Isles Day to Day: George Misses Practice, Isles Juggle Lines

Isaiah George is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury and was not present at New York Islanders practice on Saturday afternoon at Northwell Health Ice Center.

George was injured in Thursday's 2-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs after taking a high hit from Max Domi. The defenseman has five points (1G, 4A) in 25 games during his rookie season, while averaging 16:38 TOI/GP.

With George out, Dennis Cholowski will draw back into the lineup, per Head Coach Patrick Roy. Cholowski has eight points (3G, 5A) in 23 games this season with the Islanders, but has been out of the lineup since Dec. 17. Roy said Cholowski's offensive ability can help on the Islanders power play, which is currently 2-for-30 (6.7%) over the past 14 games, while allowing Ryan Pulock to focus on shutting down the opposition's top players.

"He's moving the puck very well [on the power play] and that will be an asset for us," Roy said of Cholowski. "He's very good at moving the puck out of the zone on his own, which is good. But overall, that's the depth that we have, and we're lucky to have him."

Simon Holmstrom was also absent for Saturday's practice and is still considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Roy shuffled his lines at Saturday's practice, notably putting Brock Nelson on a line with Mathew Barzal and Anders Lee. Nelson and Barzal have played 255:15 together at five-on-five since the start of the 2022-23 season, but have played just shy of 400 minutes together on the power play over that same span, so there is some familiarity. Nelson

"[He's a dynamic player," Nelson said of Barzal. "Just try to get open, try and create some space and let him kind of move and make his moves. He's good one on one and hanging on to [the puck] and then [we're] trying to find open space to attack and support him. Definitely a guy that can create offense from a lot of different ways, so for us, try to be solid in support and get open for him."

Barzal is currently riding a two-game assist streak and has helpers in three of his last four games. Nelson is looking for his first goal since a two-goal game against the Boston Bruins on Nov. 27. Roy said he lineup juggling, which also included Kyle Palmieri skating with Bo Horvat and Anthony Duclair, as a way to ignite an Isles offense that has scored just two total goals in the past two games.

"We just want to try different things to help the scoring, and we thought that'd be a good way to do it," Roy said.