINGTON — The Islanders are meant to be getting healthier right about now.
Instead, they are dealing with another injury, as Jean-Gabriel Pageau was made a last-minute scratch due to a lower-body issue against the Capitals on Black Friday.
Pageau, who is considered day-to-day, gets added to a list of injuries that already includes Mat Barzal (upper body), Anthony Duclair (suspected groin), Adam Pelech (jaw) and Mike Reilly (heart surgery).
Simon Holmstrom skated in Pageau’s usual spot on the top line.
The last-second nature of the injury — Patrick Roy said 75 minutes before gametime that the only lineup change would be Hudson Fasching drawing in for Matt Martin — is perhaps reason to think the Islanders are acting out of mere caution.
But after the way things have gone so far this season, it would be a leap to make any kind of positive assumption about an injury.
Martin, by the way, ended up in the lineup after all because Pageau didn’t feature.
For Fasching, it was his first time drawing in since a Nov. 5 shootout victory over the Penguins.
