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Good Morning, Islanders Country.
It was only a few drills. He left the ice before the real work started. And he was wearing red.
But there he was.
For the first time since April 14, Mathew Barzal practiced with his Islanders teammates on Wednesday in East Meadow. He hasn’t played a game this season after inflammation flared up in his left knee before training camp, the same knee that needed surgery two years ago. For weeks, the updates were the same: skating on his own, no change in his status.
Wednesday was different. The team posted videos of No. 13 skating in team drills. Barzal, Matias Maccelli and Ryan Pulock all took part in the opening portion of practice in red non-contact sweaters before leaving the ice when the contact work began.
“You want to be with the guys,” Matthew Schaefer said. “You want to just be in that environment again because when we go on road trips and things like that and they have to stay back, and every day they're just putting in the work to get back. It’s not easy and it can be hard sometimes but when you're around everybody, it's always fun because they keep it light, keep it fun, and you have that motivation to just be back with everybody.”
Nobody is pretending Barzal is about to play. There’s still no timetable. He’ll need to take contact before he’s back in the lineup.
